A FINISH!!!

Not one that I get to keep though. This project is for a Mystery Exchange that I participated in on a Stitching Yahoo group that I'm in. We all got to pic up to 5 themes that we were interested in (like certain holidays, seasons, or other things) and then the person who gets our name chooses from those themes to stitch up a block (unfinished in this case) and mail it off to us. The person I got choose Christmas as one of her themes, so this is what I stitched for her...

Christmas 2010 by Glory Bee, found in 2010 JCS Christmas Ornament Issue

I did this one over 1 on 25 ct. cream Lugana. This was a quick and fun stitch and I may need to do this one again for myself:)

July TUSAL

It seems like I haven't done the TUSAL in the last month or two, so my pile of orts is a little bigger than usual.

 

I took this pic outside and had to chase after the threads just a bit:) Silly wind doesn't ever want to hold still!! I only had one cat out to help this morning, so that was better than the last time I took a pic of my threads outside.

If you want to know what the heck TUSAL is, follow the link over to Daffycat's blog and find out. It's not to late to join in!!

July YOTA update

I guess I'm not going to be posting everyday;0) I will be happy, though, if I get a post in every other day, so that is what I'm going to aim for. As for today, I have a YOTA update. YOTA stands for 'Year Of The Acronym' and is the creator's (over at Pull The Other Thread) way of making fun of all the acronyms we stitchers use:) The point is to take one of your WIPs (works in progress) or UFO (unfinished objects - usually an older project) and take the first Saturday of the month to work on it. I choose a project that I hadn't worked on in a long time and make tiny bits of progress on it through the year. And by the way this is going, I can plan on using this project for my YOTA piece for the next several years!!!

I haven't had a chance to work on my YOTA project for the past couple of months. This is where I was in April, I believe...

Four Seasons by Marjolein  Bastin

 

And a really bad pic of where I am tonight. I finished the shading around the bench and wanted to finish up the birds as well, but there are 2 thread colors that I am missing and need to buy before I can do that. Once the birds are done, the bench area is completely finished. I moved on to the mushroom that is under the bench so I could do something with some different colors in it. Turns out I am missing a couple of the colors for it as well, but I was able to get this far. I really love this design!! 

OOPS!!

That must be some kind of new record for announcing that you are going to blog every day this month and then missing the next day:) LOL Well, it was a holiday so it didn't count, right? 

 

I hope all my fellow American readers had a wonderful 4th of July (and all my non-American readers too:). We had plans to have some family over for a BBQ and then head over to a neighboring town to see the fireworks, but it was not to be. DD came down ill with a fever and aches and pains Wednesday night and slept most of yesterday away. Dh went ahead and smoked the pork roasts that we had planned to have and he and I spent a nice quiet day watching movies. Dd is starting to feel better today though she is still a little puny.

 

Since I had some quiet time, I finished my part on this Round Robin piece. This one is much different from the others I have stitched on as 'Murf' choose really different colors for her piece. I rather like it and dd said it was her favorite of the bunch so far. This one will be mailed off tomorrow for the last stitcher and I should be getting the last piece that I need to stitch on before getting my own back!! I can't wait to see how mine has turned out!!!

 

Live Laugh Love by La D Da

NaBloPoMo

I decided to join in on July's National Blog Post Month over at BlogHer. I've been slacking off on posting on my blog and I'm wanting to be more active here, so I thought a little challenge is in order!!

So how this works is that you sign up over at BlogHer and then post on your blog every day for the entire month. Last time I did this I didn't get through the whole month, but I came really close, so we'll see how I do this time!!! :)

FIRE!!!

Around here it is harvest time. We live in an area where wheat is all around us (yes the very wheat that I'm allergic to:). I love how pretty and green it is in the spring and the golden color it gets to be when it's ripe and ready for harvest. 

But the one thing about living with agriculture all around that has always made me nervous is once the crops are harvested, how dry the land is. Fire is a huge concern this time of year, usually it is fireworks we are worried about right about now. We have never been directly effected before this year, this weekend was the first time we had a close call. We took a day-trip on Saturday and when we came back home that afternoon, we noticed lots of smoke. Farmers often burn off their wheat stubble, but this day was very windy and we thought someone had a field get out of control. This first fire was about 5 miles from our house, so not a direct concern for us, but we drove around to see what was going on.

We first realized it was not a controlled fire when we saw that one of the fields being burnt was uncut wheat, about 200 acres of it!! We then saw that along-side the highway was a camper that had been burnt to the ground and some people standing around a truck that was also partially burnt (just the back of the truck, no one was hurt). That's when I noticed that there was another fire closer to our place, so we drove home, hoping that it wasn't as close as it looked. The second fire was directly north of our house, by about 1 mile, but thankfully the train tracks and a paved road kept it from jumping across and getting any closer to us.

All in all, around 600 or so acres burnt, but no one got hurt. Only 2 houses were in danger, and only bits of their yards ever caught on fire, the houses were all safe. I think this year we will skip doing any fireworks at all as we've had enough fire for the time being!! :)

July Goals

I only finished ONE of my June goals!!! ACK!! I will have to do much better this month:) Only one more full month of summer break left, and I want to make it count. I've decided to add some personal goals to this list as well, so it won't all be about stitching.

 The goal I did get done in June was this toddler sized blanket. I'm also working on a girl version.

For my July goals...

1. I want to finish stitching the other girl that will go along with this one and get them made into a needle case.

 2. Get the top to this quilt all sewn together.

 

3. Get the birds all stitched up and made into a bag.

 

4. Have 2 ornaments to show off including this Spring Ornie from Prairie Schooler.

 

5. Have my 'Ho Ho Ho' blog hop projects done. My day for this hop won't be until Aug 7th, but I am determined to have this done before hand this time!! :)

 

For my personal goals...

 

1. Walk or do a exercise video at least 6 days a week all month.

 

2. Have the first week of school scheduled and ready.

 

3. Take dd to at least one extra activity for the next 5 weeks before school starts. This week we are going to a splash park with a play group. Okay, yes play groups are usually for little kids, and this one is too, but dd's best friend has a little sister and her best friend was the only kid over 10 when these play groups started. So we started going too so that she would have someone there for her. Most of the littles at this group are the siblings of the older kids in their Youth Group. So dd gets to see her best friend for both Youth Group and Play Dates:)  I think my dd is going to turn into a drowned rat with all the swim team practices, swimming at my parents house, going to the public pool and then these splash park play dates!!! She really loves the water:)

 

4. 'Spring Cleaning' all done before school starts back up. I'm horrible when it comes to house work so I try to take the summer months and do a bit of deeper cleaning that I won't get to during the school year. I hate house cleaning!!! But I do like having a clean house and with as small as our house is, it really needs it!!

 

 

Okay that should do for this month. I have a few other things I hope to also get done, but as you can see from last month, I probably wouldn't get to them!! LOL