All Done!

 

Love Lives Here

by Country Cottage Needleworks

stitched with Classic Colorworks

on 32 count Vintage Smokey White Belfast

 

I'm super happy with how this turned out! I had to use a couple of different threads because there was no finding Ribbon Red or Shrimp Cocktail back in February when I started this but I think my substitutions worked out well! I have to get this finished into something post haste!

And now for the obligatory picture of my constant companion...

 

I should have named her Velcro!

Five Minute Finish

Phil was on puppy duty while I got some housework done earlier (Aida loves the Swiffer game. Me? Not so much.) so I grabbed a few extra minutes to see what I could do with my Spring finish. I found this Marjolein Bastin frame that I bought at a thrift store a couple of years ago and thought it might work. One of the birds was broken off (except for his feet!) so I hot glued a couple of tiny daisies on to disguise the area. It's not bad but I would like to come up with something a little more craftsy.

I realized I only have a few flowers and leaves to stitch on Love Lives Here so hopefully I will get that done this afternoon and have another finish!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great Tuesday!

A Spring Finish

I finished this freebie by From the Heart NeedleArt on Saturday. I just grabbed whatever I had handy because I've had zero opportunity to organize my stash since coming back from Florida. My room is a mess still! Luckily I found some pastel shades of fancy floss that I think worked well together. I really would like to get this finish finished into something cute this week! Any suggestions?

 

I've learned that stitching with a puppy in your lap can be challenging! Patterns need to be chewed on and thread needs to be played with! Being banished to the floor simply isn't tolerated for very long! Someone has to be the center of attention!

Aida is growing so fast! I wish she could stay this size but she's starting to take offense every time someone asks if she's a Chihuahua! Plus she wants to get big enough for real puppy clothes so she doesn't have to wear mommy-made outfits! It's been a little chilly here so I made her a little shirt out of an old sock. It looks like a little turtleneck on her and is quite adorable but hilarious at the same time! She hid it under the loveseat but I have the other sock and can make her another one! I'll be sure to get a picture so I can embarrass her in front of her friends!

Aida Has Landed!

Right in my stitching chair!

 

She is the sweetest thing ever and we love her to bits! She has tons of personality and energy! We took her for a long walk earlier so she is conked out now! I don't want to wake her up!

We are finally back in Michigan after going on some camping adventures! I've started unpacking but it's going to take me a while before things are organized and I'm not wandering around the house wondering where I put something or if I even brought it back with me! I think next week better be an organizing week for me!

Uh oh! Someone just sneezed and woke herself up!

Huzzah!

I hit my stitching goal once again! Grass... done! Flowers... done! Words... done! I'm happy dancing all over the place, quite literally because I'm trying to learn four new dances before we go out tonight! I'll be concentrating more on that than stitching for the rest of the day, so I'm not setting any goals other than maybe the birds' beaks because they're looking a little unfinished.

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day! There's going to be a bagpipe group at the place where we dance tonight and I've heard people have actually line danced to the bagpipe music in the past! Should be fun!

 

Housework

 

Woohoo! Yesterday's goal was to finish the stitching on the house and I'm happy to report that it's done! Today's goal? I think I'll finish the grass under the house and then move on to the words underneath that and the two flowers on either side. Seems like a lot but I'm up for a challenge today!

Mid-March Update

Not much stitching to report. I've been working on Love Lives Here by Country Cottage Needleworks off and on. I guess there's been too many distractions lately to get much done. I need to get better about carving out some time for serious stitching or I'm not going to have this finished until next February!

 

Phil and I have still been enjoying our time in Florida. We try to go line dancing at least twice a week. Once we're back north we won't have the same opportunity so we're doing our best to take advantage of it while we're down here. We'll be heading back to Michigan next month so the weeks are winding down.

 

We also went down to Everglades National Park to do some more camping. We were lucky enough to have a clear night our first night at the campground so we got to see a ton of stars. Unfortunately, my phone didn't capture how spectacular the sky looked so I don't have any photos to share. We were parked right under Orion and it was truly amazing watching all the stars pop out as it got darker and darker.

 

I have a roast simmering in the crock pot for our dinner tonight and it's making the house smell so yummy! It's hard to resist sticking a fork in the pot and having a taste! With dinner taken care of I'll have extra time to stitch! I am determined to finish the house today so I better get going!

