Hola!!

Hi Everyone,  I'm back.  I took a break and jetted off to Riviera Maya, Mexico with my husband.  It was a business trip, sort of.  He was treated to this vacation for being a top reseller for a company he works with.  It was a lavish vacation with ALL expenses paid which made it even better.  We had quite an adventure and I even crossed something off my bucket list.  I know, too young to have a bucket list but I have a list of things I want to do and one was to zip-line in the jungle canopy.  CHECK!  As you can see from the picture below, Cosmo was not having it.  He slept in my packed bag for 3 days before we left.  Poor baby!  Sorry buddy, no trip to Mexico for you.

Take me with you!

The all inclusive resort, Dreams Riviera

Ocean view room

Pool and Bar area just steps away from the beach

The beach

Shopping in Playa De Carmen

Zip-line into a Cenote

Sunset over the Jungle

I have never stayed at an all-inclusive resort.  It really reminds me of a cruise except you are on land.  We had daily excursion options, activities at the resort, several restaraunts to choose from and lots of umbrella drinks.  We had a great time snorkeling, mini boat tour in the mangroves, ziplining the jungle canopy, shopping in Playa, swimming in the ocean, and great entertainment.  Germany's next top model filmed a fashion show during our stay and they had a great comedian, Steve Zimmerman perform one night.  The weather was a balmy 82 degrees every day.  AAAhhhhhhh!  So with all that being said, we are expecting some snow here today but I will kick back and ponder the wonderful time we had. The only stitching that I accomplished was LK Life's a Beach.  I thought it was perfect for our trip. I stitched it over one on the fabric provided with the recommended flosses.  Easy!





Just a reminder that tomorrow is the drawing for a beaded scissor fob with your intial and I am also giving away 5 sets of beaded counting pins.  If you haven't added your name it's not too late.  I will draw the names tomorrow but you must leave a comment on the previous post.  Thanks for stopping by and as always Happy Stitching!!

Gifties for Friends and Giveaway

 I wanted to share with all of you a couple of gifts I made for friends/followers.  I made this scissor fob for Chris of Tot Hill Farm Stitches when she won a blog contest.  I included lots of black and white themed items and made a co-ordinating scissor fob for her. 

These are glass beaded counting pins that I made for Teresa of Heartfelt Stitches.  I had sent her the Kitty Quilt charts and made these pins for her.  Her favorite color is pink and she loves hearts so I thought she would enjoy these.

So, in the spirit of giving I have decided to make an initial scissors fob for 1 lucky follower as well as 5 sets of counting pins for 5 lucky followers.  Since March is a big birthday month in our family I will draw names on March 1st.  Here's what you need to do.  Become a follower, and leave a comment telling me you would like to enter.  I would love for you to post it on your blog to spread the word.  Do leave your favorite color in your post and be sure I have a way to contact you if you are the winner.  Good Luck and Happy Stitching!

Love and Friendship Exchange

This month I participated in the Stitched with Love Exchange that Lainey organized.  I love exchanges!  Shopping for just the right things, stitching up something sweet and sharing it with a new friend.  Well, I have to say I was so delighted with the exchange I received.  It was completely thoughtful and everything I received was something I would buy for myself.  Carolyn did a fabulous job and I LOVE the little pillow she made for me.  Thank you so much Carolyn.

The gifties I received all beautifully wrapped.

My new treasures

Carolyn sent me the pillow she made, the new LK kit, new DD heart scissors, thread, beads, lovely fabric, hershey kisses, and a wonderful book titled Words for friends to live by.  I love it all!!

Here is a picture of what I sent to my partner Jackie.  Unfortunately she doesn't have a blog but Lainey said she loved her gifties. 

Here is a better picture of the pillow I stitched for her.  It is a Bent Creek design called February glows.  I made it into a pin pillow and attatched heart lace to it.  I included some Puntini Puntini pins to go with it.

I hope everyone that participated in the exchange had as much fun as I did. 

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you are all getting in lots of stitching time.

Goodies in the Mail

Nancy, from Pickle Barrel Designs sent me these charts and they are great.  Love letter is her newest kit and it comes with all of the Sullivan's floss to stitch it.  I have never used Sullivans and I can't wait to give it a try.  She is currently hosting a giveaway on her blog for this kit, so hop on over and leave a comment on her blog post.  Good Luck!

The weather here is dreary.  We are expected to have a couple hours of sunshine before rain moves in again. I'll just keep popping my Vitamin D because there is no way I am getting enough from sunlight.  We are watching a potential storm for the weekend but it looks like the mid-atlantic will get a direct hit.  I hope its just rain, although the kids would love snow. 

Have a great day and Happy Stitching!

