Let's Stitch!

Sweet Becky has started a blog called Let's Stitch for those of us who are looking for some extra support and encouragement in our stitching endeavors. Right away, I knew I had to join! It's not often that I get in a stitching slump but I have been ignoring certain WIPs and UFOs. You know, the ones we call BAPs? (Heck, these days anything bigger than 3"x3" is a BAP for me!!)

So, tomorrow a group of us Let's Stitchers are having a Stitch-A-Thon. I will be working on my VoHRH, which I haven't touched since our move. Isn't that sad? Here is my "before" picture:

By tomorrow night I'm hoping to have made some noticible progress! Be sure to check out the Let's Stitch blog! If you're interested in joining us, there's still room for more!

It's Fall!

Long time, no blog! But I have been doing a little stitching and I have a fall finish to share!
Fall Squared
by Lizzie Kate
stitched with WDW on 28-ct. gingham linen in straw/natural

This little cutie stitched up so fast, even for me! I did substitute a different color thread for the lines in the pumpkins. They aren't showing up as well as I had hoped so as soon as I find my WDW Brick (I know you're out there somewhere!) I'll be doing a little re-stitching.

I'm off to get my hair cut! Cross your fingers I don't end up with something three inches shorter than I'd planned!

Sharing Some Bloggy Love

Lelia at Stitches of Life has passed the "I Love Your Blog" award on to me. Thank you, Lelia! You made my day extra special!

The rules of the award are:
1. The winner can put the logo on her blog.
2. Link the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of those you’ve nominated.

I enjoy reading each and every blog on my list, so it's hard to choose only seven to pass the award on to! I figured I'd try to spread the love to a few folks who may not have received this award yet...

Be Happy
Blacksheep's Bit of the Web
Crafter's Creations
Daisy Girl Stitching
Pumpkin Patch & Co.
Stitchful Thinking
The Musing Badger

Thank you all for taking the time to share your lives and lovely stitching with us!

Little By Little

I've made a bit more progress on my Happy Home Sampler. I finally finished the alphabet! That in itself was almost worthy of a happy dance, LOL! I wasn't too keen on backstitching the verse just yet, so I worked my way down to the little house. After that alphabet, I was ready for some big blocks of stitching without all the color changes!

My darling daughter will be house-sitting for friends of ours over the next week. The lucky duck will have access to a washer and dryer you don't have to plunk a dozen quarters into before it will turn on. Think it will be too obvious if I go to check up on her and I just happen to have a basket of dirty laundry with me?

Stashy Goodness

What a fabbity fab day it was yesterday! House of Stitches was having it's 2nd Annual Stash Exchange, so I bribed my kids with a side trip to South Bend for some much missed Sonic Burgers, and off we went to La Porte, IN. Hey, it's only 80 miles! That's nothing when stash is involved!

We ended up arriving an hour early due to this little thing called time zones. D'oh! I scratched my head and did the whole "I thought there'd be more people..." thing before I realized what had happened! So we puttered up and down the streets a bit, checking out greater metropolitan La Porte, before heading back to the shop. (P.S. La Porte does not have a Starbucks... pout!)

Woohoo! Stash time! Coni, the Spinster Stitcher and her sister, Chrissy, were there at the admission table. It's such a treat to meet fellow stitchy bloggers in person! Coni was working on her Joyful Summer sampler... sooooo pretty! I wish I'd brought my camera!

Here's a quick pic of the goodies I picked up at the stash exchange. Amazing deals on everything! Most of the little charts were between 25-50 cents each! If you ever have the chance to go to an event like this... DO IT!

I couldn't leave without popping into the shop... right? Of course right! After seeing Coni's Joyful Summer, I knew I had to get it, plus a few other little things I've had on my wish list for a while.
I totally splurged and got all six of the LHN Sweet Treats charts, plus some new Lizzie Kate's. I'm regretting not picking up the guacamole linen for the LK Hocus Pocus chart. It's such a wonderful Halloweeny-green! Reminds me of Frankenstein!

No other stitchy news. We've spent the last week cleaning up out at our little demolition project. I've picked up more wood, glass, plaster, shingles, bricks, and chunks of concrete! And let me tell you, it gets HOT down in a basement when there's no house over it! We're hoping to get our floor trusses ordered on Monday, and start some actual building soon!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend! I'd love to say I'm off to stitch but I think we're working on sill plates today.... sob!

Now you see it...

Now you don't...


R.I.P. 10410 Harwood Lake!

Happy Home Progress

I didn't end up having as much time to stitch as I would have liked on Thursday. Isn't that always how it goes? I did make a little progress on my Happy Home Sampler, working on the alphabet some more and starting the green vine below it.

It's prettier in real life! I swear!

My week has gotten off to a slow start due to a headache and overall cruddy feeling. I think I just wore myself out over the weekend. I need to not do that, LOL!

We are planning on going to the local county fair sometime this week, probably tomorrow evening. I'm looking forward to seeing what's been entered in the cross stitch category of the home arts competition! Then there's a flea market I want to visit on Sunday. Should be fun!