Thanks for stopping by!

 

March?

I can't believe it's March already! What happened to February??? I guess I'm supposed to be making plans for the month but I've never been good about that! I'm a fly by the seat of my pants, play it by ear type of gal! Which explains my lack of blogging as of late, haha!

I'm about halfway done with CCN's Love Lies Here but I'm getting a little bored with it so I might have to start something new. I've also started the backstitching on Amid Amish Life but it takes my full attention so I try to work on it in the mornings when I'm usually just listening to music and not watching something on TV. Ripping out backstitching is not fun! 

Phil and I have been kicking around the idea of getting a puppy for a while and finally decided to pull the trigger. I really love Italian Greyhounds so we got on the list at a breeder's and after several weeks of waiting for a little fawn colored female to be born we got the call!

We have named her Aida and will be picking her up on our way back to Michigan next month! I can't wait! I have a feeling she's going to be very spoiled!

That's about it for now! I promise to get better about blogging more regularly and actually post pictures of what I've been working on! It's a new month so we all get a fresh start!

 

 

Love Lives Here

 

My Valentine's stitching plans took a slight detour. I had thought I'd work on one or two small, quick projects that I could have done by the end of the week. This new design from Country Cottage Needleworks arrived in my mailbox Monday and, well, it was love at first sight! I am stitching it on 32-count Smokey White linen with most of the called for fancy flosses. I couldn't find Classic Colorworks Ribbon Red or Shrimp Cocktail when I ordered the chart so I'm substituting Ladybug and Orangena, respectively. I really like how the colors work together and I'm getting a lot of subtle variegation in the border. Love, love, love it!!!

What are your plans for this Valentine's weekend? We are hoping to go dancing tonight and then we have dinner reservations at a restaurant we've been wanting to try on Sunday. They have a special Valentine's Day menu and will have live music as well. We're really looking forward to it!

Violets

 

February's Violet

from Love Is In The Air

by Blackbird Designs

stitched on 32-count Natural Linen

with DMC, Classic Colorworks, and Gentle Arts threads

I finished the Blackbird Designs stocking I was working on in record time! (At least for me!) I didn't have all of the called for threads so I mixed and matched from what I had here in my Florida stash. I thought my flower centers might "pop" a little too much but then I looked at photos of actual violets and the centers do stand out so I'm leaving it the way it is.

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, I'm thinking I might continue with some "season of love" stitching. I know Cathy Habermann of Hands On Design has a bunch of little freebies on her blog so I'll probably opt for one of them. You can take a look at the latest one here.

 

Phil and I stayed home for our Super Bowl watching last night. Our party was just the two of us and a monstrous braided bread stuffed with BBQ chicken, peppers, and onions. It was supposed to have cheddar cheese as well but about the same time I had finished the braiding I realized I had forgotten to put it in! We ended up dipping it in cheese sauce which was pretty darn delicious! Happy little accidents, right!

It's lunch time here so I better scoot! Stitching time this afternoon!

Thanks for stopping by!

Weekend Update

I hope everyone had a pleasant weekend! I can't say we got a whole lot done here at the Chez Paisley, but sometimes it's nice to take things slow. Groceries were bought and laundry was done so we should have food on the table and clean clothes on our backs for the next week. Can't complain!

 

I wanted to work on something super easy whilst taking a break from Amish Life so I picked up this Blackbird Designs stocking I got a tiny start on a couple of months ago. I'm working from a copy I made from the pattern which is around here somewhere but I guess I should have spent some time organizing my stitchy stuff! I did find the birthday card I meant to send to my son last April (sorry Evan!) and this...

 

Just in time for February and Valentines Day! Woohoo!

 

Thursday Morning

I'm happy to report that the stitching is done on Amid Amish Life. Part one. Which is not to imply I will ever stitch parts three and four. I have a feeling this experience is going to be like childbirth though, and in a year or two I'll forget what a pain in the patootie the fractional stitches were and I'll start staring wistfully at a piece of wedgewood blue Lugana. I'm way past popping an ovary every time I see those cute little newborn sleepers in Target so stitching it will have to be!

