Thank you for all the comments on Going To Market, it was one of the first pieces that ever caught my eye and I still can't believe that it's finished - it really stitched up quite fast, probably because the background is all half stitches.

Last night was an organizing night, the apartment is a mess right now but I moved SO much stuff down into the basement after vacuuming it thoroughly to de-spider it. Our christmas tree and decorations, car cleaning/fixing supplies, winter boots and wear, folding table/chairs, empty boxes (for when we move again), unused books and just stuff taking up room is now organized nicely in the two closets in the basement.

I didn't get to the second step which is vacuuming the apartment and reorganizing my closet and the kitchen closet now that there's more space but this weekend I can get to that, i'm just happy to have STUFF moved. It will be much easier to keep things clean when there's room to store it all. And the basement is in decent shape, I wouldn't mind buying some furniture for down there if the need ever arose but hopefully with only a year to go in this apartment, we'll be okay.

No stitching last night, we went out to dinner when I got home and then I spent the entire evening moving things - good exercise on the stairs though :) I finally crashed while reading - this is the second time I've tried to start "Sixpence House" but I keep falling asleep. I should really try starting it before 10pm at night.
Dentist appointment today at noon :( That just puts a damper on the entire morning right there!

FINISHED...

I finished her up on the drive home thursday evening, amazingly it was still light out when we left (7:40) so I was able to stitch until she was done and then read for a while too.

It was a long weekend - but lots of fun, my car's engine light is out again - hopefully for a long while after they finally fixed the correct problem, and I even made it to my stitch night for an hour as I'd hoped before going home to pack and leave. Friday was setup for my family reunion and saturday was a nice relaxing just hang out with family day, sunday too actually and then we drove home and crashed as I was exhausted - all that sun too!

Monday after spending the day doing hardly anything, I picked up my stitching and worked on Mini Cottages II:

Unfortunately I started the mountain on the left and after using an entire strand realized I was stitching in the wrong direction! Had to pull it all out and start over but I did manage to finish the mountain and start the sky before being too tired to even stitch!

I finished a great book this weekend - The Red Tent, which I truly had no idea what it was about when I started it. It was great though and now I'm either going to read Sixpence House or something else entirely, I haven't decided yet as I have a ton to choose from.

So the house is a mess (really need to vacuum) and not much is getting checked off my must do list but it was a great weekend and I'm completely ready to start Kindom Sampler next week now since Going To Market is finished. I think Monday night is a good night to stitch Kindom Sampler, and if I end up missing out on monday night I always have wednesday night to make it up, then I will stitch Mini Cottages II and some other projects during the rest of the week. I just might try out this rotation thing!

SO close! Really - Going To Market is just about done, I just have to backstitch the black line up the back of the woman's dress and the back arm. If I go back to the car dealership today I can finish it up there probably! Then what to do!

This weekend is nice and long with friday and monday off but there won't be much stitching until maybe monday. It's our family reunion so friday I will be back home helping clean/cook/shop for saturday and saturday will be all family - sunday morning too. Then we'll probably come back later sunday. I'm really looking forward to a good weekend.

So yesterday I got my car fixed in the morning - the check engine light was on and it makes a wierd hum noise when I drive, so they "fixed" it for 230 dollars - alright - not breaking the bank but that's a LOT for a 20 dollar part I could have replaced in 30 minutes max. However the noise is not gone and yesterday when I started up my car again the light was back on! So whatever it is they didn't fix it at all! So now I have to call them and see what my options are - I need my car to drive back to NY tonight so my only shot is going to the dealer this afternoon around 3:30 after work and probably missing stitch to see my friends! I am a little mad as who knows how much more I will have to pay now but I will definitely be asking for a discount since I have to come back!

