ewwww

Hope you are all staying warm. It's been cold here and I have a dusting of snow on the driveway. The news reported the blizzard didn't pack a punch like "they" thought - it's only 3 feet of snow falling - and how is that not a punch? I haven't done much except homework and housework since school started so I don't have any fun pictures or restaurants to show you. My husband has been traveling a lot and has eaten at some fun places but I didn't save the pictures. I do have one more square done on this wretched fruit bellpull and a start on the third square (apples)

I do have two truly terrible stories to tell you - fun right? ("truly terrible" is a matter of perspective - worse things are happening in the world as I type this but these things were pretty gross) Sunday morning I went downstairs with a huge basket of laundry and I almost stepped on the dead but not eaten mouse and vomit the cat left me- how sweet. Now when I come downstairs in the morning I carry nothing and turn on every light as I go - can you imagine if I would have stepped on or in ..... yuck. I did screech like a girl when I saw the mouse laying there - blah!! I bought an Aspen Bistro portion control pet feeder which does not work. I set it up for two meals 1/4 a cup each. It only feeds him about a tablespoon so I set it up to feed 1/4 c three times a day but I think he is still not getting enough food. He is always messing with it. I guess it will have to go back - bummer.

See the water thing - that's new too but two days after I set it up it smelled like sour milk which may be why he is throwing up. I washed it and put in fresh water and he knocked it over - so it's also going back. I was hoping this system would work for when I travel but I don't see much of that in my future so the old system will work. He is obnoxious when it comes being fed so I was hoping this would keep him from staring and meowing at me from 2 in the afternoon until 5 when he gets fed - annoying.

he doesn't look like a mouse killer

Finally - story two!! (Sorry I veered off course there) Monday morning in front of the school - in the near dark - I swerved to avoid hitting what I thought was a dead cat - I DID NOT hit it - the whole car filled with the strongest skunk smell I have ever encountered - like it was in the car with me!! The banana I was eating turned into a skunk banana and I gagged!! I rolled the window down but it was in the air outside too - must have just happened. All day all I could smell was skunk The girl next to me in my first class said she drove by it too and that was all she could smell - hope it wasn't coming off of me!! When I got home I parked in the garage - wrong - I could smell it in my kitchen so I had to move the car outside - when you open the car door  - it's unbelievable. I hope I don't smell like skunk when I go to school tomorrow - e gads.
Look at the size of this Red-Bellied Woodpecker that has been coming around - not as big as the Pileated but still impressive!

I know it's hard to see it but you can see the tilt of the feeder!

As for school - I don't want to jump the gun but it may be getting a little easier. I feel like I understand things a little better and I'm learning their computer system so it's not all foreign to me now. I'm afraid if I say it's easy then I might be missing the point and fail my classes - yikes!
Stay warm folks and thanks for stopping by

Grab an umbrella

because I may be a little storm cloud!! It won't be a lot of rain but there may be a little!! On my last post - way at the bottom I mentioned that I was going to start school January 12th. What an eye-opening experience that has been!! I am in school from 8-430 on Monday and Wednesday. There are huge gaps in between classes which I need to learn to use to my advantage because I ended up doing homework Tuesday and Thursday from about 8-530. Most of my problem is the online portion of the school. Each teacher sets their stuff up a little differently and figuring out can take most of my homework time. This week I only have one day of classes but I still have a little homework every day. I know I will get the hang of it and it will get a little easier. The nursing program is very competitive so I have to get straight A's in my prerequisite classes. Which brings me to my second problem - I used to think I was a pretty smart cookie - not so much. The placement tests and the homework assignments make me realize that I am not so smart. I can do this!!!! I am going full time - I quit my job on the 9th. Scott will be under more pressure because he is bringing in the only income. Bless his heart for being so supportive, plus he likes that he doesn't have to do the grocery shopping any more - who can blame him -that is one craptastic chore! He leaves for Vegas soon - I will join him at the end of the week for a few days - that will be fun!!
For Christmas I got a suet feeder which is bringing around a lot of woodpeckers - fun!! There is one I have been trying to get a picture of - a Pileated woodpecker - it doesn't come around too often and when it does I am always shocked at how big it is!! A cardinal is 9 inches tall and the Pileated is 17 inches tall!! They are pretty shy so every time I try to get a picture it flys off

I have a finish!! This pattern called for some specialty stitches but a rice stitch with two strands of thread on 32 count is just a blob so I skipped some of the stitches. I really love the way my tea dye turned out!

