Late IHSW Post and Other Stuff

This post should have been written several days ago and I kept forgetting about it. :p I took my pictures after IHSW (International Hermit & Stitch Weekend) so I could post them, but never remembered to actually do it.
I didn't have a real productive IHSW this time but I did get some stitching done. I finished up my May Halloween ornament. All it needs is to have the felt put on the back of it. This is from a Mill Hill kit. It's my first time stitching a Mill Hill ornament. It's hard to see all the beading but it's there. :)

I also worked on my May Christmas ornament. It seems like this one is taking forever to get stitched! The pattern itself isn't hard. It's because I'm using metallic thread for the red. Until now, I had forgotten how much I really don't like stitching with these threads. This is how far I was after the weekend. I have 1 more of the hearts to stitch so hopefully it will be finished tomorrow.

I broke down and bought another Heaven and Earth Designs chart. I couldn't resist because it has owls and looks like my family. There are 3 little owls, one is rolling her eyes (oldest daughter Amy), one is being held by it's feet by the dad owl (my daughter Amber, who found trouble everywhere when she was a toddler and small child) and the baby owl in mom's arms (my son Josh, the youngest). I decided instead of stitching the whole blue background I would dye the fabric blue. I usually use Rit dye but I had some other dye that looked about the same color. It turned out to be as close as I could have come to the actual background! Here's the fabric.

Here's my start on the owls and what it will look like when finished. This is my first time stitching on 25 count fabric over one. The part I started on is the baby owl.

After we finished Paradise, Katie and I talked about doing another Stitch-a-long. We decided to stitch 'Fright Night Friends' which is another banner type design like Paradise was. We haven't started yet but I can't wait to get started! For this one I decided to dye fabric. It's originally on antique white. I wanted my fabric to be sort of a mix of orange and purple. The first time I dyed it, the colors ran together and it looked kind of pinkish. So after it dried I sprayed it again. I like how it turned out. The picture doesn't really show the colors too well. Hopefully they will show up better in a picture after it's stitched.

This is the design that will be going on it

So, that was my stitching weekend. Hopefully I'll start making a little more progress on all these starts I have going. I think I have a bad case of startitis lately. :p

Just a few other pictures I would like to share. These are my favorite tree and lilac bush in our yard. The flowers on both of them only last about 2 weeks but they sure are pretty! :) I just happened to catch a mama bird coming out of the birdhouse after feeding her babies.

Yesterday we picked up our grandson and went fishing for the first time this year. It was a perfect day. Unfortunately, since it was a school day, we got a late start so we were only there a little over an hour before it started getting dark. I brought my fishing pole with but I spent a little time reading and a lot of time taking pictures. Which is usually what happens if I have a camera handy. I think Louie is going to love fishing as much as his grandpa does.

Have a safe Memorial Day Everyone! Thank a soldier or Veteran!

(((Hugs)))

Not A Very Productive IHSW!

This weekend was International Hermit & Stitch Weekend (IHSW). Jerry was working and I should have been able to get a lot of stitching done. But I didn't. I don't even really know why I didn't. Part of the reason was because I needed to get a white pillowcase to use for my afghan. I had planned to go today to get one (I did, you can see it in the picture) but thought it would be ok to stitch a few days without it. It's to put the afghan (except for the part I'm working on) in so that it doesn't get dirty or messed up. Because the afghan is big and it will take a while to stitch it. On Sunday after I had stitched a little bit, I remembered I had a pretty new pair of jeans on, a dark blue pair. They've been washed twice but my color catcher still came out blue after the last wash. I checked the afghan and sure enough, there was a little blue spot on it. :( It's tiny and on the back, but I figured I better wait for the pillowcase to stitch any more on it. I thought about pulling out one of my HAED pieces but didn't want to be bothered with taking it out for only a few more hours on Sunday. Lazy, I know. Here is how far I got on the afghan before putting it away. This is the upper left block. Each block is 88x88 and it's stitched over 1! Those are some tiny stitches! This is going to take awhile!

On Saturday I did finish my April ornaments for the Christmas Ornament SAL and Halloween Ornament SAL The theme for the Christmas one was Trees/Baubles (ornaments) and the Halloween theme was stitcher's choice. I didn't put a hanger on the Christmas one because I will put a real ornament hanger on it so it looks more like an ornament. Both of my ornaments are from freebie charts I had in my stash.

