Celebrations last weekend! I wrote a full post at my new blog here:
http://groudasfamily.com/nicolesblog/2010/05/celebrations-weekend/

Finally some stitching going on :)

I am very negligent of this blog - but I have recently updated my new blog (which is focused more on the house): http://groudasfamily.com/nicolesblog

And I've done a little stitching, but not much to show yet. I want to at least finish the current motif I'm on before taking a picture but it's all over one so it's a slow going motif. Plus I haven't had a lot of stitching time, I had one stitching day a few weeks ago and that's about it!

2010 Stitching - My Stitching Treasures


Finally some stitching! I got this pattern with the silk threads and charms for my bridal shower from all my friends (they actually paid for a shopping spree for me and this was the top of the list). So New Year's Eve 2009 I pulled it out - around 11:50pm actually and this is my foray back into stitching!

I've now been organizing my sewing room again and getting really into it. New Year's Eve/Day I stitched the outline and then last week I stitched the deer and rabbit. Another night I stitched the flower bush and top left start. Last night I stitched the 3 mini motifs (over 1), the 2 potted flowers and started on a backstitch block.

I love working with silks and this piece is such a wonderful treat. I do hope to continue this until I get bored and then start some other pieces I've had in mind for a while!

Finally a picture!

I framed the baby sampler yesterday - the baby's first birthday just passed so I thought this would be a good gift for her. I decorated the matte a bit because it just looked so plain when it was just white.


in other news we just finished up our vacation last week to celebrate our 1 year anniversary! I can't believe it's been a year already! This time last year I was in Hawaii! Man how things change. This year we spent most of our vacation working on the house.. details with pictures to come of course! We also went down to NYC for 3 days (well really 1 day with travel on the other 2 days). And this week it's back to work and craziness but I'm just holding out for Labor Day weekend when we go camping with the whole family!

A weekend working on the house, socializing and I think life is back to normal again (after vacation).

Last weekend was very productive, as productive as it could be in sweltering heat and humidity! We removed the siding from the driveway side of the house (first story only) where the windows will be replaced once they arrive. This went pretty well actually and now we just have to strip down all the boards we saved.

I've set aside Celtic banner for now (oh... pictures to come because i worked a little more on it last week) and last night while watching TV I picked up my old Knotwork piece - the fishy! The fish itself is finished, so it's just filling in the background with colonial knots but it's relaxing so I'll try to keep at it in my free time (haha!).

And I can't believe July is almost over! This weekend we're going to my sister's house to help work on HER house for a change, I'm looking forward to that (and to seeing my whole family again). And only 2 1/2 weeks left of work until we take a vacation!!! Really looking forward to that!

I just got back from a 3 day vacation in Maine with Sarah. The 3 days included the drive up and back which is significant (just over 4 hours) but we got a lot of stitching done. We decided to continue the tradition of stitching on Celtic Banner which we started together in Maine 4 years ago.

Progress was definitely made!
This is the picture I took after stitching Sunday and Monday:
And this is after stitching on Tuesday:

The piece is getting very long and it's hard to show much of it since it is on scroll rods but it is 4 pages long and we are more than halfway through page 3!

While stitching we listened to Storm Glass by Maria V. Snyder (Glass series book 1). This is the same author (and many of the same characters) as a long time favorite of ours the Study Series. While the story was very interesting the reader was very distracting, mis-pronouncing almost every pronoun which was beyond frustrating. I was however motivated to go back to the Study series directly after and I'm happily more than halfway done with the first book in that series again.

Celebrations weekend!

Well it wasn't as big a weekend for me as it usually is but I just bought a house so I have other things to celebrate as well as xstitch :)

Saturday my friends came up to my house, then we went over and shopped. The shopping turnout was actually a little smaller than usual but we each found something we liked. I usually have a hard time not spending too much but it was actually kind of hard to find things I wanted to buy this time unfortunately :( Our favorite shop was not there again :(

I did however buy 3 things - a french book of fantasy patterns which is adorable, a Scandinavian pattern that I've been meaning to get for a couple of years now to do up as a gift, and a kit which wasn't actually in stock but the shop will mail to me this week. It was the only thing I saw that just grabbed me.

Hopefully next year will be bigger but for now it's good I saved some money because this weekend was pretty expensive. We had to buy a lawn mower finally and mowed the lawn. Sunday I did some more work outside, put up our Compost bin I ordered and moved some dirt to our fill area by the foundation. I also cleaned our demo area up a bit and started doing some paint stripping last night.

