Welcome Spring???

Spring is technically here according to the calendar, but I think someone forgot to tell Mother Nature that.  It is sunny but cold here.  Saturday it is supposed to be around 50 degrees.  The weatherman is saying a winter storm is moving in for Sunday.  Now in Cincinnati a winter storm could mean anything.  Right now it means rain to snow with possible significant accumulations of snow Sunday night into Monday morning.   Again in Cincinnati "significant accumulations" could be 1"-5" of snow.  In my book that is NOT a significant accumulation. 

 

I have wishful thinking that Spring is on its way.  My daffodils are ready to bloom.  I see more critter activity outside.  Nature is slowly waking up.  I took this the other day.  He was sitting there just as quiet and peaceful as could be eating his nut. 

 

 

 

I hung up this wonderful banner that my Secret Stitcher gave me on the front door.  Maybe it will help bring on Spring. 

 

 

Below are the other wonderful items that my Secret Stitcher included in my Spring gift.  Can't wait to stitch the chart.  The flower set is a pad of paper and the stem is an ink pen...FUN.  Believe it or not I have not eaten the chocolates...yet.  I love these, especially the white chocolate ones.

I have been doing a little Easter stitching.  No matter how hard I tried I could not get any good pictures of these two.  I used the new camera in several different places in the house and my cellphone.  Still could not get a good picture.  You get the gist though.  They are really cute.  My favorite is the first one.  If I stitch the second one again, I will use different linen.  The chart came with the linen.  They are both Lizzie Kate designs. 

I have also been plugging away at my John Foster Sampler.  A group of ladies in my Sampler Guild are doing this as a SAL.  I have worked ahead quite a bit....bad me.  I just wanted to see how my colors were going to work out (yes I changed some of my colors) and I am enjoying watching it come alive.  I made a new blog friend due to this sampler.  Her name is Barb from the Wicked Stitcher blog.  She had stitched John Foster and I loved her color changes.  She so kindly shared with me what she had changed and the linen she used.  I used many of her color changes and a few of my own.  I am using a different linen than she did, so I needed to change a few colors to work better with my linen.  Thank you Barb for being so generous and sharing the changes you made. 

Since it is going to snow again in a few days I thought I would share with you a couple pictures I took during the last snow we received a couple of weeks ago.   The last snow was the first snow day my girls have had all year.  By the next day most of it was melting away.  No, the below picture does not belong to a bear....LOL 

 

It belongs to this silly girl who is desperatly waiting for warmer weather and longer walks.   Poor Indigo Rain.  What a sad face.  

 

I was sitting in our home office and looked out the window and just thought this was such a pretty picture. 

 That is all for today.  Thanks for letting me share.

Love, Light and Happiness,

Christie



Valentine's Day

Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day yesterday.  It was uneventful for us.  My girls had the day off school (as they do today and Monday for mid winter break).  Hubby worked late so we ran to Subway to pick up some dinner.  Before he left for work in the morning he left me carnations in three different colors (my favorites), a Cadbury milk chocolate bar (also my favorite) and a little stuffed puppy.  I bought him three packages of Nutter Butters, a card, a Mylar balloon and......the same stuffed puppy.  We both had a good laugh when we saw the puppies.  He said he had two other stuffed animals in his hand but put them back when he saw this little guy.  Guess after 26 years we are starting to think the same...ha, ha, ha

 



In honor of Valentine's Day I put some pictures on Facebook of when hubby and I were in the early years of dating in high school.  This is one of my favorites.  Oh do I wish I still looked like that and was that young again (I was 16 or 17 and he was 18 or 19 in this photo).

My oldest daughter has a wonderful new boyfriend.  He is the sweetest guy and treats her so well....okay he down right spoils her...LOL  They have been dating for a month.  He is in his first year of college, she is a junior in high school.  Both are extremely smart.  Last night he took her to the Cincinnati Observatory for their Valentine's Day night under the stars.  He is taking her to a behind the scenes day at the Cincinnati Zoo on Saturday.  He showed up at the door with a rose in hand.  They were so cute all dressed up. 

