Putting the Lazy in Lazy Daisy

A Year of Celebrations - March

by Hands on Design

 

After procrastinating for weeks, I finally sat down and stitched March's lazy daisies. I don't know why I thought they were going to be a challenge. It took all of a half hour to complete them and that included watching two how-to videos. Lazy daisy was one of the first stitches I learned back when I was eleven and would pay the lady down the street a dime for embroidery lessons.

I thought they were magical way back then and still do!

 

I wanted something with bright colors to work on next so I grabbed this kit by SamSarah.

My photography skills don't do the fabric justice. It's 32-ct. WDW Peoria Purple and even though it's showing up more blue it is very purpley! The kit was part of the Silver Needle's With A Little Help From My Friends stitching circle (circa 2017) and came with all the goodies to finish it into the drum. There's even a set of pins to stick in the top!

 

I am woefully behind on my chores so Aida and I will be staying home today and catching up on the laundry and dusting and vacuuming. It helps that the check engine light is on in my car and I DO NOT want to have to deal with that particular problem today!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

Welcome Sylvie!

We were blessed with the arrival of Sylvia Bomi Lee on March 8th! Mom, Dad, and Baby are doing well, and this "Nan" is over the moon!

 

Aida and I made the trip to Houston to meet her, and stayed about a week. I wish I didn't live 1000 miles away, but we will do our best to visit as often as we can.

 

My traveling buddy...

(And yes, she was securely harnessed in the entire trip! Precious cargo!)

In stitching news, my March Year of Celebrations is done except for the lazy daisy stitches. I admit I'm procrastinating!

 

I didn't take pictures, but in an absolute whirlwind of sewing, I made two crib quilts and three swaddling blankets for Sylvie. I imagine there will be more to come because I can't not scoop up all the baby prints at the fabric store. When she gets older I'll switch to sundresses with coordinating bloomers!

 

It's good to be back home but, man oh man, I do miss snuggling that baby! In another month I'll forget all about that hour I spent stuck in traffic, and the crazy downpours I had to drive through, and I'll start planning my next trip!

Happy Valentines Day!

I got the February installment of A Year of Celebrations finished just in the nick of time!

I also finished January so go me!

 

These stitch up really quick! By the end of the year I should just about have my finishing technique down! Just in time to start A Year of Celebrations 2!

 

Hope you have a happy V-Day with those you love! I promised Aida I would take her out for a Pup Cup so she's on high alert, waiting for me to put on my shoes and pick up my keys!

Twice as Nice

What's better than having a finish? Two finishes!

First we have this sweet one...

'Tis the Season

by It's Sew Emma

(from the FQS Stitch Quarterly Club)

stitched on 14-ct. Pistachio Aida

with DMC and CC Peanut Brittle

Then if that wasn't enough, we have a second finish!

A Year of Celebrations - January

by Hands On Design

stitched with DMC and CC Snowball

(on mystery linen)

I already have a start on February but I'm not loving the fabric I'm using so I'll be scraping that and starting over. I'd love to do the whole series on the same linen but I only have a small piece of it, hence the rather skimpy cut I used for January. The plan is to get this finish finished as soon as Aida gets up from her nap. That way I'll have a whole two days to display it before next month!

Here's November all done up so you get an idea of what it might look like...

I'm using magnets so I can swap them out every month. (Whoever came up with that idea is an absolute genius!)

My craft room organization continues! I'm up to four of those rolling carts with the drawers now and I just ordered a bunch of those cloth storage cubes to use on my shelves. In my mind everything is neatly arranged and color coordinated but I'm afraid by the time I'm done I won't be able to find a darn thing!

Tell me I'm not the only one with this problem!

Snow Day

There was no stitching done yesterday. Aida did take an afternoon nap but her spot of choice was my lap. I gave up trying to work around her after I'd bopped her on the head with my hoop a half dozen times. That girl has zero padding anywhere, and I swear she's all knees and elbows when she's sleeping next to me at night. Luckily I had a new Book of the Month selection to dive into (A Killing Cold by Kate Alice Marshall... creepy family, remote location, no cell service... my kind of book!).

 

So today was all about getting that snow finished once and for all...

I'm happy to report I have finished all the white stitching on this piece! White has never been my favorite to stitch with and this project needed almost an entire skein of it! That's 8.7 yards! Times three because I was using two of the six strands! That's over 26 yards of white stitching! 78 feet! That's like 14 of me laying head to toe! If I could get her to hold still long enough I could tell you how many Aida's that would be! Best guess is around 35 and no one needs that many Aida's!

Speaking of... are dogs like children? When they're babies you tell yourself never again, one is enough, but then they get to be a certain age and you start thinking, how bad could having another one be?

I should ask myself that question tonight when all those knees and elbows are jabbing into me!

 

Tidying Up

I've been busy revamping the way I store supplies in my craft room. I seem to do this every six months or so, which is about how long it takes the room to reach its saturation point. I'd been using the 'plastic bin method' of storage, but it obviously wasn't working for me. Apparently it's too difficult to pull out a bin and pop the lid off when I needed to put something away. Things stayed wherever they landed and I was running out of space to do any actual crafting.

 

This iteration of craft room organization, I decided to go with rolling carts with drawers.

I love the way they fit under my work space! I've managed to fill three of these so far and will probably end up buying one more, just to be safe. I bought plastic dividers to use inside the drawers but they don't fit as well as I'd like, so this is all still a work in progress.

 

I've been working on 'Tis the Season...

If I can talk Aida into taking a nap this afternoon, I should be able to finish the snow and start on the border. Although a nap does sound tempting!

I hope everyone's week is off to a fabulous start!

 

202... wait... what?

Please tell me it's still November.

 

I'm feeling a smidge guilty that the holiday season passed without much fanfare here at the Chicken Ottoman Empire. We did have a few Christmas presents to open and had our traditional 'sit around the house in our pajamas eating nothing but sausage cheese balls and peppermint bark" day. We enjoyed it so much we did it the next day. And the next. I must confess to making three batches of sausage cheese balls (SCBs in Paispeak) and consuming an entire bag of peppermint bark over the course of five days. When I finally emerged from my lair and stepped into the daylight, my neighbor asked me if I'd been away for the holidays.

 

Uh... no...

I think I was hiberbating.

Some basic instinct must have told me I needed to stay inside and consume sixty million calories while being as idle as possible.

So that's what we did. We ate and slept and watched bad TV. We made a blanket fort and threw balls in the house and allowed ourselves to lose track of the days.

Of course, now that it's the new year, there's hell to pay!

There's lists and diets and organizing and cleaning and checking in with the world.

So hello world! I hope your new year is off to a fabulous start and you're checking things off your lists, having success with your diets, and getting your homes clean and organized!