Christmas & Gail

I wanted to post about two "Net" buddies, Melinda
and Gail.

Melinda had her home in "Country Home Ideas" around Christmas last year. She has the most divine home with tons of original, vintage roses paintings. In fact, I bought the magazine, tore out all the pictures of her house and put them in my scrapbook without realizing it was Mel's place!

Somehow I haven't saved most of the pictures she sent to me so I have asked her to resend them so I can show her gorgeous home in my next post.
For now I have a couple of pictures of her Christmas table last year.
Mel has even more Christmas trees than me, she is a kindred, crazy Christmas person LOL!




Gail is an absolute darling and one of the most talented, creative people I know. I would love to buy one of everything she has and fill my walls up from floor to ceiling with rose paintings. I don't think hubs would be too thrilled!
I bought this off Gail last night. It is a print of one of her paintings which is on a cupboard door. Jon was fuming when I bought it but as he had just bought an electric guitar he had NO SAY!!!



Jon did actually like this one, although he hates to admit it. He thought it was a very cool idea having a painting on a cupboard door.
Go to Gail's website here to see all her artwork.

A Real Finish :)

I finished stitching this in the morning and figured I'll just finish it off right after since I had the finishing kit. It took me about 4 hours to put together the hardest parts were sewing on the cording and lacing the stitching onto the board (because I didn't want to glue it but I don't know if I'll do the same next time.) Here's another view: Now that it's done I can dedicate my vacation to an old UFO that I want to finish, Victoria's Quaker, Betsy, and Light Your Way, so don't expect any finishes from me any time soon LOL. Here's an update on Light Your Way:
I found this picture the other night while reading In Touch and had to share it. I think it's the cutest!
Now I will go stitch! Thanks for stopping by and thanks to those that leave me comments, especially the new comers!

Stuff.

Sorry, it has been a long time since my last post. I have been very busy with lots of work thanks to "The Secret"!


This was my latest swap, courtesy of Shannon, thanks Shannon!


These are some of the things I sent my partner, Polly from Counting Your Blessings. This photo is courtesy of Polly as I forgot to take any before I sent it as per usual.


This is my package I got from Polly. All of us went into a sugar frenzy! I loved the butterscotch toffees, just divine.
She also sent me the softest, pink cobweb shawl, a pink embroidered tablecloth and a cute cat doorstop. Thanks Polly!




I have been falling way behind with the housework due to working all the time. One day, instead of doing the washing I arranged this kitchen shelf yet again! Click on it to see a close up. I have moved all my Thermos's to the one spot for more impact.

Startitis...

I have a bad case of startitis and we all know what happens when that happens...no finishes! I have an almost finish and I'm really close to finishing it but yesterday I decided to start something new from my newly acquired stash. Here are my latest WIPs
This is how far I've gotten with Victoria's Quaker. I like stitching on it and wish I had more time with it. I stitched on it yesterday at my monthly stitch meet.

This is my work project. It's The Silver Needle's Secret Needle Night for September. It's close to being done and I thought I would finish it on my days off but the project below SCREAMED my name and I just had to start it.
Now this is Light Your Way by Blackbird Designs and it's in the Trix or Treat book which was released in 2005. I wasn't going to stitch this at all but last week when I went to my LNS someone was dropping theirs off and I fell in love with hers so naturally I had to stitch it. The original is done in all black (WDW Onyx) but she changed the colors and it looked so PRETTY! I can't wait to finish mine.

Did anyone see Back To You tonight? I watched it tonight and I can not imagine Kelsey Gramer as anyone but Frasier. I kept waiting for Nyles to come or for him to start yelling about something. I miss Frasier :( Thank goodness for re-runs and TV on DVD.

I made a tough decision today, I'm not going to CATS :( I was excited about going and looking forward to meeting some of the people from my group but there are some things (actually one thing) going on right now that's preventing me from feeling comfortable enough to go away. I feel as though the week of vacation I took off is wasted, I know a bad day fishing beats a good day at work but really right now I rather be at work than at having nothing to do. The only good news about this is that I save money.