A very good monday!
I couldn't have asked for a better day yesterday - work went really well, then I got home and managed to make the meatballs for the potluck on wednesday (no cooking for tonight then!) and dinner. Then I settled in and watched last weeks alias on abc.com which they just happened to offer for free! It was great!
Then I stitched - and stitched some more all through alias (which was very good!). I made a lot of progress on the background on Going To Market - I have only one more background color to do and then all the backstitching! Very possible I can finish this by the end of the month with memorial day off.

Unfortunately the good ended there - I ended up with a migraine last night which made sleeping rough and just had a bad night in general. I guess it's to be expected from staying up late to watch alias but I'm worn out today. Just counting the minutes until lunch when I can work on GTM again for a bit!

Getting There...

I worked on Going To Market a bit on sunday - finished the little boy and started the circles in the woman's dress which are going to take forever! I will do the background starting at lunch today so the backstitching is last as there isn't that much left to do besides all the circles!


That was it for stitching time this weekend, Friday night was a waste - traffic was so bad because part of i-90 was shut down so I didnt' get home until 8 or something (that included a quick stop at joann's) and then I did nothing. Saturday we visiting family and had a great time leaving to come home sunday morning. So sunday I wound floss and then stitched while watching the rest of season 1 of profiler and starting season 2.

Before bed I got out all the floss needed for Kingdom Sampler - except the WDW color which I need to get probably on thursday. I also went through the fabrics I had bought for this piece and I've widdled it down to two options:

The one I'm leaning towards is a Silkweaver Solo - 32ct:

It's a light pink with some sandiness to it and some light light greenish greys spotted throughout. I thought it would give a nice sunset look to the sky and the greens/greys of the mountains would work nicely. I just have to check the WDW on this. Sorry about the pictures I did this at night so I had no sunlight option.

And the second one is Silkweaver Golden Promise - 32ct:

It's mostly a golden sandy color with some lighter patches. I bought it thinking it had some pinks in it but it didn't really. I do like it however and it's a tough choice. If i'm daring i will go with number 1 but number 2 is a safe choice I think.

So Carol and I will be starting Kingdom Sampler soon! I'd really like to finish up Going To Market which I *think* i can finish by the end of this month. Mostly because I'd also like to start another new piece in June as well as Kindom Sampler so I have to get into a rotation of sorts, we'll see how it goes! But I am getting excited :)

And the stitching continues, I worked on Going To Market last night at stitch and got the woman's feet all finished so she is officially finished besides backstitching and french knots, and the boy is started. I'm really looking forward to working on this at lunch today and this weekend when I can. After this is finished up I will measure all my pieces waiting for frames and start ordering them so I can frame them all. This one will get a nice brightly painted wooden frame, even if i have to paint it myself! I also have Legends of the Dragons, It's Winter and Green Old Gardens waiting for frames. Legends will need a special order frame as will Going To Market but i haven't measure Green Old Gardens yet so I might be able to get one at ACMoore.

I'm really looking forward to this weekend, I will get to see my cousins (the 3 girls) and get my oil changed in my car which has been bothering me but with all the rain I just couldn't do it, my uncle has a garage though so even if it's raining I can take care of it! And Sunday I plan on stitching plenty!

Tonight - a trip to Joann's for some fabric for finishing! Now to just get through the work day :)

Going To Market still moving along - slowly :)

This has basically become my focus piece because I realized how close I am to finished! I will work on this at stitch tonight and any time i have tomorrow and this weekend :) I'd like to have it finished before my family reunion next weekend but i'm not 100% sure that will happen as there's a lot of backstitching to do still.

Carol is getting ready to start our next SAL together - we're going to stitch Kingdom Sampler, she needs a few more weeks - probably early June so hopefully I can have Going To Market finished up and rotate between Peaceful Silhouette at work, small projects, Mini Cottages II and Kingdom Sampler as my main piece - with how fast Carol stitches who knows if I'll even keep up this way :)

I bought some fabric for this piece a while back - it's sandy colored with some pink hues - going for a sunset look in the sky I think - I will get all the threads together this weekend and do a floss toss for a final decision on the fabric and post a picture!