I'm really looking forward to next weekend, I believe we're doing all house related activities. It may be the only weekend we're both home to get the framing that's left done and maybe start on the electrical. Then I can work on the rest of the electrical next weekend when my husband is away.

Allergy shots...

So it has been determined that allergy shots would be a good course for me since I suffer from allergy attacks (while taking allegra every day) about 80% of the year. Because pollen season is about to kick in, we are starting very aggressively and I go twice a week for 4 shots! Tonight will be my second time going.

I hate needles, i hate shots, but this isn't so bad (yet anyway). The nurse is quick and efficient and the pain is minimal (although the pain isn't what bothers me).

In stitching news - I stitched the rabbits (they just need eyes and tails) on the baby sampler I'm doing. All that I have left is to chart out the baby name/details and stitch those, then figure out how I want to frame it!

In sewing news, I hope to hem my bridesmaid dress tonight and the second one tomorrow night. I marked mine and determined I need to take 5 inches off! So tonight I'll finally cut it (around the 4 1/2 inch mark and try out my rolled hem foot I bought for my machine.

In other news - well there is no other news :) Time to get some work done and have a very busy evening later!

Happy Ostara!

With stitch night last night I needed to start something new - it has been too long since I stitched! So I started the sampler I'll be using for a coworker's baby sampler (born last august but I was busy with wedding stuff so I gave myself until the baby's first birthday).

Here is the start of The Rabbit Sampler by Elizabeth's Designs:
Stitched on Silkweaver's Everglade on 28ct Lugana. It's the perfect piece for the first day of spring. It's also an extremely quick stitch! All I have left is the bunnies and the baby's details (i'm replacing the alphabet with name/date/weight). I love the colors and the stitches, I can't wait to finish this piece up!

Now i'm going to head outside for a short walk to downtown (have an errand to run) and I really want to enjoy the beautiful weather just a bit :)

Finally pictures!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I completed this a while ago but here are some pictures of the Necessaire from Celebrations - 2008? maybe 2007?

I made some color modifications - using purples instead of pinks was the major change. Here's the back with my initials - see I was unmarried at the time :)
Here it is all opened (the inside) pockets...

And here's the whole outside, please ignore the crease on the front - I couldn't iron it out and I was using silks so I didn't want to use water. It's not that noticeable in person :)
I can't believe how long it took me to get pictures... but finally I'm done and more pictures coming!

Kate's Necessaire (from 2007 Celebrations)..

Picture coming soon but I finally finished this! I spent time on Sunday putting this together and really enjoyed it. It was very relaxing and I'm so happy that this is finally completed!

That ended a weekend of babysitting all three of my little cousins! It was a crazy weekend but they were on their very best behavior and we had a good time baking cookies, playing games and watching movies.

Well work continues to be busy but I'm looking forward to more cross stitch time finally in the evenings!

No news on the house front yet, waiting for the water to be turned on so we can get the inspection, still keeping fingers crossed that we get approved for financing!

Leslie's Neighborhood RR finished and on it's way home! I stitched Little House Needlework's Cherry Tree Inn (modified it a bit). I love this patter and it was a delight to stitch. I chose to do a bunny instead of the person because a person didn't fit in with the rest of the neighborhood.
And here is Leslie's RR to date. She's going to unpick block one and Marie kindly agreed to stitch a house for her there. It's a wonderful neighborhood and a great one to be my last in this group!

Finished my halloween piece :)
This is Scary Carrie - Long Leggz - and she was so much fun to stitch this month! I started this in celebration of Fall and never thought I'd get it done before halloween!

Finally some pictures!

I finished (and mailed) Marie's Halloween NRR to Leslie last Friday. Here is the whole NRR to date:

And here is a close up of the house I stitched.

I stitched Halloween House Sampler by The Drawn Thread.
This was a real pleasure to stitch!

Wow this month is going fast.

I finished up stitching my halloween house on Marie's NRR and will mail that off to Leslie today. I'm hoping to finish Scary Carrie Long Leggz before Halloween and then finish Leslie's NRR to get it back home to her. Pictures are on the camera, just waiting for me to take them off!

That's my stitching world. In the sewing world it's been quite an adventure. I was sewing away on halloween costumes last week and friday night I was hoping to finish the princess dress - however my machine seized up and stopped working! I was up until 2am trying to figure out what was wrong. Alas - the costume is not yet done -but the Zombie one was at least completed.

The good news is that my uncle oiled my machine and it's working again - albeit very slowly but sewing at least! So I'm back to the princess dress and just have to finish the ruffle that goes around the shoulders and the hem of the skirt. My goal is to complete it tonight so I can run it over to them tomorrow night. That will leave just Jasmine for this weekend.