 

I still have the back stitching to do, of course, but I'm going to celebrate that the cross stitching  is done for a day or two (or three) and then get back to it. Otherwise it'll find it's way to the bottom of some pile and get buried for months. Or years. You do not want to see the state of the daybed in my stitchy room!

 

Thank you for all your encouragement on this project! It definitely helped me to stay focused!

 

 

 

Tuesday Afternoon

The youngsters are playing quietly on the quilt but they have requested a cat to keep them company, and not one of the Cheshire variety as he appears (or doesn't appear!) to be. The little girl also pointed out to me that chickens' beaks are supposed to be yellow and not green. Oops.

 

Still Amishing

Our Amish lady now has a basket full of laundry to hang on the line. She's not exactly thrilled as her only job before was to stand there with her arm in the air. The phantom boy has a hat now. I had to frog a bunch in that area because somehow I had managed to stitch the top part of his hat about three stitches further to the right than it should have been. I kept looking at it thinking to myself that something didn't look right. The page from the magazine with a photo of the finished sampler is rather beat up so I don't take it out very often. I should really have it in a page protector at this point! I finally took a quick look at it and saw my mistake right away. Grumble grumble grumble! I did some ripping on Saturday and restitched on Sunday so we're back on track now! I'd like to concentrate on finishing the girl today and possibly the boy as well but we'll see how far I get. It's tedious to say the least, with all the fractional stitches. I'm thinking I might have to take a break from this before tackling the backstitching.

 

The Paisley of today is looking at Past Paisley and wanting to wring her neck for ever starting this in the first place! I'm sure Past Paisley would say, "Hey, you're the one who wants it finished! I hid it at the bottom of a box so it might never see the light of day again!"

 

I hate it when she's right!

Progress Continues!

Things are starting to fill in. You can tell those are chickens on the right and left, and two children are sitting on a quilt. I was concentrating on finishing the Amish woman and except for a couple of stitches she should be done. I have a sneaking suspicion she puts her arm down when I'm not looking! She has to be tired of holding it up like that! 

Getting Serious

I'm hopping all over the place and I've been doing my best to avoid the fractional stitches but I think it's time to get serious about finishing Amish Life. I got my magnifier lamp out so I can stop squinting at the pattern. I'm going to use my Bitsy Bob to organize my thread. And I'm going to make stitching a priority this week instead of getting distracted with the usual nonsense.

Signed and dated on this nineteenth day of January 2021!!!

Now You See Me

Forgive my absence on the blog! My daughter was having surgery last week so I hopped on a plane and went back north to help take care of her. (She is doing great, by the way!) I was there for a week and now that I'm home I'm already packed up and heading out on another trip. We are going up to Tampa for the Florida RV Supershow this weekend and will be camping for a couple of nights. We are not actually in the market for another trailer so soon but it's always fun to look, not to mention there's tons of swag! We're sure to come home with a bunch of pens and can koozies and chip clips!

Sarah sent me a picture of her cat, Harry, camped out on the guest room bed! Apparently someone is missing me!

Don't worry, Harold! I am saving up tummy rubs for you!

Amid Amish Life

Remember Cross Stitch and Country Crafts? I swear, if it wasn't for that magazine I might never have fallen in love with cross stitch the way I did! I couldn't wait for each issue to show up in my mailbox, and would read it from cover to cover! When I saw this pattern in the March/April 1987 issue, I knew I had to stitch it! I had to order the Wedgewood Lugana from a local shop but as soon as it arrived I got busy stitching! I bought enough fabric to do all three patterns in the series so yeah... BIG plans! 

How far did I get?

I took this photo back in October 2019 after finding at the bottom of my box of finished projects when I was looking for fall pieces to finish finish. How it got in there I'll never know, but I pulled it out and decided I'd try working on it again. As you can see from the first photo, I got quite a bit more done, but as soon as I hit the fussy half stitches... surprise! I lost interest! 

It's sitting here next to me now, and I know if I can just push through those chickens and hats and arms I'll be home free! I'm going to throw a Hallmark movie on and see what I can accomplish this afternoon!

I hope you are having a wonderful Wednesday! Thanks for stopping by!

2020 Year in Review

 And what a year it was!

January saw us back in Florida for the winter months. We fell into our old routine pretty quickly, going dancing on Wednesday nights, playing Trivia on Fridays, and even joined a gym so we could both get in shape.