I tried something new the other day that I read about on Facebook, making peanut butter. The one we buy has oil, salt, sugar and a few other unnecessary ingredients. We bought a 1 lb bag of peanuts. They do have oil and salt added to them but that's it. I dumped them in the food processor and about 5 minutes later, I had peanut butter! It's delicious!! It made exactly a pint jar. I was afraid it would be like making applesauce and I would start out with a lot of peanuts only to end up with hardly anything. Even though it still does have the oil & salt, not having the sugar is a big plus since Jerry is diabetic and loves peanut butter. It's also without the other extras that are in the jar kind. I was actually kind of amazed with how it turned out. Just peanuts, imagine that! :)

Is anyone watching the new show on Netflix Instant called 'Hemlock Grove'?

 They premiered the entire first season, 13 episodes on Friday. It's really good! We have 3 episodes left. I'm hoping we don't have to wait forever for season 2. I thought it would be more scary than it actually is. It kind of reminds me of the old Dark Shadows. Just kinda. It definitely isn't for kids to watch because they have some sex scenes and boobs. And they like to drop the F-bomb. If they used it any more than they do, I would probably quit watching. I don't like when they say it every other word. Thankfully they aren't that bad about using it. But it is really good. And they had the most disgustingly awesome transformation into a wolf!

Well, I think that's all I have to say today. It's a pretty short update for me. :) I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. We finally had a few days without rain! By the weekend we are supposed to be in the mid 60s and 73 next Monday.  If it doesn't change before then. We have a chance of rain the next few days and then nothing through next Monday! Hopefully...

Thanks for visiting!
Hugs

Blog Giveaway!

Head over to Shaunterria's blog for a great giveaway! She's giving away a chart, floss and buttons for Santa's Stocking Store, a Santa's Village series design from Country Cottage Needleworks. I'm really hoping I win this one. :)

Stitchy Update!

It's been dreary and rainy for the last 2 weeks. We have flood warnings and some places are already flooded. We don't live too close to the lakes or river so we're ok but the rain is getting depressing. Last year we were in a drought and this year it won't stop. Can't there be a happy medium? I don't even want to think about the mosquitoes this summer! But, when it's raining it's a good time to get some stitching done. :) And I have been stitching and stashing! Not that I needed more stash!
A friend that I went to school with told me about the Salvation Army Women's Craft & Fabric Sale. I have never heard of it but apparently a lot of people have. We got there about 10minutes before it was set to start. The parking lot was full and there was a line across the whole front of the strip mall where it was. We got in pretty quick and headed straight for the stitching stuff. It was nice because they had tall signs on the tables with the different categories. I found a lot of packaged aida for .25c each. Jerry picked up a sealed package and showed it to me to see if I wanted it. It was an afghan cloth to stitch on! I looked them up online and it's $25. I got it for $3 !!! I wish there would have been more because a few friends on Facebook would have liked one. :( This is what I came home with. Emma was with us and got the big flower for her room for .75c and the stocking kit in the red box for $2. When we opened it we found out it makes 4 small stockings. :)

My friend told me there was still a lot of stuff left a few days later and they had added more that didn't fit in the beginning. So we went back and I came home with this. The big black piece and white piece are over a yard of aida! Fun! :)

Now, since I had this nice afghan, I needed something to stitch on it, right? :) I looked online and found several charts but most were for different sized afghans or the squares were different size. Then I looked on Stoney Creek and found the perfect design! I loved it more than the others I saw and it was the right size! It's called Tropical Island and you can see it Here.  I received it in the mail today and I'm hoping to start it this weekend during IHSW.

In my last post I shared my March Halloween ornament but I didn't have the Christmas ornament one done yet. Here it is. I'm working on my April ornaments now so I'll show them next post. :)

This morning I finished putting together a pinkeep wall hanging for my grandson. I stitched his name using the Lizzie Kate A-B-C-razy chart. He called me after school when he got home and saw it. He was so excited! He didn't know about it and he loves it. :)

And finally...I know a lot of people have been waiting to see Paradise finished. Here it is! By the way, it isn't actually framed yet. I just put it in the frame to see how it's going to look. Hopefully it will be in there in the next day or two. :)

I absolutely loved working on this piece! Part of what made it fun was doing it as a SAL with Katie. We both were finishing about the same amount each week and finished pretty close to each other. Katie decided to change the color of her letters. She didn't like the look of the black as much as I did. I love the way hers looks too! As we were working on them I kept wondering if I should have changed mine too but I really like how the black looks so I'm happy with it. I really like hers too though. Lol We are thinking about doing the Halloween one as a SAL in a few months. Here's Katie's finished Paradise!