We've been meeting with builders and contractors concerning our next steps with the house at the lake. Our plan was to leave the existing house standing (making it a huge remodeling project) and build an addition onto it. Turns out the structure isn't as sound as we thought it was and it's been recommended by several people that we just tear it down and start fresh. We got some quotes, mulled over our options, and made the decision to go ahead with the demolition. The crew we hired said they could probably get to it next week, so sometime soon we need to get over there and rescue anything we want to keep!

I'm going to have some amazing before and after pictures next week, haha!

This & That

I've been working on the Fixer-Upper almost every day, but I did find a little time to stitch and made some progress on Spring Has Come by Prairie Schooler.I'm really feeling the need for a stitchy break! We're planning to grill hamburgers out at the lake for dinner tomorrow night so maybe I'll just take the whole day off!

Because I've been working so hard at the house, I treated myself to a Vera Bradley laptop case. This color (Mesa Red) is being retired so the case was 25% off. Gotta love a sale!
You wouldn't believe the HUGE box this was shipped in! I was hoping I'd won some secret Vera Bradley lottery, but nope, just the one bag. Drats!

We've been finding odd things in the house as we're tearing it apart. This envelope fell out of the bathroom cabinet when we tore it down...It says it's made of real human hair. Now isn't that just creepy? And no, I haven't opened the envelope to take a look!
We found this in the kitchen...Quite dirty, but way less creepy than the hair net, IMO! It reads: These coupons can be exchanged for handsome imported China premiums like samples on exhibition. Think it's still valid? Should I go get my china?

Hope everyone is having a great week and finding plenty of time to stitch!

I Believe

Believe by Lizzie Kate
stitched on 32-count linen with WDW and GAST
Seven down, five to go! Here's what the whole thing looks like so far...

Hello, It's Me!

At last! I have settled on a stitching spot in this teeny tiny house! This teeny tiny house that has only seven electric outlets! I never realized just how dependent on electricity we are! Or how many things we have that need to be plugged in or charged! We are constantly asking each other questions like, "Do you need to charge your phone, or can we have the lamp on tonight?" "Are you done with the curling iron so I can finish charging my toothbrush?" We're using those splitter things in three places but I'm afraid we'll blow a fuse or something worse just because I wanted the fan on while I was drying my hair!

So my stitching spot is at the kitchen table. My Ott Lite shares an outlet with two laptop chargers, the iron, and a fan. There's a big window over the table and usually a kitty or two will be sitting on the sill, watching the birds hopping around in the neighbor's yard. My daughter will sit across the table from me, tapping away on her laptop, while mine is tuned in to KLUV in Dallas. With our IM's blooping and familiar voices on the 'radio', we don't feel so far from home.

I've been working on my LK Double Flip piece. This month is "Believe". It's a bit rumpled and the picture is dark, but here is my progress so far...
You finally get to see "Learn" from last month, too, since I never posted a picture of that finish!

We've been busy working on House #2 aka The Fixer-Upper. The kids and I spent a day over there cleaning up cobwebs and all sorts of dust and crud. Next on the list, we're completely re-doing the bathroom, ripping out all the fixtures and tearing out walls to open it up a bit more. The before pictures are on my other computer or I'd show you why it had to be gutted, LOL! I'd also show you the floor tile that's been glued to the kitchen counter and the "popcorn" texture that was sprayed on the walls as well as the ceiling. Most of it I can only stare at, completely bewildered. Who were these people and what were they thinking??? I may have to devote a whole other blog to this project!

Other than working on the house and doing the "plug shuffle", we've been spending some time out at the lake. The Fourth of July was amazing, with tons of fireworks being set off. It was quite a show and the kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves! Jim (my sweetie) spoiled them with a generous assortment of things that went BOOM!

Yesterday morning we ventured out to a local U-Pick farm and filled up several buckets with fat, juicy blueberries. It was a gorgeous day, and we couldn't have found a more perfect way to spend it.

Yummy!

Me? Act normal? Never!

Before and After

Our 26' Penske rental was packed to the gills. The good news is I didn't have to leave behind one bit of stash! I even packed my orts!
Six of us worked for about four hours to get everything unloaded. It was a bumpy trip and a few things were damaged in transit, but my Ott Lite made it through unharmed! Woohoo! Now, if I could find my stitching bag I'd be in good shape!

We're slowly settling into a routine here. I found a fabric shop during one of our explores and there's a Michael's a couple of towns north of us, but I'll need to check online to see if there are any needlework shops nearby. Keeping my fingers crossed that there is something not too too far away since gas is over $4.00/gallon here.

Our internet was hooked up this morning so I'll be catching up on my blog reading over the next couple of days. I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone has been working on lately!

We're Here!

Woohoo! I finally arrived in Michigan, along with two children, six pets, two cars, and a 26' truck full of all our worldly possessions. Tired does not even begin to describe how I'm feeling at the moment! Tomorrow we'll start unloading and deciding what needs to go where. We will be living in Temporary House #1 before we can move into Temporary House #2, which turned out to need more work than we originally thought it would. Heck, this whole move turned out to be 100 times more work than I thought it would, LOL! But I had some great helpers and things went reasonably smoothly. And I honestly believe in time I will get over having to give away my patio furniture... and my dining room set... and my Christmas china... and my filing cabinet... and my vacuum cleaner...