Once that piece is started I have another one I want to start - maybe try to finish Mini Cottages II first? It's one I want to do as a gift for my aunt for christmas maybe - we'll see!

Finally i remembered to take a picture!


That is the piece from the saturday night event at celebrations. I only tied up 2 corners so you can get the idea, with all 4 tied up it's a little bown but untied it lies flat so it fits in a stitching bag easily :) I think it's very cute and besides cutting the brown out of the threads I used I didn't alter this piece at all.

I finally picked up going to market again last night while watching profiler. So I started the little boy and hope to work on that piece the next few nights as well as Peaceful Silhouette at work at lunch time :) Back into a regular thing hopefully.

Rain rain go away!

It is still raining - although down here it's not fully raining, just misty and cloudy with some fog mixed in. Our basement is not leaking as badly as last year but it is wet in some places and moist all over. My landlord has a dehumidifier going as always but this makes me worry about moving any of my stuff down there - especially my snowboard.

Anyhow - I forgot to take a picture last night but I finishe the Saturday Night Event piece from Celebrations yesterday. It's very cute and I do think it will come in a little bit handy when I travel to hold stitching things or jewelry and yet you can carry it flat so it doesn't take up space :) Picture to come shortly for sure!

Other stitching news - I started the appleseed needlecase by Jeannette Douglas and it just did not go well - I started with the center stitches and then I moved the the border which is when I realized the very center stitch kind of overlaps the two around it so my piece is off by 2 threads and I'm not sure yet what I will do. Most likely since it's 2 threads I will just fudge it and make it work and my needlecase will be two threads larger. I just have to make sure it won't matter in the long run!

The only problem with the needlecase is that there are no finishing instructions so I will have to figure out myself how I want to finish it which makes it a little less likely to get done :) We'll see how it goes. I think for now i'm going to pull out Going To Market and Peaceful Silhouette and get back to them for a bit this month!

Today is bbq day at work with our new grill - we have a canopy so the rain can't stop us and it will be a feast. I made 2 desserts last night - a boston creme pie (cake) and a chocolate silk pie. YUMMY!

Finally some pictures!

What a rainy weekend! The floods I am watching on the news are just horrible! Luckily it hasn't affected us badly, i have to check the basement again but saturday it hadn't let water in yet so I think we're good.

So this weekend was great, friday night I went shopping and bought some new clothes - for some good deals, unfortunately i need some sunny weather to wear them! Then saturday I got a manicure and pedicure with my friends, then out to dinner and acmoore - a day couldn't be better :)

Sunday I got some cards made (much overdue) but fun and I left it all out as I have a few more cards to make still. Then I picked up my stitching and worked on the Saturday night event piece from celebrations, no picture as i'm almost done so I'll save the picture till it's finished.

Here's the finished C of A's Pyn-Pillow from my class with minor modifications:


And the woven butterfly (sorry about the picture quality, when i make it into a pillow it will look better):


And 2005 Celebrations pieces, the Tiffany's SweetBag scissorcase from my class and Wendy White's Needlecase from the round robin:

Another good night for stitching! I will definitely have to post some pics soon. I finished the woven butterfly last night! It's ready to be made into a little pillow (decoration type) for my aunt for christmas. It was a good project to work on last night at stitch considering the headache I had from missing lunch. I ended up getting a migraine and the night was just not fun. I read for a little while and went to sleep (this was all after stitch).

I'm hoping tonight is better - I'm going to do some shopping with some coupons I have and tomorrow I might be getting a manicure/pedicure which would be great fun (with some friends). Other than that I hope to have some time to do some finishing this weekend as the list is growing:

Frame a piece for my sister (includes cutting mats)
Cut mats for a project for my mom
Make butterfly pillow (if i have the right fabrics)
Make Pyn-Pillow
Finish and make basket pin.
stitch and make scissor fob? to match pyn-pillow

And that's just recent projects - I have a bunch I could work on :)

Pyn-Pillow is finished (stitching wise) - I worked on it last night during Alias, I actually changed it so it doesn't say C of A or the backstitched words, it just has the satin stitch continuing around. I will try to remember to take a picture this weekend and post it.