Well, I think that's about it for now. Not much going on with all this rain. We finally got rid of winter and now this! Oh well, in the summer we'll probably be praying for some rain.
Thanks for checking out my blog and please leave a comment. I like knowing you were here. :)

Also, I haven't posted any picture-of-the-day pics for a while. I did finish March and am doing the April one now. If anyone is interested I will post those in a different post. I know I did get several nice comments on them before (thank you!), but didn't want to bore everyone with them all. So if you want to see them, let me know!

IHSW, Stitching, Shakes, Soap & Snow!

Did everyone have a good St Patrick's Day? We don't do anything special, no corned beef & cabbage or anything. We did meet up with some school friends of mine for a couple hours at a local pub down the road and had a good time. Then back at home, after dinner we made our own Shamrock Shakes from a recipe I found on Pinterest. They were really good but next time I will add just a bit more of the mint extract. We decided to make our own because when we had one from McDonalds several weeks ago, Jerry's blood sugar reading was really high that night. A small (12 oz) Shamrock shake has 73 grams of sugar!! Crazy! One tip, do not wait till the day before St Pat's Day to go looking for mint extract and green food coloring. I did find it but it wasn't easy. :) This is the recipe I used:

I also realized that on St Pat's Day this year I have had my driver's license for 35 years! That's really crazy!

The first day of Spring was yesterday. I wish someone would let our weather know that! It has been a very cold, very long winter. Last year was way too warm in March and we had a terribly hot summer. I'm hoping since it's still cold maybe we will have a nice cool summer this year. I don't usually mind winter and hate hot weather, but this year I am ready for it to be done. Here's a comparison that our local news showed with last year's and this year's temps.

This pic was taken a few weeks ago. Jerry was digging out the drain pipes because we had all this snow one day and it was supposed to rain a lot the next day.

 I think I mentioned last year about a homemade laundry soap I made. I made it last March and I am just now running out. It works great and all the ingredients cost just under $20 at Walmart. I can't use things with fragrance because of allergies. The bar soap that is grated to use in this does have a smell but it's not enough to bother my skin. If you try this, realize that there won't be any bubbles like regular detergent. That's because they add stuff to it to make bubbles. People equate clean with bubbles. But bubbles don't clean. :) I also got this from Pinterest. Here's the recipe. Here are my ingredients all ready to mix together. There should be 3 bars of soap though.

 On to the stitching. I have a lot of stitched pieces that are still waiting to be framed or finished into something. I brought 2 of them out and finally got frames for them. The Paris one is from a kit that I bought a long time ago to make for my daughter Amy. She really has been waiting forever! It didn't have a lot of actual cross stitching but instead was a lot of long stitches. I would set it aside because I would get frustrated and not pick it up for a while. It finally got stitched and then waited forever for a frame. The other piece is one I made for Jerry and I. :)

I finished my Halloween ornament for this month's Halloween ornament SAL. The theme is Haunted House. This is from a freebie chart I had saved. It's from LucieHeaton.com. I'm not sure if it's still on the site or not because I've had it for a while. I'm working on my ornament for the Christmas SAL now.

I haven't made as much progress on Paradise in the last few weeks as I would have liked. But it is getting there. I have about a page and a half left. I'll pick it up again on Sunday.  I put a yardstick next to it so you can see how big it really is.

When I'm not working on Paradise or ornaments (which isn't very much lately) I am working on an Autumn Quilts piece that matches the summer one that I displayed at the library. There are 2 more seasons and a Christmas one in the series. Hopefully I'll get them all stitched. Someday I'll get back to my HAED. This is how far I was on Autumn Quilts when I pulled it out of UFOdom.  Oh, and I didn't realize the piece was upside down till after I took the pic, put the memory card back in my camera and the q-snaps back on the piece. :p

I think that's about it. If not, it has to wait because this girl needs to get to bed. I have been doing the photo challenge again this month. I'll get a post up with those pics, hopefully this weekend.