We went to the Florida RV Supershow and met one of our favorite YouTubers, Traveling Robert! Phil and I really enjoy camping in our pop-up trailer and wanted to look at some bigger "couple's trailers" because one of us wanted to upgrade to something with it's own bathroom. I won't say who.

 

 

February saw the arrival of this guy, and by March we were stocking up on toilet paper and hand sanitizer and isolating ourselves from others as best we could. No more dancing, no more trivia nights, no more working out, no more dining in. 

 

My daughter and I had been planning a big trip to Colorado in July to hike Grays Peak but that had to be canceled. We were both so disappointed but vowed to try again next year.

 

May saw us back in Michigan, a month later than originally planned. We had to get used to wearing face masks in public places which hadn't been required in Florida at that time. Phil continued to work from home and we did our best to get out of the house as much as possible.

When Indiana opened up their state parks, we hooked up the pop-up trailer and went camping at Turkey Run and Brown County. 

Even the trees look like they're maintaining proper social distance!

Since our Colorado trip was canceled, my daughter and I decided to do the Lake Michigan Circle Tour. We spent five days driving from one point of interest to another, visiting lighthouses, hiking trails, dipping our toes in three different Great Lakes, collecting pretty stones, and acting like total goofs.

Phil and I had narrowed down our trailer search to the R-Pod 180. We had fallen in love with the blue exterior that was only available for a couple of years, but finding one in our area was next to impossible. Plus people seemed to be buying up used trailers as soon as they were listed! We'd all but given up when Phil spotted this one online. It had only just been listed so Phil contacted the seller right away to make him an offer. He accepted it, and we started making plans to go pick it up... in Rhode Island! We turned it into a week of camping and had a great adventure!

In September, during a mother/daughter camping trip, I lost the battle with a picnic table and fell and broke my hip. People keep telling me I need to come up with a better story but that's exactly what happened... I tripped and fell. Hard. On my hip. But me being me, I did not want to ruin a camping trip, so I held out as long as possible, roasting hot dogs and doing crafts with my daughter for several hours, until I just couldn't bear the pain any longer. They put three screws in my hip and had me stay off of it for six (long) weeks, but I am better now. Much better.

I know there's been a shocking lack of cross stitch here but whilst recuperating from my injury I worked on the Women of the Mayflower by With Thy Needle and Thread. I didn't complete the sampler during the 60 days that the Mayflower traveled across the Atlantic to Plymouth Rock, but I brought it with me to Florida and do plan on finishing it soon.

I'd been upgraded from a walker to a cane by November so it was time to head out camping again! We spent two weeks on the road, traveling to Branson MO, Hot Springs AR, Crater of Diamonds State Park, Mother Neff State Park in Texas, Fredericksburg TX, and finally Hickory Creek Campground near Dallas where we spent Thanksgiving with a couple of our kids who live in the area. We also "moochdocked" at my brother's house in Louisiana before heading down to Florida.

Phil took a couple of weeks off from work for the Christmas holidays, so we headed over to the east coast of Florida to visit family for a couple of days and camped at Lion Country Safari where we were woken up every night by the roar of lions! Some people might not care for it but we were thrilled, and I actually missed it after we'd left! We also went down to the Florida Keys where we got to hang out at Sloppy Joe's, and then on to Midway State Park in the Everglades to round out the trip.

You would think we'd be a little gun shy about making plans for 2021 but we're already off and running! (Well, one of us is running, I'm still a little slow!) I'm heading up to MI for a visit at the end of this week and then as soon as I'm back we're heading out for another camping trip and the Florida RV Supershow. I'm also hoping to get back into the stitching groove soon! I brought a bunch of stuff with me and for the most part it's all kitted up and waiting!

If you made it this far, thank you so much for visiting!

And Happy 2021 to everyone!

Hello Old Friend!

I've officially thrown in the towel on my Wordpress blog! It was waaaaaay too complicated for this bear of very little brain and heaven knows I like to keep things simple! I was spending more time trying to figure things out than actually "creating content" and when I finally stopped to think about what I was doing, I realized I didn't want to "create content", I just wanted to blog the way I always had! Once I made the decision to come back to Blogger it took all of ten seconds to dust things off and start writing!

Woohoo!

We're back, baby!