Catch up post

Gee December is just passing me by!  I'll just post my WIPocalypse and my TUSAL post today.  To start here is my ORT jar for the TUSAL for December:

 I've been working my little fingers to the bone on the stocking trying my best to finish and I probably would but I ran out of thread.....I just have no idea when I can get back out to get more but anyway there is no way I will be completely finished by Tuesday.  I still have quite a bit of backstitching to do and was working on the shadowing when I ran out of that color.  I will just keep working on other areas until I get replacement thread.  I ended up asking dh for some and he can just give to me in my stocking :) at least it will be completed by year end I'm sure. So not keep you waiting too long here it is from the last time I posted:

And now:

I've gotten quite far on it and only have the little bit of shadowing the the right of Santa to go then it's just backstitching and french knots left!  I finished the doll house, blocks, alligators, pigs, giraffes and Noah's ark!  Funny while stitching the shadows I kept finding missed stitches here and there.  I will get that stitched up and just wait on the floss I need.
Thanks for looking! 
Barb

WIPocalypse

Wow it's that time again already!  This SAL is for the WIPocalypse where we are all working on our current projects for the year.  You can find out more of it here on Measi's Blog.  I decided to work only on the hubs stocking this month since I really need to get that finished before Christmas. 
Here is what I had at the last update:

WIPocalypse Oct:

 And now:

I've been quite busy on this!  Love seeing this coming together and I'm so excited!!  I finished the stool, Santa, most of the desk leg and just started on the doll house roof.  I'd say I'm getting closer to the end and have a goal of finishing all stitching by the end of the month.  Hope I can make it soon because I can't wait to sew it together.

I thought I would give you a picture of what my young lady's stocking looks like.  I made this one about 2 or 3 years ago for her.  I couldn't find it last year at Christmas and went a bit bonkers trying to find it to no avail.  A couple of weeks ago when my daughter was cleaning out her closet she pulled it out where she had hung it the year before.  She left in on the outside of the closet door afterwards and I was so happy to see it there!  I guess she called herself keeping it "safe" I had no idea she had hung it in her closet.  You can imagine my relief.

Here it is!

Love it so much my heart is fluttering :) 

Aside from my stitching efforts here is the Fran checking out some scrumptious birds outside this morning.  I could watch her all morning: the way she cocks her head and ears is just priceless. I'm just giggling the whole time!

She was totally beside herself because there must have been a hundred black birds this morning out there.

This afternoon I had to pickup a sick little lady from school.  She has a headache and lays on the sofa with Fran as her nurse.  So sweet!

I've got to get back to the sick patient and to my slice of banana bread yum!  Til next time, take care :)

Sunday again

 Hi : o ) it's Sunday again!  I do love my Sundays.  It's time that I use for housewifery things like changing out my wreaths, bake, work in the yard or on one of my projects.  Saturday I went to our nearest Lowe's to get some much needed plants for this fall.  Of course that is pansies around here.  I just love the mix of color they have to offer.

 I just potted some right in with my geranium there.  It's still blooming and even has more buds on there.  I just couldn't take out the geranium since it wants so badly to hang out in my pot there.  See that itty bitty pink there?  That is part of it still blooming.  There are about two other sets of blooms that haven't bloomed yet.  It's suppose to get pretty cold on Wednesday so will see what the cool weather does.  

They are just lovely hanging in their basket and out on the front of the house. Just love that mix of color!

 Walking about out back after planting the basket I was surprised to still see some camellia blooms still on my plant out back.  Love these, you can't see if from this one but they have just a hint of pink on the edges. 

 Looking around inside I'm feeling a bit guilty not working on my ripple.  It's been put on hold while I work endlessly on the stocking for my dh.  I'm getting pretty far on it but I can't help not sitting with the ripple in my lap while it's cool out and doing a ripple here and there.  Ripple.Ripple.Ripple I do miss you :(  I promise I will be back soon! 

 Here's the culprit...taking up every pit of time but I'm very much enjoying working on it.  Anticipating sewing it together.  I can't wait! It's nice to see how far it is coming in comparing to my last WIP post.  Wow it has been going pretty quickly!  Although I did have to frog out part of the bench's back leg there where I miss counted...

Well I'm going to snuggle up to my ripple while I work tonight on the stocking.  Do you think ripple will mind?  Hope not :)

ORT, Tea & Autumn

 Now that the weather is changing the skies seem to be at their brightest.  I love love this time of year.  It's my absolute favorite.  Halloween, fairs, leaves changing, Christmas around the corner, ::autumn:: :)

 The leaves are on the brink of changing to their magnificent yellows and reds.  This is out back of our house where we have a nice foot path.  I will have to go out on a walk with the wonderful cool weather we are finally having.  Perfect weather!

Last but not least I'm late on showing you my ORT jar.  It's slowly filling up but haven't gotten much done as I would have liked.  I'm working solely on the stocking for DH so that I get it completed in time this year.  I'm determined to get it stitched by the end of the month.  Will have to see how far I get on the next update around mid month!