Okay, maybe not the vacuum cleaner so much.

Checking In

Just a quick post to say I'M STILL HERE! And I am never, ever doing my own packing again! We've been in this house over 15 years and have accumulated so much STUFF! It's unreal! Most of it hasn't seen the light of day in several years but for some reason my logical brain can't persuade my sentimental brain to toss it! We did have some success in getting rid of 90% of what was in my garage. Some ex-relations came by with a rental truck this morning and I pretty much let them have whatever they wanted. To me, most of it was junk, but they were more than happy to take it off my hands.

Sadly, I haven't picked up a needle in at least a week. I did manage to finish my Lizzie Kate Double Flip for the month, but for the life of me I can't find it to take a picture to post. My house is a maze of boxes so that's understandable!

Off to watch Hell's Kitchen and then I'm hitting the hot tub for some relaxin'!

Progress Pictures

Some proof that I am still finding time to stitch despite the packing!

Thursday was the Happy Home Sampler SAL. I finished the top row of flowers and got started on the alphabet. It's a little tedious with the three different blues but the result is quite pretty.

Block 3 of VoHRH is coming along slow but steady. This is the City Hall. The windows are all but finished and there's steps leading up to the door now. I can't decide whether to start laying bricks next or work on getting the sign hung.

I started my LK Double Flip for the month. I'll have it finished soon if I can sit still long enough. I seem to have a lot of nervous energy these days!

Thank you for the comments on my Fiestaware collection! I had quite an obsession with it (and Bauer, too!) several years ago! I wish I had taken a picture of the whole cabinet before I started packing. I'll never remember where I had everything!

Goals

I didn't do too bad in May:

1. Work on VoHRH. Check!
2. Work on Spring Has Come! Check!
3. Start and finish Listen (the next Lizzie Kate Double Flip). Check!
4. Start and finish May Woolly Tyme Blanket. Check!
5. UFOs! Nope, they're still UFOing!

I've decided not to make any goals for June because I'll be doing a lot of this:
I love my mummified dishes!

I would like to at least do my monthy projects, the LK series and my sheep blanket. And I'll be working on my Happy Home Sampler each Thursday for the SAL. Other than that it's gonna be slim stitchin' here for a while.

May Sheep Blanket Finish

May Woolly Tyme Sheep Blanket by Homespun Elegance
Stitched with WDW and DMC on 28-count linen
Charlotte was thrilled that her blanket was finished in time for the Sheep Social. It's hard to tell, but that's her happy face.

Can you believe it's June? The year just started and it's already almost half over!

SAL Progress

Here is my progress so far on my Happy Home Sampler, plus a glimpse of what's to come. Constant interruptions kept me from getting as much done as I would have liked. There's always next week, right? Maybe I'll get smart and take the phone off the hook, haha!

Everything regarding the house repairs has been worked out with the buyers and soon I'll be in packing mode. We are trying to do as much as we can ourselves, but I'm still looking at options. Moving is expensive!

Oh my!

That's a lot of orts, ladies!

Update on the house: We had the inspection on Friday. They were here over four hours! We came back to find little orange stickers stuck all over the house. They irritated the heck out of me so I removed them. Saturday I met with my realtor to go over the list of repairs they'd like me to make. Considering the stickers, it was a relatively short list. I agreed to all but four of them, and we were pretty satisfied that they wouldn't object. So I get a call yesterday evening from my realtor saying they realllly want one of the items taken care of. This just happens to be one of those things that you just can't repair and have it be right. The whole thing would have to be replaced which I'm told they don't expect me to do. My response was no, based on the fact that I know they won't be satisfied with the repair. I haven't heard anything back, which I find odd considering everything has been rush, rush, rush up to this point.

Anyway, I have a certain sheep's blanket calling my name. I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!

Poor Charlotte

She's not very happy with me. Just look at that face.If I don't get busy, this is what she'll be stuck wearing to the monthly Sheep Social & Fashion Show.

I swear, that face! If she were a pig she'd be disgruntled.

Emotional Rescue

Things went well with yesterday's negotiations. We spit and shook hands on a selling price, and I initialed this and signed that until it was all official. We're having a home inspection tomorrow... cringe! Think they'll notice the crack in the kitchen light cover we just put there while changing the silly lightbulb? The inspection will take 3-4 hours so I'm planning to head out to a movie and make myself sick on "buttered" popcorn. Don't even try to stop me!

I had such an emotional crash and burn this morning. If there's such a thing as seller's remorse I had an acute case of it. So I did the only thing I could possibly do to feel better... I started a new project! I decided I'd join in the Happy Home Sampler SAL that BeckySC started on her blog. Even though I'm behind on my May goals, I needed something new to take my mind off this incredibly stupid thing I've just done (haha!). All that counting and recounting proved to be just the therapy I needed! Here's my start: I haven't done a stitch-a-long in ages, so this will be fun for me. I'm already looking forward to next Thursday, and to watching everyone's progress!