Crazy organized

I tried to figure out a way that would make the Crazy 2011 Challenge seem a little less crazy and a little more organized. Think I figured a way. I went to the dollar store and bought 15 shoe box size plastic storage containers. I have numbered them 1-15 and have printed a picture on the top of each. So now when I do my rotation I can easily switch from one to the next. Lol is that being a little too organized? Now I need to get all the supplies into each box. But for now i'm off to get a couple hours stitching in on politics/religion before I have to get ready for work. I'll try to share a pic of my progress on it soon. Happy stitching!

Christmas Decorations

I only ended up putting like half my Christmas decorations up this year... it still seems like too much shoved into one little space lol. I'll take a straight one of the tree tonight.

Too tired!

I was way too tired today when I got home from a non stop pace at work to put up any Christmas decorations. I decided instead to make a Christmas wreath to hang up. I've never done it before but I've wanted to try for a long time now. I even got John to help!

Supplies....



Finished...



Just for a smile (or laugh)...

I must of been crazy.. right?

After getting up at 5am yesterday to cook the turkey and everything to take the Grandma's house and then barely getting any sleep last night because I decided to get up to do some Black Friday shopping... i'm crazy right? Lol I decided to go to Walmart because they had a 14 mega-pixel Kodak camera for $60. It was a free for all where all the cameras and gps systems were. So we are standing near the camera we wanted and it was next to a Tom Tom. I was talking to one lady and her husband and he was saying 'Ok i'll grab the tom tom, then rush over there and grab this and that and that. You grab the cameras.' She was like 'ok' I offered that if her child (who was leaning against the camera I wanted) would grab one for me I would in return grab a tom tom for them. (I was leaning against the palate for them). So that's what we did.



I also figured I would of gotten slammed and pushed. It was crazy packed. But I didn't it was quite simple actually we did the switch off then went and looked at what was left over with some of the other sales. Sadly I didn't get my food processor for $3. Oh well. But I did pick up a new mp3 player.



So after about an hour in the check out lane we went to McDonald's (I know I was bad but yummy yummy! I love their breakfast) then we sat in my work's parking lot and watched the line while we ate... after we finished I ran in and got next weeks schedule. Then I took John to Best Buy and bought him a Wii, and a game he's been wanting. His thanks/early Christmas gift for going with me and protecting me in the crowds. (He absolutely hates crowds so I figured he deserves it) I bought him the red version his favorite color.



All the pictures are taken with my new toy. Hopefully now I can get some better shots up close of my stitching and things. Here is a picture of John and me when we got home around 7ish this morning.



We set up the wii, played with our new toys for a couple mins then crawled into bed. Now to wake him up in a little bit so we can clean up rearrange a few things and pull out the Christmas decorations. Yay one of my favorite Christmas traditions... Christmas music and decorating. Will share some pics tomorrow hopefully!

Crazy 2011 Challenge

I have thought and thought about whether or not to join in on this Crazy 2011 Challenge that Minä over at Ristipistoni is hosting. But I figure why not. It does sound like a fun excuse to pull out some of that stash and actually stitch it.

The idea of the challenge is, you pick 15 different patterns and start one on January 1st, 2011. Then each day for the next 15 days you start a new one. Sounds easy right? Well the challenging part is to finish all 15 by the end of the year! Still you could make this easy on yourself and pick all small projects. But I picked some small and some big. I've also decided i'm going to add two already started projects just to hopefully help me stay motivated to stitch on them. Which are going to be my tiger (that I haven't stitched on in forever), and a Christmas one i'm stitching with Crystal and Wendy. I'm thinking after the first 15 days, either trying a rotation of a week on each or maybe longer or shorter... not sure yet.

Without further ado here are my 15 projects.

Now hopefully I wont change my mind on any of them. LOL

Happy Thanksgiving

*Edit to make picture fit.. which it doesn't want to. Please click on it to read the message*



I want to just wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow. To all my blogging friends that aren't in the USA I still want to wish you a Happy day tomorrow. I am thankful to all of you for your kind comments, encouragements, and prayers that you have sent over the past months. Now i'm off to make pies, cranberry sauce, and brine the turkey for tomorrow. Love you all!

Swap day!

Well today is the day to post what my swap goodies were from Parsley's swap. MizMollye had me and she sent me some lovely wonderfully cute things.



A cute pink & browns hat and glove set, some beaded necklaces, some thread, a few handmade tags and matchbox domino, earrings, a book for crafting with fabric, an ear warmer (that I think was handmade) and feels very warm! A very cute Christmas frame that I can't wait to put a cute picture in this year. And my absolute favorite thing is the reindeer.