It seems odd that there are only 3 bands. There is suppose to be a crazy zigzagy thing at the bottom but I didn't like it. I think it's funny looking but Scott says it looks fine. I am now working on another WIP (proud of me right?) Teresa Wentzler's fruit bell pull

I have been working on it since Friday and I have to say blended needle popcorn stitching still sucks. You can't see it but the whole border is done.Send good vibes my way so the popcorn stitches don't make me run into traffic!!
My last storm cloud is this.... I really want two patterns from L'Atelier Perdu but she closes sales of her patterns. Someone sweet talked her into selling me one of the ones that was closed but she wanted $60 for this simple series of three patterns. Really? I didn't have it at the time so I have been trying to buy it elsewhere but it is not available very often. I had the chance on ebay but was outbid. When did cross stitch become so outrageously expensive? $60 for three simple small patterns - no thread or fabric. I had just purchased the mouse house from Just Nan for $50 but it was all the fabric and embellishments. I guess it's mostly the stuff from overseas. I love Renato Parolin, L'Atelier Perdu, and the other designers from over the pond but I think that I won't be buying any more of their stuff. Especially now that we only have one income. I remember when $20 would buy a piece of fabric, skeins of thread and a pattern. Good thing I have collected so many patterns - that will keep me busy for a few years at least!!
See, those storm clouds weren't so bad.... You probably didn't even get much on you.

moo cup from Cost Plus World Market

 He's so handsome in his crushed velvet paisley jacke !!

cold morning!!

I hope you are all staying warm!! Thanks for stopping by!

  

stitchy stats (edited)

Hello - Happy New Year!!!
This is a stitchy post from 2014 - old news haha!  I finally managed to get the Noel by Renato Parolin done - I was scared to death to do the finishing!! They turned out ok - I had some problems with the back but that side hides on the wall - right? I had trouble getting the points to fold so that the backs would look OK. I made the backs smaller so they wouldn't go right to the edge - maybe they should have - I don't know. Scott cut the triangles - thank goodness or they'd all be crooked but I pinned them so they may be crooked after all - ha!

they are huge!!

N and E have red backs the other two have green

I added gold cord

 I realized that I started the year off with one of his patterns and mostly finished the year off with one of his patterns!! I am actually finishing the year off with Four Season Band Sampler by Sally Hesketh it was in JCS 2011 April, June, October and November issues.

I am not even sure when I started this project but it is almost halfway done. It has been nothing but a pain - the first time I started it the fabric was cut wonky. I got a bunch done on the crazy top and realized that if I kept stitching it would stitch off the fabric sideways - neat. So, I started over but I decided to take the abc and the zigzaggy thing off - maybe because the fabric I had on hand was a little too small for the whole thing and I had already done the zigzaggy thing once on the wonky fabric....One section is one off - had to take some out to make it the band not be one off because I'm pretty sure you would notice that..... It's cute and I hope the rest of it doesn't give me so much trouble!!

 

For 2014 I had said I would do a WIP and then a new project but it didn't really work out - and I added a new WIP!! BOO on me!! So I had 11 WIPS total - I finished 4, got rid of one and added one so I have 7 WIPs to do. Three are Teresa Wentzler - those are so time consuming that they go to the bottom of the WIP pile.  One is a Brookes Book angel - not sure I want to finish that one. I love her angels and I really love the perforated paper but what to do with them when they are done??? I have one Christmas one done and she just lays on my craft table - so I don't know if I want to make any more of them.