(((Hugs)))

Coming soon...

I was supposed to get a post up on Monday or Tuesday for IHSW. It's Wednesday...I promise to get it up tomorrow night so if you're here, please come back! :)

Ornaments and Pictures-of-the-Day

Just a short post to share some pictures. I finally finished my February ornaments for the Halloween and Christmas Stitch-a-longs. Nothing like waiting till the last day of the month to do it. I've had the stitching done for a little bit but just tonight made them into ornaments. I love the stitching part but I hate putting things together or framing. I would rather leave that to someone else but can't afford it so I do it all myself. Here are February's ornaments. The Halloween SAL theme for February was Black Cats and the Christmas theme was Reindeer or candy canes.

Since February is over I can share the rest of my Picture-of-the Day pics.
The theme for Feb 22 was 'Handwritten'. These are some of the letters Jerry and I exchanged when he was in the air force and I was still at home before we got married.

Feb 23 theme: 'Favorite thing'. This was a hard one because I have a lot of favorite things. I decided to go with my favorite tv show, Little House on the Prairie. I have them all on dvd and watch them often.

Feb 24 theme: 'Listening to...' This is one of my favorite cds because I love the old songs on it and I love Rod Stewart's voice. I like how he kept the songs the same. I listen to this one a lot.

Feb 25 theme: 'Everyday I...' This was another hard one. I do a lot of things Monday-Friday and some things only on Saturday & Sunday. Aside from showing you my toothbrush or something, there aren't a lot of things I do every single day. Then as I was logging on to Facebook I realized, there is something I do everyday! I check it several times a day. :)

Feb 26 theme: 'Old photo'. My mom's 85th birthday would have been on the 23rd. Since it was still the week of her birthday I decided to use a picture of her. This is from when she was about 12 years old I think. I'm pretty sure it was her confirmation. Maybe her First Communion but I think Confirmation. This is from Belgium where she lived till she was 18 and came here after WWII.

Feb 27 theme: 'Favorite Spot'. My very favorite place to be is Disney World. We have been there 3 times but not since 2003. This photo was taken in 1997, the 2nd time we went. It was their 25th anniversary and the castle was decorated like a big cake. This is a page from my scrapbook.

Feb 28 theme: 'I ate...' This is an apple cake. I got the recipe from Taste of Home. I double the recipe and added an extra apple because we like it thicker and with more apple in it. I ate a piece after lunch today.

I have decided to continue the Picture-of-the-Day into March. This is what the themes are:

The person that made the list has a Facebook page and also a blog if anyone else is interested in participating. I only share mine on my personal page on Facebook and on my blog.

Well, I think that's it for now. Thanks for visiting!

Hugs

IHSW, Paradise SAL, Pictures-of-the-Day, etc

Well, I have had quite a bit of time to stitch on Paradise in the last week or so. Katie and I are working on it Sunday-Wednesdays. This past weekend was IHSW (International Hermit Stitch Weekend) and we decided to continue our SAL to include Friday and Saturday. I didn't get to totally hermit & stitch this weekend because it was also Jerry's birthday. I did get lots of stitching time in tough. Here's my progress so far. I'll pick it up again on Sunday. I have finished 3 pages and have 2 left. I think those 2 have a bit more stitching on them.

As long as I'm on the crafty stuff I will share one more thing. I made 3 sets of burp cloths for a friend of mine that is going to be a grandma again. I made one set for her house and one set for each of her sons, who are both expecting baby boys next month.

On Facebook I'm doing a month long Picture-of-the-Day. There is a theme for each day (the list is a few posts down). These are the pics I have posted so far. Some were a bit challenging. Like 'Sunshine' on a day that was totally cloudy! Since it's already the 21st of Feb, hopefully I won't bore anyone with all the pics. Only 7 days to go! I really like doing it though because it makes me think everyday.

Feb 1-Vintage
This is an old photo album that belonged to my mom. Most of the pictures are her family in Belgium. She is the only one in her family that came to the U.S. She was 18 at the time, right after WWII.

Feb 2-An Angle
This one was a challenge. The weather made a lot of them a challenge. It's winter in Wisconsin... I really wasn't sure what to do for this one. I think this one is ok for the theme.