Sturbridge Box Progress

Last Saturday was the second installment of the Sturbridge Box Stitcherama with Thea of Victoria Sampler.  The above picture is my progress before class started and the picture below is what I have finished so far.  I really concentrated on the webcast because it went over the finishing of this lovely box. 

I found all of it a little overwhelming and lost my stitching mojo on this project for a couple of days.  But I am forging forward because I DO NOT want another WIP/UFO in my stitching basket.  I have french knots to add to the vine and the box top is done.  There are four sides to the box to stitch and a scissor keep and fob.  If I have enough thread left I will stitch a small pincushion with the quilt motifs you see on the cover.

I did make a small change.  The top had a partial alphabet and I am not fond of using partial alphabets, as much as I love an alphabet on a sampler.  I changed it to read Sturbridge Village and I like the way it turned out.  It will give people some idea of what the design is although it does look like a typical New England town.

I enjoyed the Stitcherama.  It's the perfect setting for learning something new when you can't sneak away to a retreat.  Thanks for visiting and I hope you have a wonderful day! Happy Stitching!

Happy Valentines Day!

This morning I woke to this!  Do you see it??  The tree branches formed to make a heart. The sky was a beautiful brilliant blue.  I told my hubby that I made this valentine especially for him.  Do you think he bought it??  I hope you have all had a wonderful day and that you are surrounded by love not just today but everyday.

Designer Spotlight

Just wanted to share with you that Nancy from Pickle Barrel Designs has started her blog back up.  You can visit her blog here. Hop on over to give her a blogger "welcome back".  I have stitched one of her designs, Capecod Summer and admired many others, like Under the boardwalk and Into the woods to name a couple.  Off to work on the Sturbridge Box,  thanks for stopping by.

WIPocalypse February Update

Wow, a whole month has zipped right by.  Here are the WIPs I worked on this month.  The  1st is Bent Creek's Spring Snapperville.  Sorry about the bad photo but it won't see an iron until it is finished.  I have a little more of the border to stitch and some buttons to add.  I will be happy to have another WIP finish before the end of February.  The other project that I worked on was the Petit Etui block 1.  I finished the Queen stitched flowers and some of the over 1 stitching in the center.  I have the over 1 alphabet and two specialty bands left on the top. 

For tonight, it's back to model stitching!  I have enjoyed visiting all of the WIPocalypse blogs and viewing everyone's progress. Happy Stitching!

Victoria Sampler Stitcherama

Hi Everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend filled with stitching and football. Back in November I signed up for The Sturbridge Box by Thea of Victoria Sampler. It was a Stitcherama which means live webcast. Not only do you get wonderful teaching videos but Thea is available to answer questions through a chat box. I got my kit about a month before the class and did most of the prework which is sorting threads, basting, pulling threads and cross stitching. She has us save the specialty stitches for class. I love this project and had to stitch it because I have chaperoned 3 of my 4 boys on a class trip to Sturbridge. Funny how I have to justify taking another class by finding a personal connection to it. Here are pictures of the kit with fabrics and the prework before I took the class. I haven't had a chance to take a pic of the progress I made over the weekend.  I will most likely post that towards the end of the week as part 2 of the class is this coming Saturday.

I spent yesterday cooking all kinds goodies for the Super Bowl Game.  I made a chili dip, veggies with dip, cocktail meatballs, and mini dogs.  We had a great time snacking and watching the game.  It's hard to get everyone in the same room at the same time so I just enjoyed being surrounded by my family to take in a football game.  To bad the Patriots lost, but they played a great season and all of the players should be proud to have made it that far.  I think the game was well played by both teams and a few missteps led to a victory for the Giants.  I hated seeing the Patriots players hanging their heads and beating themselves up over the loss.  Not necessary since we enjoyed watching them play, right.  My heart goes out to Wes Welker who took his ball drop so seriously.  I am sure it will haunt him for a while.  Better luck next year!!  And besides, the Red Sox will be playing soon enough.

Happy Stitching!

Little House Needlework finishes

In my previous post, I had said that I had a weekend of finishing.  Here are the ornaments that I finished for shop models.  Finishing can be such a process.  I don't have a designated area to do crafting so I have to set up a table, pull all the finishing stuff out (fabric, trims, stuffing, sewing machine, pins, glue, mat board etc)  and then get busy.  Sometimes that process can get in the way of creativity.  Do you ever find yourself thinking, oh I have the perfect fabric for that, or the perfect button for that?  And then, off you go into your stash hunting for it.  You know it's somewhere. In your mind, you know you put it away for safe keeping, but where!  Well, as you can see, a process.  Once that is done,  I have to haul it all back to where it came from.  That is the number one reason why I save many stitched things for a finishing day.  Here are the results.

Thanks for stopping by! Happy Stitching!