Great Giveaway!!

I found a really generous stitchy giveaway in blog-land today. It is on CrafyMoo's blog and she is giving away some really nice charts, fabric, and even a $20 gift certificate to 123 Stitch!! Now that's my kind of prize:)

A couple of finished projects!!!

I am on a roll!! I guess seeing how much stitchy type work I have in front of me for the next year really lit a fire under me, because I have just been stitching like crazy:)


I got 'Christmas Wishes' by Beehive Needleworks done a couple days ago. I actually just started this one the end of Nov or beginning of Dec because one of my stitchy groups started a 'Deer SAL' for the month and I had this on hand:) Otherwise it would have probably become one of my 2012 Crazy Stitching projects. I chose a darker fabric for this and instead of making french knot berries around the boarder I chose to make x's over one with 2 threads. It looks almost the same and kept me from pulling my hair out!! :)
I finished LK's Work,Pray,Trust early this morning. I changed the floss colors on this one, but only so that I could use what I had. I used very similar colors, just not exact. I had been carrying this one around with me in my purse to do while I wasn't at home because it was such a nice small project and fit well:)
I was wrong about the Friday Night Sew In being every Friday night this month. It seems like the next one isn't until Jan 20th. I am going to try and keep sewing on Friday's though because it tends to be the only way I get any sewing done:) I thought I'd go back to working on the small quilt that I had started, but I may work on making these two stitchy projects into something. I know that I want Christmas Wishes to become a pouch that I can put greenery and berries into and hang up for Christmas. Not sure what I want to do with 'Work, Pray, Trust' yet. I had wanted it to be a bookmark, but I think it may be a little too wide for that. I will have to think on it for a few days.

I can already mark off 'Work, Pray, Trust' from my 2012 WIP list and am hoping to be able to mark off another one or two before the end of the year. It would be great to have just under 20 WIPs!!! LOL

Well, I'm off to eat lunch and then have a wrapping 'party' with my dd. Then maybe I'll get to do a little stitching as well:)

I actually got something done yesterday!! Well, almost done, I didn't finish the project, but at least I got it started:)

Here is a pic of the mess I started with. I was trying to make some bird ornies. I got the free pattern for it here.

And here is my 'helper'. He was trying to make sure the birds didn't fly away (and my scissors, pincushion, tape measure, etc) :) Lots of help!!

This is as far as I got. I only had a little over an hour to get everything out, work on it and clean things back up. Would be great if I had a sewing/craft room, but the living room has to be it for now, so some of my time gets spent just getting set up and cleaned up afterward. That's okay though since all I have left is a little stuffing and sewing the tails closed. Should get that done this weekend and I'll post a pic of the finished piece then.
And here is the link to the finished project on the origanal blog.
Now to get back to my stitching:)

FNSI

Well, I didn't get to this last Friday as my hubby took dd and I out to dinner that night and then we did some grocery shopping. By the time we got home, I just didn't care about sewing anymore:) I'm thinking that I will probably need this to be more of a 'Friday afternoon sew in' instead of it being at night. When hubby gets home, it's family time and I usually don't get much else done.

These are usually scheduled for once a month (I believe the blog says the 3rd Friday of the month). However, with the Christmas holiday upon us, they have decided to do it every week (I think). So I'm going to give it another try this Friday. Still won't be able to do it at night, as my dd has youth group so we won't be home. Hopefully I'll find time during the day. I was going to work on a small quilt, and I still may, but I'm just about finished with a small stitching project that I'd like to make into a pouch to hold greenery. And I have a pattern to make some really cute little bird ornies that I would like to do. So I'm not sure what I'll work on.

I have just about gotten my Crazy Challenge pieces figured out now. I still need two projects, but I usually do a little stitching shopping just after Christmas and I think my SIL is getting me something stitchy as well, so I'll see what I can add to my list:) I also will need to get a few supplies to kit up a few of the ones I have so they will all be ready. I think this is my favorite part of the SAL!!!