Great Giveaways!

There are two wonderful giveaways being offered.  Time 2 Xstitch is having a giveaway when she hits that 100 followers!  I know I'm just starting out with my blog perhaps that will be something I do when I get closer to 100 :)
Here is Time 2 Xstitch's blog.  She is giving away a sampler of your choice from Samplers Not Forgotten!  Isn't it gorgeous?

Another giveaway is from the Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe.  It's this lovely Sewing Necessaire

I love the blue's in this!  It's just beautiful don't you think :)

Be sure to go and sign up for these!

Lazy Sunday

I got a good bit accomplished this weekend.  Did my house tidying routine, have a sliced roast in the slow cooker making italian beef for dinner tonight (new recipe - will let you know how it goes!) and even have been able to slip in more backstitching on the stocking!

When I came upstairs this is what I came to - sleeping kitties :)  I love seeing them napping so close together.  They are just too cute and make my heart squeeze.  Hope your weekend has been a good one!

IHSW October

This weekend was the International Hermit and Stitch Weekend.  I used this weekend to work on getting some of the backstitching completed on the stocking and made some progress.  I forgot how long it takes to backstitch and it felt like it took forever and I didn't get far.
Before:

After:

Well that is my report for this weekend's stitching! 

2014 Crazy January Challenge

Since I had to go through all of my craft supplies and stash when I was setting up my new craft desk I came across all of my cross stitch stash.  Looking over what kits I have, patterns I have wanted to start and presents I'd received I had quite a few things to add to my January Challenge to start next January and not feel guilty!  So now I'm working on getting my supplies together and then need to start kitting them up. 

I've got each project in a gallon size plastic bag but I'm thinking about getting these hard plastic pocket folders you can get at an office supply store that come in legal size since many of these don't allow me to close the bag due to their size.

I went out and did get all of the colors I needed for The Arab Tent but Hobby Lobby didn't carry two of the colors so I've ordered them from 123stitch and should get them by next week.  I've got a lot of skeins to bag again and just finished bagging all of my others :0)

WIPocalypse October

Well I got a good bit of progress done this month and this is my first WIPocalypse posting!!!
First is the stocking I've been working on and need to work on it the most out of all the projects.

  

I pretty much got the desk finished and started on the stool blanket.  I also added the backstitching to the borders on top.

Memory Lane is one I didn't realize I even started back some time ago the stitching in the right bottom is what was started and I got the top corner going.  I'm using this to see if I like to grid and park.  Never did this before but with this one I wanted to give it a try.  So far I really like it!

Here is little miss Maggie the mess maker.  I can totally relate!  I worked on a few parts finishing up the purple spool of thread and working around the yellow behind the kitty's head.  I added a few grid lines to help me as I'm having a hard time with missed stitches.

Little sleepy Fredrick here I worked on finishing up on some of the red books and added the bits of paper on top of them as well.

Well there you have it that is my update and not too shabby if you ask me :)  finally feeling like I'm getting some major progress on a lot of these!

Ta-Ta until next time!
 Barb

TUSAL report

Here's my first TUSAL report and I'm late!  If you don't know what that is it stands for Totally Useless Stitch Along and you can find info here about it.  I've been working on reorganizing my floss stash.  I use to use the bows from DMC but I've out grown that and had been looking for another way to store my floss and after much review I've decided to give Daffycats way a try.

I started by pulling out all of my floss from my bag, my bobbin box and even have some in little bags that were given to me.

Isn't that just a rich colorful site!  I then laid them out in order so I could see what I had of each color.  I had quite a bit of duplicating purchases after I saw what all was there!

Then came the fun part....putting the bags together with the index cards and I also went ahead and precut each skein (I thought that was a great idea from Daffycat) and placed the bag in the plastic shoebox.

I'm still a little undecided as to how I want to "kit" up my projects for January's ultimate challenge.  Originally I liked the idea of using the bobbins for each project but I hate how the floss gets kinks in it.  I'm thinking I will go to using a project card instead and see how that works.  I at least did manage to get all of my projects into their individual bags that I will work out of.

I still need to get some of the fabric for a few of them and find out what flosses I'm missing so I can go get those as well.   It's interesting how I had not given it much thought about how I'm going to organized my projects considering so many will be started in such a short period of time.

Let me know how you are getting ready for that big busy month of January!
 

Cross Stitch Challenge

I'm beginning a blog about my cross stitch projects.  I'm doing this because I'm a hopelessly addicted to starting new ones so what better way to keep me focused and on task!

I've made myself a promise about a month ago I would complete my husbands stocking that I've had in the works for quite a while by this Christmas.  The first stocking I made was for our daughter so that I do have finished.  I've got three more to start and finish after I get my husbands completed.  But since I made a promise to myself that I would not start another project until his is complete!

So this is what I'm going to do.  I've joined a WIPocalypse and will set to work on my projects that need finishing first.  Of course I'm going to concentrate on the stocking mostly but I should have some time to add a few stitches here and there for the others!

Won't you follow me on my journey this year and keep me company?
Barb