Isn't he so cute! I want to thank Mollye again for everything she sent! Now my partner was Julie S. and i'm just waiting for her to post her swap today.

Tomorrow I will post the pics of the things I have stitched and sent... one was to Parsley, and the other was to Julie. Then you should be caught up on all my secret stitching.

A stroll through Central Park

I have plans to take a couple of these pictures and stitch up the Autumn in New York pattern by Primrose Needleworks, and place the pictures around the stitched piece. But it will have to sit on the back burner for a little while. Need to work on the politics/religion piece for my mom. Well off to get ready for my doctors appointment, and get fabric so I can start tonight. Happy stitching!

Restful day

Today I just plan on resting. I might start on a new cross stitch project. But anyways today i'll share with you some of the secret things I've been work on. First Happy Birthday to my mom today. (I gave her the presents on Sunday when we went to the airport.)



I saw on Angela's blog a way to finish a stitch into something called a stitcher's box. So I decided to make my mom one.



The inside...



I also stitched a biscornu, made her a scissor fob, and some handmade pins. The plate is done with some rub ons. The pattern on the top of the box is something I designed. I just looked at a quilt book my mom had lent me and designed some quilt squares.(**Edited to add the L in quilt** lol) And her favorite color is blue so I went with a blue theme with everything.

One of the other secret things I've been stitching was for Eleni to take with her to the hospital. So she could have it on her table and know that we are with her even though we couldn't stay longer.






This was my first Tatty Teddy... I love the patterns but I don't think i'm ever going to jump on another pattern unless it just absolutely screams 'stitch me'. They have the backstitching that I just can't stand! I ended up just kinda doing whatever felt good for the fur backstitching around him. I think he turned out alright though.

I also made her a beautiful necklace and she just absolutely loved it! And John picked out a pretty E necklace with matching earrings and a breast cancer key chain.

Alright i'm off to rest. I hate after I fly my ears continue to pop for a couple days and I feel all wonky. Like I have vertigo or something. So if this post seems scrambled and doesn't' flow well... I'm sorry. I'm off to curl up and watch some t.v. and start stitching a project for mom's co-worker. Tomorrow i'll share my NY pictures.

Back Home

Yay i'm home. Can't wait to crawl into my own bed. Hope to catch up on blogs tomorrow. Hope everyone is having a good week.

home soon!

Well we did walk to central park but we skipped the cross stitch shop. We wanted to make sure we made it back to the hospital in time. Which is a good thing we were only back about 15 mins and they told us she made it through the surgery just fine. We are heading to the hospital now to see her for a couple hours before we head back to the airport. I can't wait to get home and back to my routine. Need to catch up reading everyones blogs! Hope everyone is doing good.

New York

We arrived safe. They did have the new scanners at DTW but one line didn't have them and we ended up in that one line. Have to leave for the hospital soon. Please keep us in your prayers. Eleni is freaking out. While she is in surgery we plan on walking to Central Park and maybe to a cross stitch shop that I found online. We will have to see. Will have some pics when I get back home to share.

Ug

Wow how I hate getting no sleep when your already exhausted! The next couple days should be fun. Wish me a safe flight.

Some finished things

So in my spare time I've managed to get a couple more ornaments stitched up.

Some snowflakes....


A shepherd....


Jingle Bells (i'm going to add bells when I finish this one up...


and Believe....


I've also finished my first knitting! My cousin called dibs on the skull cap that I figured out how to finish a couple nights ago.


Now i'm off to start packing and just trying to get everything ready before work tonight. It's going to be a really early morning tomorrow. Followed with a couple of crazy days. Hope everyone is getting some stitching time in.

Something I can share

Still busy stitching some gifts. I'll be able to share them with you soon. This Sunday we are flying to New York for John's mother's surgery. She has to have a lumber spinal fusion done on Monday. So we are just going to be there for her surgery and the day after we fly home. I wish we could stay longer but I finally got a job! I start working at Michaels on Thursday. I'm so happy! I'm getting sick of having nothing to do. Not that i'm complaining I love stitching all day. But I need something else to do with my time.

So onto what I can share. I ordered (a couple weeks ago) some cute 'made with love' charms on eBay. They never came. So I ordered some more. Yesterday I received the one package then today I got some more.... hmmm. Screwy mail. They are just so cute! I plan on attaching them to the Christmas ornament's I've been making.

Well i'm off to go play a video game for a little bit and try to read some more of my book today. And of course stitch!

Happy stitching!