Before I forget, I got my square from Tina for the Fair and Square Exchange! It's so pretty :-) She stitched me a tree which has some specialty stitches. The finishing plan for this is hmmm maybe a pinkeep!
Well that's all from me, I have 2 more nights to work and then I'm off for a week. I'll probably try to catch a show during my vacation, I've been wanting to see Wicked or Les Miserables (or however you spell it) or maybe even Hairspray! TTFN!

Some Pics :-)

I put some of my Halloween decorations out, I just couldn't wait. Every store I go into has all the Halloween stuff out so why can't I put out some, right? I'm still looking for a place to put my Halloween Village and I still have to decorate the outside but it'll wait until the end of the month.

I tried my hand at decorating a wreath - it's not the greatest but here it is...my cousin does a GREAT job at making them, unfortunately I think that gene skipped me :(

This is my latest Halloweeny finish :-) I still have to finish my finishes, I've had the time just not the motivation *ugh*

Now here's something I've been wanting to share. The first picture I took of my scissor collection only had 10 scissors. My collection has since grown to 20 and here's a picture of them together :-) (Clockwise starting with the blue pair are Alyssa, Lindsey, regular gingher, Sophia, Julia, Brown Bohin, Maria, Olivia, Ice Cream Swirl, Lanell, Penelope, Ladybug Dovo, Cassandra, Jamie, Blue Bohin, Amanda, Ashley, Silver Dovo's and in the middle from the left are Leah and Cheetah. I do have Bianca on order at my LNS so as soon as she comes out she'll join my scissor family.)

Pretty no? My new scissors include 2 Dovo's, 2 Bohin's, 2 Gingher's and 1 Tooltron and here they are individually (the new ones)

My Bohin's - the blue ones are currently my favorite!

My Dovo's. The ladybug pair are a bit fragile, the coating is starting to rub off :( The silver ones are my most expensive pair (if you don't count the $ I could get if I sold some of my older Gingher's, which I'd never do.) This store had them for $66.50 but was going out of business, sad for them but good for me because I got them at 50% off! Is that a steal or what? They're like 3 pairs of Dovo's that I've been eyeing and may get one of these days. I love scissors! LOL

My basic Gingher's. I love love love the fob I have on them.

My Ice Cream Swirls - purple is my favorite color!

Now for my latest WIPs, I'm not stitching anything Halloweeny right now. I guess I'll start again when I go back to work since they're so easy to carry around in my bag. Anyway on to my WIPs - the top one is Sheepish Designs "Betsy" I stitched on it earlier today and got that Peacock done - I hated it...too much thinking LOL. The bottom one is AMAP's Victoria's Quaker and I'm LOVING it! Well it's late and I'm off to bed. Only 2 more days left of my mini vacation :(

The Secret Doesn't Work For A Fat Ass

You know how I have been on about using The Secret in previous posts? Well it is working really well for making money and finding work. Not so well for loosing some inches off my behind. Of course, the chocolate toffees and iced coffees aren't helping. But The Universe should be able to make those things diet food and adjust its reality to suit my eating habits, right?
Yeah, I know I'm deluded. Now that the weather is getting better it is time to start walking again and adios to my beloved toffees *SOB*


Below are some of the auctions I have running on ebay this week. I am finishing these on a Wednesday this week to try something different.

Wedgwood "Rosehip" frame.


Vintage vanity travel set.

Vintage pink anodised jelly moulds. I collect these and there is a wall in my kitchen full of them. These are some of the "doubles." If you want to see a picture of my wall I think it is in my first or second post, way back when. I have added to it since then.


Love this old set of cups and saucers and that the stand looks kind of like a love heart.


I used the camera software to cartoonise Lucas and one of my auction pictures!

Needed to post this!