Feb 3-A Game
February 3rd just happened to be the Super Bowl. Is there any bigger game? I took quite a few pics of the tv and most of them blurred. This one turned out pretty good. :)

Feb 4-A Routine
The only thing I could think of that I do over and over is get up at a certain time Monday-Friday.

Feb 5-Self Portrait
This one is the one that I dreaded the most. I usually hide behind the camera so I'm not in any pics. I don't like pics of myself. And it's really hard to take pics of yourself! Lol I decided to take a pic showing my new glasses.

 

Feb 6-A Challenge
Another hard one. This whole photo thing was a challenge! :)

Feb 7-A Hobby

I figured that everyone on Facebook sees enough of my stitching so I decided to show another hobby-reading. This shelf is 2 rows deep with books and I also have books on other shelves.  If I never bought another book, I'd be good for a while. 

Feb 8-In My Hand

I was really stumped on this one. Then my son Josh said "If you're taking a picture, what's in your hand? Your camera!" So I took this one in front of a mirror. 

Feb 9-Comfort

These things bring me comfort-a good book, fuzzy socks,  fleece jammie pants, flannel sheets and a warm quilt on the bed. The quilt is made from fabric that belonged to my mom. :)

Feb 10-Up

I had planned to go outside for this one but it rained all day (in WI in Feb??). This is my swirly thing hanging on the front porch. 

Feb 11-Transportation

Since I live in a small city (about 6000 people), there isn't much besides cars & trucks for transportation. When I went to pick up kids from school I took a few pics of a bus. But it was always pulling in the driveway of the school and I couldn't get a good one. I took this one while we were in the long line at the 3 way stop. It isn't great because of course the line started moving!

Feb 12-Heart

This is my great-niece Emma making a heart with her hands. She comes here before & after school and on no school days.

Feb 13-Sweet

Hmmm...I wanted some Hershey kisses wrapped in Valentine colors but didn't remember to get to the store for them. This one has been hanging around since Christmas. I was taking several pics and then noticed that the shadow looked kinda cool. So I changed how I was taking it. 

Feb 14-Love is...

I was going to take a pic of Jerry before he went to work and then forgot. I looked across the room and saw this pic that I took about 9 or 10 years ago of Jerry with our grandson Louie. To me Love is...family. :)

Feb 15-I Dislike...

Not much explanation needed...I really dislike dishes! I don't have a dishwasher. :p

Feb 16-Around Town

The Milton House is our claim to fame. It was an old stagecoach inn and Abraham Lincoln is said to have stayed there. It was part of the Underground Railroad. The tour takes you through the tunnel in the basement that comes out through the log cabin in the back. They would hide the runaway slaves in the tunnel during the day and bring them out through the cabin after dark to help them on their way to freedom. The building on the far right used to be a blacksmith shop. The right side of the Milton House is fairly new. It was built to add more room to the museum. It used to look similar when it was built but that section collapsed. When I was growing up it was only the left octagon and small portion to the right of it. 

Feb 17-I Wore

Another one that needs no explanation. I wore my Packer hoodie that day. 

Feb 18-Sunshine

It was cloudy the entire day except for a few minutes when the sun peeked through some thinner clouds. I didn't get as much sunlight in this pic as I had hoped but better than nothing I guess. Whenever I see the sun shining on our bed it makes me think of Punkin. If the sun was out, she spent the day on our bed. I really miss her. :(

Feb 19-Lights

Another one I had to think about for a while. I know this is only 1 light but... I really would have loved to get one of those pics you see in the movies where they're on top of the hill over looking a city of lights. But since I live in a bitty city, that wasn't going to happen. Instead I used my light that is by the couch where I sit to stitch. This one turned out kinda cool. 

Feb 20-In a Pocket

I just grabbed a few things for this pic. I don't usually have much in my pocket because I carry a purse. But when I do, these are the kind of things I have. The list is something that I have in my pocket a lot, usually a Walmart list. :)

Feb 21-Eyes

Emma wanted me to take a picture of her for this one. She does have pretty eyes. :)

So, that's it so far. I'll post the rest next time I post. (Because the way I go, I probably won't get another update before next week anyway!)

In case anyone is wondering, I did the frames and words on the pics using a free site called PicMonkey that Kim told me about. I love it! So easy to use. I didn't know about it until after my first pic so that one doesn't have anything.

Well,I think that's everything for now. If you made it through all these pics, thanks! 

(((Hugs)))