Work has been pretty busy today and I forgot to eat some lunch so now i'm suffering a headache and have some ice cream cake but no time to go out and get lunch. Hopefully I can make up for it with a good dinner out with my friends tonight at stitch.
Back to work.

And Pride & Prejudice is finished! So I got home by 8 last night just in time to watch the finale of Gilmore Girls - not a huge fan of the finale that's for sure!
However then I picked up Pride & Prejudice again and finished it just in time to get to bed. I have to say this is if not my favorite book, definitely up in the top 5. I started by listening to it on tape but it got too good to only listen in the car and since I own the book I started alternating and finally reading more than I was listening ;)

This morning I started "Emma" on tape, I don't think I own this one so I hope I don't get to the same point or else I will be making a trip to the bookstore :) Speaking of bookstore - I have a bunch of new books on order now with an amazon gift card, I think 7 new books.

Right now I'm reading "the Mermaid Chair" which was a birthday gift from my sister. It's by Sue Monk Kidd, the author of The Secret Life of Bees which I thoroughly enjoyed and this one is keeping my attention just as well. The list of books I HAVE to read is just growing at an enormous rate and I've overgrown my new bookcases again, soon I will be packing up books to go into the basement so I have more room for the books I want to read or reccommend!

As for stitching - I stitched a TINY bit yesterday at work - a little on C of A's Pyn-Pillow and then I worked on the "wrapped" butterfly piece from the last stitcher's hideaway I attended. I started weaving the butterfly and it's going pretty quickly. I may work on that at stitch thursday and maybe tonight too. -- Ah - back to work!

My first yoga class.

We tried out a yoga class at work today - went really well, it was kind of easy, I'm usually more of a challenge person but it was relaxing for sure.

Last night I got nothing i had planned done, I worked until almost 8 and when I got home I was at such a good part of Pride & Prejudice (on tape) that I couldn't stop so I grabbed my book from the shelves and started reading - and it was SO hard to put the book down at 11pm that I'm amazed still that I didn't just stay up all night reading :)

This morning it was back to the tape version and I think tonight might be another reading night but I really need to get my card making supplies out as tonight is my last chance at home until the weekend!

Celebrations!

Oh man where do I even begin - what a great weekend ;) Thursday night at stitch was great too and I worked on Peaceful Silhouette finishing up the bottom left corner so I can work on the boat next. Evidently my boyfriend wants it as a graduation gift next year so he can hang it in his office at whatever job he has - :( Kind of want it hanging at home but we'll see :)

So Friday I took the day off and got things done, my sister came up and we stitched, I worked on projects from Celebrations 2005 and finished up the Wendy White Needlecase and the Tiffany's Sweetbag Scissorcase, I will try to post a picture of those tomorrow as I need to use the camera for those.
Then I stitched up an ornament for the ornament tree (sorry no pic) which was auctioned off.

Saturday was the big day and we headed up early to get some shopping in - which I took full advantage of - getting my first punchneedle project to try as well as a punch needle, an embroider kit and some patterns. Then my sister and a friend and I went to our class - C of A's Pyn-Pillow:

It was a great class and I thought it would be just blackwork but it has pulled work in it as well and queen stitches so it was a real treat. This is the progress I made after also working on it Sunday night.

Then we went to dinner and to the saturday night event. Sunday however we went to the round robin and oh man - it was great - I loved all 4 projects and already finished the stitching on one:

I stitched it over one so I could add my name and then I will add a border too and make it into the pin as directed. It's stitched with Olde Willow Stitchery linen hand dyed threads - which I have to say I am not in love with - the linen thread frays very easily and starts to look puffy. Maybe it's because I stitched it over one but I really don't like the look and I wish I had switched it to DMC instead.