 

I got a wonderful Valentine's gift from my secret stitcher.  It all came in this really, really cute tin.  I just love hearts.  The socks were worn yesterday.  The sweets are being eaten and I can't wait to stitch something with the yummy threads.  I am sure I have something Valentine/heart related I could stitch....LOL.  Why yes I believe there is a whole file folder of freebies...tee hee hee.

 

 

We received an unexpected 3" of snow on Wednesday.  Unfortunately most of it was gone by the next day.  It was so beautiful coming down.  Yes, I am a snow freak and have been know to wake the whole house up in the middle of the night to tell them all it is snowing and come look out the window.  No, they don't really seem that enthusiastic at 2:00 a.m.  This is a picture I snapped from my bedroom window looking out into the neighborhood. 

 

 



I do so miss having a real winter with lots of snow.  Spending my first 10 years living in the East was filled with lots of fun snowy winters.  We did get more snow the first several years of living in Cincinnati then we do now, but with the weather patterns shifting the past few years we are now getting little teasers of snow, rain, and intermittent Spring like days all winter.  No wonder we all have sinus issues.  My daffodils are already coming up.  Oh well, guess I need to start thinking about Spring stitching.

 

Love, Light and Happiness to all,

 

Christie





Birthday

This past Saturday was my birthday.  We did not do much since my oldest daughter was coming off a week long stomach virus and hubby was starting with the flu.  We did manage to go to a bookstore and I got a couple of quick reads by Diane Mott Davidson (the caterer Goldy Schulz series)  and order a battery & charger set for the camera he bought me for Christmas.  He also bought me some flowers and cupcakes.  This weekend we are going to my parents house to celebrate my niece's birthday (Jan. 13th) and my birthday.  We have not been able to find a time for us all to get together until then.  

 

While at Stitchaway (see previous post) several of my good friends gave me early birthday gifts.  Needless to say I was spoiled rotten again by these wonderful ladies. 

From Linda who shares the same birth date with me I got some beautiful Victorian Motto threads.  She said it was my ice cream sundae since all the color names sound like they are from the soda shop.

Lisa (The Inspired Stitcher) stitched me this wonderful pillow.  She is a fantastic seamstress and I am always very honored when she gives me something she has made. 

Marsha (Everybody Loved Clark) gave me a little pouch filled with different threads, a little pin ball and a sewing kit.  I love red and was very happy with all the red things.  Marsha was my secret stitcher last year and sent me some fantastic things. 

Patti (no blog) is our frog lady.  She loves frogs and whenever any of us sees something "froggy" we think of her.  She stitched me this button frog that is a magnetic needle keep.  She also gave me this neat scissor holder and scissors. 

 

 

 

My secret stitcher this year left an anonymous bag on my seat at Stitchaway when I was off someplace else (probably shopping...LOL).  The candle is lemon mint and smells wonderful.  The lotion is fabulous.  I wish you could see how pretty the mosaic is on the candle holder.  The chocolate did not last long.  I love anything milk chocolate with caramel or opera cream.  I did share with my kids and hubby.  

 

 

 

I have been wrestling with the tummy bug my oldest daughter had last week and taking care of hubby with his respiratory flu, so I have not been very productive this week.  I have done a tiny bit of stitching and will post something about that soon.

 

This weekend is the annual Super Bowl sale at the LNS.  We have the monthly stitch night there on Friday, so I may come home with something I just could not live without.  I still have twelve dollars left of my Christmas money that I did not spend at Stitchaway that is burning a whole in my pocket...LOL

 

Be back soon with a stitchy update.

 

Christie

Stitchaway

 

 

Over Martin Luther King weekend our local LNS (Keepsakes Framing & Floral) had its annual Stitchaway weekend at Hueston Woods State Park. Well, it is actually a little longer than a weekend. Some go as early as Wednesday night. I went on Thursday morning. We stay until Sunday morning. It is a great weekend filled with nothing but stitching, laughing, spending time with friends old and new and....SHOPPING.  Yes, the owners of the LNS bring a ton of items and set up an annex with six different trunk shows along with bins of 50% off items and various other things for us all to drool over and purchase. 