 So really I have 6 WIPS - 5 when this band thing is done!! That's not too bad - since I am excited to work on the patterns I got for Christmas!!
I recently bought a floss app - Cross Stitch Thread Companion but I don't think I like it and am probably asking for a refund. I love the part where you can scan in the bar codes on your new skeins. I love that you can put how many you have (even say you have a half a skein) and how many you need and then it makes a list for the store!! I hate that it is missing most of the Kreinik colors and to add them you have to put in the number - pick a color and put in the color name. I don't have time to do all of that.They answer the emails quickly but are not helpful - like I said when I  added Needle Necessities (yes I know they are no longer BUT the app said you could add any threads you wanted so I added a Needle Necessities category in mine - added all the numbers and when I went back the numbers were all gone!!) - they responded "The app is not advertised to do anything with needles" *sigh*     I had Floss Checklist by opeware but some floss colors were missing - when I looked online he had thrown a nasty fit about people saying stuff about his app so I was afraid to tell him that the colors were missing haha I emailed the company and they never responded. So the whole point here is - do you have a stash app and do you like it. It is time consuming to keep adding my DMC stash to apps just to have them not work out.
We stayed home New Year's Eve - always nice to stay home! We went letterboxing on the first day - good way to start!
On Jan 10th I start school! I'm going to try to get into a nursing program but for now I'm doing prerequisites! Scary and exciting!
Well I guess that is all my I stitchy {and other} news. Hope your 2015 has the best stitching ever!! No frogs or wonky fabrics ( plus health and happiness)!! Thanks for stopping by!

Lovely Christmas

Hello!!
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!! I couldn't post anything during the holidays!! My daughter Taylor had asked for a cookbook for Christmas - a family cookbook. One with recipes we have been making along with stories of where they came from. She had asked for it way back in July but we didn't start on it until much later. For a few weeks all we did was work on it - every free minute we had!! It ended up being about 85 pages - even has some secret family recipes - the children have been threatened with certain death if they share some of the ones that ended up in there!!

 Here is Scott and Mo working hard on the cookbook!

front and binding

 it has recipes the kids remember

and even pictures

  the section dividers have cooking information I found online - this one is from Chasing Delicious

or a page of the actual recipe cards I have in my recipe box

 sometimes pictures of food

 or the products they will need  - or tips they need to know to make certain foods

or pictures of the people we got the recipes from. I think it turned out wonderful. We gave one to Ryder too. They can add recipes too it and pass it along someday.
So we worked on that - then we decided to bake cookies to send to the kids and our traditional breakfast roll (which also made the cookbook!!). I made the rolls and Scott made the cookies. By the time we got their boxes shipped out we had not even put up a Christmas tree and it was a week to Christmas! We still had a lovely Christmas. I will show you a few things I got -

 a box carved out of cinnamon bark made in Vietnam - smells like cinnamon!!

 a starlight from artecnica

Heart of Christmas gnomes by Enesco if you click the link you can see the front and back - they are adorable!! They have little hair-ties and they are each numbered - I love them!!

a lovely sterling silver and swarovski crystal bracelet.

Some wonderul patterns!!!
 I also got a lovely coat - which I did not get a good picture of so I will post the link. It's a company called Greater Good that says they give proceeds to different charities. Buying this coat is suppose to be helping animals. Who knows if they really do it - I did look online and some places said they were legitimate and some sites said they weren't. I love the coat though!! So you can see I am a spoiled girl - I know I am very lucky!! We went the day after Christmas and bought a fake tree - great sale of course. So we will never be without a tree because we didn't have time to go get one!! It's set up with no ornaments right now and it is very pretty. The best part of Christmas was 4 days home together. We missed seeing our family - we did get to skype with the kids - gotta love technology!!!
As for stitching - I did finish the L but that is a post for another day... if I can get the finishing done!!
Hope you all had a lovely Christmas!! Hope you have a wonderful New Year's Eve - be safe!!

Can I buy an E?

I really wish I could actually buy the L because I am so darn sick of this project!! I haven’t had much time to work on it so it is taking forever to get it done. *sigh* I desperately want to start a new project but I really don’t need another WIP *sigh*.