I hope to finish both of these projects as well as all 3 of the other round robins and the wendy white round robin I bought that matches the one I finished from last year. Plus the project from the saturday night event is cute. So hopefully this month I will have a lot of little finishes :)

So sunday I started beading - we went to acmoore and i bought more beading supplies and found a kit to make a necklace so when i got home i made the necklace and then 2 pairs of earrings to give as birthday gifts. I have a few more I need to make but now I have a start on beading. I'd like to get out my card making stuff tonight and get some long overdue cards done as I just haven't had the time to get it all out but I think I do now :) Hopefully more pictures to come tomorrow!

YEAH! Only half a day to go until my celebrations weekend starts :)

Tonight I have stitch night with all my friends - totally psyched about getting to go to that at 6 instead of after my class! Then tomorrow my sister comes for a day of stitching, so tonight and tomorrow morning I will do some cleaning (just some quick vacuuming and maybe organizing and putting some stuff in the basement if I can).

Then friday - it's all about stitching after my sister arrives! And the weekend too! I am super excited (is that showing yet).

And to top it off my morning at work is going very well and I think I can get quite a bit more done before I leave at 5 today and therefore have no worries work related this weekend!

I worked on Peaceful Silhouette a little at lunch yesterday and hope to today as well and probably tonight at stitch, then that will get put away until next week, but I'm happily moving along on the bottom left corner of the piece filling in the weeds so I can get to the boat next.

This weekend I will pull out my old celebrations WIPs and work on those and then my new stuff. If i get bored i have Mini Cottages II to keep me company. Soon though that will have to get put aside for Going To Market to get pulled back out and ?finished maybe!!!
Alright - time to figure out what to do for lunch.

I wish every monday was like yesterday - not only did I get up and run, but I also went for a walk in the afternoon, then I stitched at lunch time on Peaceful Silhouette (I'm really liking this piece again), and when I got home my boyfriend was making dinner.

After I did cleanup from dinner and made the chocolate zucchini muffins to bring to work today I stitched while watching some old alias episodes. So I got to work a little on Mini Cottages II before heading to bed to read a bit. I got a little bit of everything in yesterday.

Today is not going so great - I didn't run this morning (with the promise to myself that I'll run tonight while watching gilmore girls) and it's raining so I won't walk today either. I will however not eat ice cream cake like yesterday either!

Now to make my breakfast!

A very good weekend!

First after working from home friday my friends and I went and got our nails done! It was great. Then Saturday my friend and I went shopping for some new clothes before going to a concert with the whole group, 2 of my friends were in the concert. It was a great day and evening and I'm looking forward to this summer when they will have outdoor concerts every tuesday.

Sunday I finally got a little stitching done and my boyfriend and I went out and sat in the park for a while, enjoying the great weather. It was a perfect weekend I must say!

And I even have an updated picture of Peaceful Silhouette - I hit the bottom of the picture finally and started filling in the "weeds" along the bottom. I'd like to get the bottom done across to the boat and then do the boat next before moving to the right half of the piece:


5 more days till Celebrations!

May Goals:

1) Tie baby quilt
2) Cut binding for baby quilt
3) Work on Tiffany's Sweet bag needlecase
4) Work on Peaceful Silhouette
5) Work on Going To Market - start boy
6) Work on Mini Cottages II
7) Stitch blackwork piece from celebrations
8) Stitch round robin piece from celebrations
9) Get Kingdom Sampler ready to start??

Looks like it's going to be a busy month!

April Goals Wrapup:

1) Finish Mercedes' Teapot RR and mail off [YES]
2) Work on Going To Market, finish the top half of border [YES]
3) Get the buttons for my SB RR [Nope]
4) Frame my Shepherd's Bush Month RR pieces so they can be
swapped out each month. [Nope]
5) Work on Peaceful Silhouette [YES]
6) Piece baby quilt together and tie [Pieced - not tied yet]

Plus I started a Michael Powell piece!
Not too bad!