 

 

I was especially excited over the Stacy Nash trunk show.  I just love her designs.  I did not come away with too many because I actually own quite a few already...LOL.  I did however find many other things to spend my Christmas money on.  The bottom picture has two charts that I got the day I left for Stitchaway.  They were part of my Christmas gifts from my hubby.  They were on back order.  The chicken kit was in the 50% off bin and he just made me smile so of course he had to come home with me.

 

 

Below is a shot of the conference room where we spent our weekend.  There were some folks who took advantage of stitching in other parts of the lodge (like in front of the huge fireplace in the lobby area).  One of the days I wore my Guard Mom shirt that I got when my youngest was part of the color guard in marching band this past Fall.  It had the name of the high school on it.  This is the same school that my hubby & I graduated from.  The lady in the bottom picture called me over one evening and asked me if I went to school there and remembered this particular math teacher.  Well, guess what....it was her.  She was my math teacher in high school.  What a small world.   

 

The owners of the LNS are so wonderful to all of us.  They provide a pizza dinner on Friday nights, they put goodie bags with free charts and snacks together and on Saturday nights they usually have other goodies for us.  Last year they had a theme for the weekend which was strawberries.  This year was hearts.  We had several "make it & take its" and our snacks were put into this great photo box.  Along with all of this one of the girls made heart necklaces for everyone there.  There were 86 of us.  All the necklaces were different. 

 

 

 

 

We also have a show 'n tell on Saturday night. There were some fantastic stitching that was shown. Below are just a few examples of what was there. Remember I said last year was strawberries? Well, several of the girls stitched their strawberry chart but added their own little twist to make it more personalized.   The frames they are in were part of the gift from last years retreat.  I still have to get mine stitched.  I know what a slacker...ha, ha, ha.

 

 

 

 

 

I did not get a ton of stitching in this year, but did get some done.  I started and finished this BBD chart and started on the La D Da Star Pouch.  The rest of the time I worked on my John Foster sampler border (more on that at a later time).  

 

 

 

It was a long, wonderful weekend that I look forward to every year.  What a great way to start a new year!!

 

Christie

 

 

 



 



A Little Stitching

I have some stitching to show for the month of December.  The first one I started around Thanksgiving and finished it about two weeks later.  I decided to include it in my December stitching since that is when it was finished.  I really enjoyed stitching this one. 



 

"Ornamental Joy"

Country Cottage Needleworks

32ct. Country Mocha Belfast

DMC & WDW threads

 

 This next one is a freebie I have had in my stash for a long time.  My oldest daughter has wanted me to stitch this for her.  I finally broke down and stitched it.  The picture is a little light.  I will have to use the new camera hubby bought me for Christmas instead of my phone next time.  Also pardon the wrinkles, I was not in the mood to get the iron out when I took these pictures.

"Sammy Snow cone"

Stitchy Kitty

32ct. Antique Blue Belfast

DMC threads

 The last two came from past issues of JCS ornament magazines.  The first I think is from the 1998 issue and the second is from the 2000 issue.

 "Christmas Joy"

Little by Little

32ct. scrap

Called for threads

 

 

I made two changes on this one.  I did not do the extra stitch of red/copper in the border and I changed the sheep's body color to DMC 3033.

 



"All is Calm"

Little by Little

36ct. Vintage Examplar (Lakeside Linens)

DMC threads

 

I think I may go back and finish the satin stitches and attach the beads/charms on my Lizzie Kate Halloween Mystery Sampler now.  If I don't get it done soon it will go into the UFO pile and may not see daylight for a long time.  I am going to be starting a new sampler  in the next couple of weeks by Historic Stitches called "John Foster" . A group of ladies in my Sampler Guild are doing this as a SAL so I thought I would join along.    Of course I have another sampler I am chomping at the bit to get started called "Francis Pool" by With Thy Needle & Thread.  Hubby let me order it as a Christmas gift from him (he refuses to order things online...LOL).  It has not come yet.  I am sure I will get that started soon also.  Nice thing is the John Foster sampler is being broken down into monthly assignments so I should be able to do other things in between.

 

Happy Stitching!!