I got a pretty cool package in the mail today :-) I actually got two but I wanted to write about this one, I'll talk about the other one later on.
Tomorrow is my birthday *ugh* I usually get a little sad around my birthday for some reason, I don't know why I just do. Anyway I got my first gift today in the mail! I should have waited to open it tomorrow but I never wait to open presents. I got this from Annette :-)
I can pretty much say that everything is this package was wanted! I wanted a Tacky Bob for my Mill Hill kits and check out the little Halloween needle minder - cute, right? The bag is perfect for small projects (I ordered some that were either too big or too small but this one is perfect!) I'm big on Breast Cancer anything so I love that the bag has pink ribbons on it and the JABC is nice too, already have plans for it. The card made me smile too, it says "On your birthday, adding another candle doesn't make you older...it just makes your life brighter."

I do think that's why I get a little sad - I feel like I'm getting older and will run out of time or something, once I'm with my family I feel better, it's always the day before that I feel this way.

On another note, I went to see the Arctic Monkeys again at Central Park. What a nice venue! Almost as nice as McCarron Pool Park, which I'm going to on Saturday for Modest Mouse. I re-learned a painful lesson yesterday - NEVER WEAR FLIP-FLOPS TO A CONCERT IF YOU'RE GOING TO BE IN THE CROWD! I somehow ended up in a mosh pit (it was fun!) but my feet aren't too happy about it. My poor toes are not my friends today.

I got some new scissors that I'll blog about later. I have to update my scissor collection picture because it has GROWN! I'm going to stitch before I get ready for work. TTFN

I Had A Dream...

I had a dream that this particular post would be jam packed with pictures of Halloween pinkeeps, wallhangings, and flatfolds. As of now it remains a dream because I only have 4 pictures to share and two are not Halloween related *sigh*

I went today to buy fabric for some finishes, I matched everything up and piled it up. I took all of my crafty supplies downstairs which was a HUGE hassle, I usually craft in my computer/craft room but Kelly didn't feel like being upstairs so I had to go downstairs *another sigh* btw Joann's did NOT have a big enough selection of fabric as I thought they would so I have to make a trip to The City Quilter for more fabric, no biggie though - I love that store, the people there are so nice!

Well here's my first picture it's of the only finish I managed to get done and took me hmmm 5 hours? I took a break and I had to frog because I sewed the ribbons on too close. I think it looks OK. For some reason my stitching puckers up and I can't find a way to make it un-pucker (is that a word?) I have decided to give it away, Kelly wants me to keep it but I really want to give it to someone. I just have to stitch some "smalls" i.e. a pinkeep and scissor fob because those are the only "smalls" I know how to make LOL. Well without further delay here's Amitie finished into a tray...please let me know what you think!


Next is something I thought I'd show you finished into an ornament but it's not, maybe next week, when I'm off, my dream can come true. I finished the witch design of Just Nan's Crowjackers. It has some mistakes that I'll fix before I make it into an ornament, just the crow's beak and I forgot to backstitch her hate. It was mostly stitched at work and on the train - these are PERFECT for the train! I don't know if I'll stitch the pumpkin or move onto Moonriders.

Oh and this is a picture I've been wanting to share for a while, it's of some if not all of my Halloween finishes since I started stitching. I know at least two are missing. I can't wait to finish some of them to display for Halloween! If not this year then next year right :-)

And last but not least a picture of my new WIP, I figured that for now I'll stitch on something non-Halloween so I won't get bored, although I DOUBT that could ever happen LOL. It's Sheepish Design's "Betsy."

I'm stitching it on the recommended fabric which I think is 35ct (I think) R&R hand-dyed something with DMC floss. I bought the VC silk conversion silks but I don't know if it's because of what I heard about them that I don't like them or if it's because I just really don't like them. My stitches don't lay like Amitie or Fright so who knows. Plus I think I need some plain old DMC in my life right now. With work and my frequent hand washing, my hands are just not silk friendly right now.

Well it's late or early whatever you want to call 4am it's that. I'm going to bed, I'm going to a concert tomorrow (and Saturday!) and would like to be rested for when I go to back to work Thursday. TTFN!