And that is my life lately (outside of work). I did play some Zelda last night - restarted it actually as I got so far and then stopped for so long that I forgot what I was doing so I figured it was safer to restart. I'll probably put about an hour and a half in a week if I have the time.

No camera this week :( I should have a lot of pictures next week to make up for it (hopefully).

Anyway - last night I finished the Zombie costume! With no iron! The seams are not laying as nicely as I would like but it's a costume and I had no iron :) So I'm calling it done.

I also worked on Marie's Halloween NRR last night - not only is the house complete but now I have the trick-or-treaters almost done and the pumpkin tree about halfway done! I should be able to finish this up and get it mailed to Leslie next week. I feel horrible being behind due to the wedding but I think I can then start on Leslie's right away and get that to her quickly too!

Oh yea - and one of my dragon eggs hatched!!!:

Back to my stitching...

Well things have been weird lately - getting a lot of migraines, so the stitching and sewing had pretty much come to a halt (I've been working on Marie's Halloween NRR whenever I could and the house part is almost done!).

Finally last night I started the first of 3 halloween costumes I'm doing for my cousins. The first is a Zombie - I finished the pants and shoe covers. Tonight I'm hoping to do the shirt and maybe get a start on the dress for number 2.

The second costume is the dress that the princess from Enchanted wears towards the end -made out of the rug - that was a fun one to figure out! And that's going to be a tough one to make for a 7 year old.

Lastly is a Jasmine costume - that should be easy - lots of elastic and the fabric was easy to find.

In the mean time - I have sewn the knitted baby shorts together and just need to add the elastic and then they are done. And as I mentioned with stitching - I am working on NRR's exclusively - poor Scarrie Carrie is not yet done :)

Long Leggz progress...

I think I promised a picture.. this is the piece I started to celebrate Mabon 2 fridays ago. She's not getting a lot of attention since I have an RR but she's gotten a little.


Unfortunately I made a boo boo but I think I can work around it so I don't have to undo so any more. I'm okay with leaving mistakes in :)

Now that Brisingr is out I'm re-reading Eragon and Eldest - it's taking up my evening time - but I'm looking forward to getting more and more stitching done as wedding stuff wraps up (last night I finished putting all my photos into albums for wedding and honeymoon) - all I have left is a few more thank you notes to write out!

Now that the honeymoon has been fully documented, it's back to real life. And mostly by real life that means working - and working - and working some more :(

I'm feeling horrible because I'm behind on the Neighborhood Round Robin - it's supposed to be mailed out by Oct 1st and I haven't started!!! I picked out a house and thread last night but was too tired to work on it :( I need to get cracking - I only have this week!

In other stitchy news - I've been knitting here and there and I finally finished the actual knitting on the baby shorts for a coworker that had his baby before the wedding. I now need to block them, sew them together then add the elastic - this is all new to me! But that's not too bad considering how busy I've been lately (I knitted mostly on the plane ride back from Hawaii!).

Also - Happy Mabon! For a Mabon celebration (thanksgiving) my friend came up Friday night and we had pork tenderloin (roasted in bacon!), with mashed potatoes etc... it was yummy! Then we decided to celebrate we would both start a Halloween design - so I picked one of the new patterns I got for my bridal shower - Long Leggz: Scary Carrie by Lavender Wings. Stitching a bit this weekend has gotten my stitching mojo going and I'm ready to start the neighborhood round robin I'm behind on.

I hope to post a picture soon of Long Leggz - she's fun and she's on purple fabric! Now I just need to get back into quilting and I'll feel normal again - but first - I may have some halloween costumes to sew up in October!

Glenna's NRR!

Only about a week late in uploading the pictures :) I stitched Ladybug House by Elizabeth's designs for Glenna - here's my house:

And the whole RR so far - only one spot left!:
I thought I'd be stressed out about this RR since I'd be busy with wedding things but it turned out it perfectly filled some free time I had while house sitting when I couldn't be in my sewing room anyway! What a pleasure to stitch.

In other news - I've continued the go to bed at midnight and get up at 6am ritual so even though I'm working 11-12 hour days at work, I still have a good 4 hours in the evenings to do things around the house. My big project this week has been my wedding dress - I did the bustle on Sunday and I started hemming it Wed night (pinned it up), Thursday night I hemmed the underskirt of the dress and also the separate undergarment I wear to puff out the skirt more. Tonight I will start the actual dress fabric hemming - yikes! The length is perfect though - 2 1/2 inches I have to cut off !

My deadline is to get the dress hemmed and the applique put back on the bottom before Saturday night so I can bring it back home with me!