We have been working so hard on getting packages sent to our kids that we don’t even have a tree up – or any decorations at all. We do have cookies though because Scott baked several kinds. I think we decided to skip the tree this year. If we put it up now it would only be up for two weeks. It’s a lot of work to get it up for such a short time. I think Scott is a little depressed about it though.

I did make a cranberry crunch cake and then I made a gingerbread cake. 

We had the gingerbread at Bang! In Colorado – on DDD of course. I was dreaming about the cake the other day when it occurred to me that I could make one!! I looked online and Bang shared their recipe – yay!! If you make it be sure to serve it with whipped cream – makes all the difference in the world!!

 Skinnytaste has a new cookbook out – I checked it out from the library – love it!! I have made two recipes from it already – and plan on making several more. I will photocopy the recipes I like . I don’t like having cookbooks because when I plan my menu I don’t want to have to drag out a bunch of books. I have photocopied every recipe I use and stuck it in my book. She posted an older recipe on her blog – beef and barley soup. Holy cow is it fantastic!! I can’t wait to have it again – such a good rich flavor!!  

my camera doesn't do a very good job - it was delicious!!

Scott always writes my menu on the blackboard he made me - he has lovely handwriting. Some of the pictures he does are funny - I forgot to show you the Thanskgiving one on my last post....

Not much to chat about this blog but I do hope you all have a very merry Christmas.!!

Thanks for stopping by!  HO HO HO

Gimme an O!!!

Two down......two to go!

a passel of projects

We got a ton of stuff done this weekend!! First let me say welcome to my new followers!! I have TWENTY followers!!! Wowzers - I feel pretty popular!!
Also, I hope you all had a lovely turkey day. Scott and I hung out at home - we made a chicken and all the goodies that go with it. Sat in front of the fire watching TV and flakes fell from the heavens - but not enough to shovel which made it perfect!!
Scott got some framing done...

finished 2012 Mosey N Me

finished 2013 Lizzie*Kate

finished 2012 Little House Needleworks

hard at work in the workshop

 The frame on the first picture came from an estate sale - the third frame Scott built - he started building it when we lived in Colorado!!
So I have to give lots of thanks to other blogs. The first thanks is to The Inspired Stitcher on her 2013 finishes she has a necklace using the Queen Bee mini card by Prairie Schooler - and I thought ohhhh that's what I can do with that pattern - I've had it for years and always wondered what I should do with it!! Scott and I found a really neat "watch" to put it in at Hobby Lobby

open

closed

I think it turned out lovely!! When I posted it on my blog - Meari from Meari's Musings sent me a link to another blog - which I had commented on when it was originally posted and then forgot that I loved it (silly me) So thanks to Meari for pointing out the absolutely adorable time piece that Mouse from Tales of a Stitching Mouse made I took her idea almost exactly (thanks Mouse!!) except I added a heart and I made one in blue. It's stitched one over one on 40 ct country mocha Newcastle - which I love!! Look how tiny the stitches are....

I finished the small quilt I was making - (thanks Jessica - the outer border quilting idea was perfect - I added another set of hills - maybe made them too small but what are ya gonna do now? lol)

You can't really see the quilting as I had hoped - but there is the front, close up, back and it hanging on the hanger we got last month!
I made a little table runner - we had seen one in Ohio with a lace edge - they wanted too much for it - I spent $4 on crocheted ribbon and used some fabric I already had - I have half the ribbon left so I can make another!! I might tea dye it - maybe.

 I had posted the Harvest Keeper finish already - I left off one hive - Meari suggested more bees - brilliant!! I added just one more bee - maybe another one would fit but I love the additional bee (thanks Meari!!)

put on a box

still needs touch-up paint

Scott made oatmeal peanut butter scotchies mmmmmmm

I got goodies in the mail....

snowflake needle keep

YAY!!!

That's a lot of finished up projects - I'm proud of us!! I have most of my Christmas shopping done - have to since everybody lives far away!! We may decorate tomorrow - we'll see how it goes!! Hope you are having a jolly holiday season and thanks for stopping by!!! HO HO HO