 

Christie

 

December

WOW is December really gone???   What a whirlwind it has been.  I thought, since I have been out of work, that things like Christmas shopping, wrapping gifts, cookie making, etc.. would be easier and I would be ahead of the game.  Guess what...I was more behind this year than ever.  I finished shopping, wrapping and made 5 different kinds of cookies and peanut butter fudge three days before Christmas.  I did have a lot of my shopping done before this but still had plenty to do the week before.  In the end we all had a wonderful Christmas.  I was completely spoiled rotten by my hubby, daughters and by the rest of my family. 

I did attend our annual sampler guild's Christmas party.  It was a very nice lunch with lots of wonderful surprises.  There is a general ornament exchange and a secret stitcher ornament exchange for those that participated in the year long secret stitcher program.  It is on the day of the party that secret stitchers reveal who they are.  One of my good friends, Marsha was my secret stitcher this year.  She really sent me some wonderful things.  Below is the last thing she gifted me with for December.  I was floored when I opened my package and saw the chart with all the threads.  Talk about being spoiled.   Unfortunately a couple of my good friends could not make the Christmas party this year and were missed terribly.  Marsha has some good pictures from the party here including a great picture of Linda in her Christmas headband and picture of some of us (including me on the right side on the end).  Lisa also has some good pictures here and here.

 

The Christmas party committee had some wonderful gifts for each of us this year.  We each got a stitched snowman jar with candy inside.  A packet of charts, some threads and the cutest little notebook for our stitching bags.  I also won one of the door prizes which contained a thread holder, some threads and a $5.00 gift certificate to Wasatch Needlecraft (a new to me online store). 

 

 

 

I also received some wonderful gifts from my friends. 

 

From Marsha (aka my secret stitcher) we received a cute basket, WONDERFUL smelling votive, mint tin and overdyed floss.

 

 

From Lisa (The Inspired Stitcher) we received a Whitman's tin (yes there was, key word on was, chocolate in the tin), threads and chart to make a fob and pin cushion to go inside the tin.

 

From Linda (my birthday buddy - we share the same birth date) I received this super stitched pillow.  I just love the way it is finished.

 

And last but not least from Patti.  Patti found these glass salt cellars in an antique shop over the summer.  She stitched each of our initials (over one and very tiny) and put them into the cellar as tiny pin cushions.  She even included a tiny counting pin.  How amazing is that.  That whole thing is probably about silver dollar size or maybe a little smaller.  I just LOVE it.

 

I have some wonderful friends and I am surrounded by such talent.  I am very proud to call them all my friends and look forward to yet another year of friendship, laughter and fun with each and everyone one of them. 

 

Thanks for sticking it out for this long post. 

 

 

Christie



 

Stitching & Squirrels

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  My oldest daughter, Kayde, spent the night with my parents on Wednesday so she could help Grandma cook the night before and the morning of Thanksgiving.  I think that may be a new tradition for them.  Kayde loves to cook.  Hubby was off work all week and besides the usually errands and housework we did some Christmas "scouting" (shopping the malls looking for Christmas ideas for the girls) and put up the Christmas decorations.  One good thing about not having a job right now is I get to spend some quality time with Hubby when he has time off at the holidays.  In the past I have always worked when he and the girls were home.  He has always had more vacation than I did. 

 

I did manage to find some stitching time in between all the running.  The first picture is of two ornaments that I stitched for exchanges.  They are for next weekend, so I need to get to Mom's and have her make them into ornaments for me.  The snowman is stitched on a random linen from my stash with DMC & WDW threads.  It is a design from Val's Stitching Stuff.  The other piece is by Country Cottage Needleworks (JCS 2012 Christmas issue).  It is stitched on 32ct. Antique Ivory with the recommended threads.

 

This next picture is what I am working on now.  I have been down all week with a cold, that my darling daughter so nicely shared with me, so I have gotten a nice start on this.  I love the colors.  I did change the recommended linen from Lambswool to 32ct Country Mocha Belfast.