New Challenges/Wips/ SALs. Oh, My!!!

Well, I'm officially off my rocker:) I signed up for several new challenges and SALs, and there is NO WAY I can finish all of them, but it is fun anyway. And I don't want my stitching to turn into work, it needs to stay fun:)

Here is what I've signed up for:

The 2012 Crazy Stitching Challenge!! I wasn't sure I wanted to do this one as I didn't finish most of what I started last year:) However, as I was digging into what I never did start from last year (I still have 7 that are new and kitted) and several more that are ornie size that I'd like to do, I figure that I can go ahead and get them started.(This is set up as a Yahoo group this year).

The WIPocalyps SAL:) Okay this one is really needed!! Basically the rules are to post an update of all WIP progress made for the year and post a pic on my blog on every full moon. For this one, I hope to get a lot done.

The LHN ornie SAL. I have several of the LHN ornies that I've wanted to do, so this will work along-side the Crazy Challenge.

TUSAL - which stands for 'Totally Useless SAL'. This one is easy and fun:) I just have to collect my extra threads, pieces of fabric cuttings and broken needles into a glass jar and put a pic up on my blog on every new moon (not to be confused with the full moon:).

Friday Night Sew In - I'd also like to do this as well. I have lots of other sewing that I actually NEED to work on:) Looks like there is one of these scheduled for tomorrow, so I will try to work on a small quilt that I've been putting off.

I will no doubt have a SAL or two (or three) on the Yahoo stitching boards that I follow as well.

I have a little prep work to do before all this starts. I have 8 projects that I need to pick out, buy, and/or kit up for the Crazy Challenge. I also want to do a little clean up and rearranging of my sideboard on this blog to keep everything organized. So there will be lots and lots of posts in the near future of all my stitching. Now to get to work:)

Monday Blessings 9/26/11

I've been writing some of these on paper, so the numbers don't match up to what I had been doing before on the blog. I'll get them together at some point and have the numbering right:)

17. A sink full of dirty dishes. Shows that I've been able to feed my family and that I've been busy with more important things (like spending time with them) than to clean those dishes:)

18. Beautiful weather, so that my dd can get her wiggles out in the wide open instead of the small inclosed!!!

19. Kitty friends. Close compainions for my only child:)

20. A creative mind in my dd that never stops coming up with the next 'big idea'.

Back to blogging?

It's been a long time!! I tend to turn into an introvert during the summer. All the school-year activities blessedly come to an end and I just want to hide for a while:) I don't even get much stitching done during the summer. Anyway, we are now a month and a half back into the school year and the activities are in full swing and I'm ready for the winter break already!!! :)

So with all the other business around here, I thought I'd give blogging a try again and we'll see how it goes. A little update about our lives...

-Garden flopped this year. I'm not real good about taking care of it anyway, and with the lack of rain this year and the extreem heat, not much got done with it. In fact we haven't even pulled it out yet. It's still just a enormous weed patch:)

-DD started 7th grade this year and we can both feel the effects of a longer and a little harder school day!!!

-I volunteered for more than I think I can handle this year, LOL!! :) I am now the community leader for dd's 4-H club and also volunteered to help with the Secret Sister group that her home school group does. It's fun though and I think if I can just get through the next month with 4-H then then amount of work for it will lessen too.

-Cats, cats and more cats!!! We had several more batches of kittens born this summer, sadly not all of them lived. However one batch, whos momma ran off when they were about 3 weeks old, did make it and they are our favorites. They really think I'm their momma:) They are around 4 months old now, so are taking care of themselves, but come running to me when I'm outside and will play around my feet (and try climbing my legs, which is fine if I'm wearing jeans, not so much when I have a skirt on!!!). Here is a pic of most of them, though my babies aren't in this one (they hadn't been let out of the barn yet).

Hoping to put up some pics of the little bit of stitching that I did get to in the next day or two. Maybe someone still reads here? :)