 

"Ornamental Joy"

Country Cottage

32ct. Country Mocha Belfast

DMC & WDW threads

 

Now for the Squirrel part of the post.  When we have bread, fruit or veggies that are past their prime for us to eat, we toss it outside for the critters to partake in.  I had some Sourdough bread that got a bit moldy.  Of course I did not see the mold until I had already eaten two pieces of it...YUCK!  So we pitched it into the bird feeder.  Not soon after it was put out did this little guy find it.  You should have seen him trying to carry a full size piece of bread across the yard and try to get it up a tree.  We watched him for 15 minutes.  He would have to stop part way across the yard and put the bread down and eat a little.  When he finally reached the tree he wanted to go up, he got half way up and dropped the bread.  Down he went to retrieve it and try again.  He did this several times before he had success and managed to get up the tree.  Silly critter. 

 

 

Off to take some more Mucinex-D and put a few more stitches in on Ornamental Joy before I have to pick the girls up from school.

 

Christie

She Did It!!

Today I want to share in a "proud mama" moment.  My oldest daughter, Kayde Lee, is 16 and a junior in high school.  She has always been an excellent student who has never gotten a grade below a "B+" (she HATES anything less than an "A").  All she has wanted since she entered high school was to be tapped for National Honor Society.  Several weeks ago she found out she was eligible but needed to write an essay and fill out several short responses to questions which would then be evaluated.  The process also included talking with several of her teachers.  She has been fretting about this for weeks.  Yesterday, during 4th bell, she was tapped.  The girl came into her class and gave her a balloon, gift bag filled with candy and some homemade brownies.  As a group the NHS society then went to lunch at Olive Garden.  It was a good thing I got a call the day before letting me know so I could send money with her.  I had such a hard time holding in my excitement once I found out.  Every time she was near me I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from grinning ear to ear. 

Here are two pictures I took of her yesterday.  She hates to have her picture taken, so I know she was still flying high about the day because she asked me to take her picture.  The flowers came from Grandma & Grandpa (my parents).  Grandpa picked them out.  Good job Grandpa!!  Hubby brought her home a cherrylime-ade from Sonic, one of her favorites. 

I love my girls and I am so proud of both of them.  They are the light of my life. 

In other good news, my Mom is in Boston this week for her annual check up.  She had breast cancer about 5 years ago.  Her sister lives outside Boston and wanted her to come there for a second opinion.  She had her surgery here in Cincinnati, but the Boston doc said she would not need chemo or radiation which the Cincinnati docs wanted her to go through.  He (Boston doc) put her on an oral medication for the last several years.  She had her check up the begining of the week and she is now off the meds and does not need to go back to see the doc anymore.  She will be home on Sunday so we have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. 

Thanks for letting me share.

Christie

A finish

I have a finish to show.  I have been working on the Lizzie Kate Halloween Mystery Sampler.  I am down to all the satin stitching and have decided to take a break from it.  I was in a turkey mood so I stitched this up.  Now I am in a Christmas mood which is good because I need to make a couple ornaments for exchanges (just need to decide what to stitch...such a dilemma).  Below is my turkey finish:

 

Bountiful by The Trilogy



WDW & GAST threads

30ct. WDW Parchment

 

It was another busy weekend around here with no stitching after Friday night...sad face :-(.  DD #2, Ryan,  went to a school function on Friday.  She is part of the color guard in marching band.  The marching band was involved in the Santa Parade at the local mall to usher in Santa on Saturday.  Sunday the marching band was part of the Veteran's parade.  DD #1, Kayde, is part of the Key Club in school and went to rake leaves for folks that could not on Saturday.  Sunday (after the parade) Kayde had to go to my parent's house to get some ancestral information for a report she has to write over the next five weeks.  Kayde is also (and so are all of us) keeping her fingers crossed that she gets tapped for National Honor Society on Thursday.  She had to write an essay and write out several responses to tell why she wants to be part of NHS and how she meets the four pillars.  

 

I will leave you with a couple favorite pictures of Ryan throughout the marching band season.

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by.

 

Christie

 

  

Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe Giveaway

Hi all.  It's me again.  I just wanted to share that Nancy at The Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe is having a wonderful giveaway.  She is doing 25 giveaways for the 25 days of Christmas.  She is very generous and has some wonderful charts and threads.  Go check it out.

Christie