Halloween Fairy is done!

Here is my lovely Halloween Fairy! I am VERY pleased with her looks and pleasantly surprised at how quickly she stitched up, all things considered.

I also wanted to share with you these lovely squares with you. Karen D. made these squares for me in the Patriotic F&S round this summer. This is a fairly new chart and I had been eyeing it for myself. Thankfully, Karen saved me and stitched it up so I don't have to!!

I have been so busy stitching and studying that I have sorely neglected blog reading in general. Please forgive me. I will catch up soon. In the meanwhile, keep on stitching...

On a mission...

Like the hangover after a night of too much wine, I've had the guilty feeling of too many WIPs hanging over my head. I had a huge bout of startitis a couple of weeks ago followed by a weak will in the face of Needlecraft Corner's clearance sale. Did I mention I finally buckled and signed on to Chatelaine's Caribbean Mystery XII? (At least that one will take me a little while to acquire the threads and doodads for it.)

I'm tired of accusing stares from WIP shelf and I'm gonna do something about it. I vowed that this month I would work on only current WIPs (with the exception of one project that I must start for a friend's wedding on August 1.) So far, I have finished one small and made considerable progress on another, my Halloween Fairy. She has only the right wing to go. I even got the beading completed, so she's really an easy finish.

This is my work so far on my biscornu for July. It could've easily (and appropriately) been the American Star Biscornu that I got in my stash hall, but I decided to tackle Barnabee and Bella. So far so good, though I must count very carefully.

Here is the complete lineup of smalls:

1. MCC "The Girls"
2. JN "When Barnabee met Bella"
3. Mirabilia "Halloween Fairy"
4. MND "Immortal Bloom"
5. CCN "Dragonfly"
6. CCN "Holly and Ivy"
7. SB "Potter's Shed"
8. BC "Baby Globe"
9. WMN "Maidens of the Sea"
10. Quilt Square 3
11. Quilt Square 4

My large goal for the month is, of course, to finish the gold metallic and the beading on my Celtic Spring. I really got going on her this last week and finished the cotton DMC stitches in her skirt. Doesn't she look great? I love this pattern and can't wait for the finish.

Next month, I've vowed to fill all the empty q-snaps with Christmas projects and work on my Song of Christmas BAP. Then, in September, I will return to my regularly scheduled willy-nilly project starting and also allow myself to put Shores of Hawk Run Hollow in as a starter.

By the way, here are the Patriotic squares that I stitched for Karen D. in Arizona. I saw that she had received them, so I'm assuming it is OK to post them here. The design is a Prairie Grove Peddler freebie that I received from an ONS. I really liked stitching it and plan to do it for myself at some point.

Here are my boys at Silver Falls State Park where we camped on the 2nd. Just one night, but it was a good night and we had s'mores. I don't know about you, but camping for me is really just an excuse to have s'mores. :) Hope everyone had a good 4th of July. I got to stitch a little with the ladies and gentleman at Acorns and Threads yesterday during the Saturday Stitch gettogether. I could have spent the time stitching at home just as easily, but you know, there's just something about being surrounded by needles being happily plied to fabric. Plus, these ladies and the one gentleman are always good company even though I never get to go often enough to really get to know them.

Where have I been?

Well, not here obviously. I have been stitching, stitching, stitching. I've been stitching in class. Two of my classes, to be exact. I stitch and take notes and overall, it works pretty well. I'm an audio-visual type learner so as long as I'm hearing what I'm seeing (and both of these instructors use power-point), I do pretty well. So it goes, a couple stitches, a couple notes, a couple stitches, a couple notes...and so on. Makes me happy and it's working well so far. I've also been stitching at work when it gets slow in the middle of the night. Since I have to be sitting at the desk and there's not much else to do, I might as well be productive in some fashion, right?

You can see on my other blog all of the recent finishes...all of them smalls. Here's the address so please have a look: http://smstitchinjournal.blogspot.com/. I haven't been in the mood to really pick up any of my bigger WIPs. I do plan to do so tonight, when I'm done posting here, though. I'll work on Celtic Spring and watch an older version of The Other Boleyn Girl. I watched The Visitor the other night and found that to be a pretty good movie.

I've updated my Wishes and Trades blog and you'll find that link to the side.

To keep this post from being entirely pictureless, I've taken a couple shots of some recent starts. I've been suffering from start-itis like you would not believe. I'm limited only by the number of Q-snaps that I own, which are not near enough to what I would like. So here are Immortal Bloom by Midsummer Night Designs, Dragonfly by CCN, Maidens of the Sea by With My Needle and a progress pic of Mirabilia's Halloween Fairy.

I have also finished all of the stitching for my PIFs and plan to sit and do the finishing this week. It will be wonderful to get them out to the ladies after waiting a whole year to get them completed. I am obviously an ADD procrastinating stitcher. I got my Patriotic F&S doen and mailed out last week, so hopefully will be able to show those squares next week sometime.

School is going well this semester. I just completed my Med-surg I clinicals. I was on a neurology floor at a local hospital and I enjoyed it very much. I love talking to the patients and getting to spend some time with them. It was exhausting work, though. I find that the biggest paradox in nursing is the expectation that the nurse should meet all of the patient's needs but the reality that s/he simply can't meet all of every patient's needs in one shift when she is taking care of multiple patients. It is a neverending balancing act and it is emotionally, mentally, and physically exhausting. But...I LOVE IT! Now I am in my mental health rotation and I find that fascinating as well, although a little slower paced because all we do is talk to the patients. No real hands-on skills. I enjoy it, though.

The coursework is a little easier this term because there is a lot of review for me. We are taking Pathophysiology, Physiological Nursing and Mental Health Nursing. It's nice not to have to kill myself studying all of the time because I'm drawing on the last 7 years of continuing education. Also, there are not that many papers and projects this term.

Well that pretty much updates you on my school and stitching. I pick up a stash package at the post office tomorrow, so I'll plan to give you a pic of that later this week. Thanks for coming by and hope your stitching is fruitful this week!

First attempt at dyeing fabric...

So, I finally got brave enough to dye some fabric this weekend. It was actually easier than I expected. I used the RIT dyes: cocoa brown, tan, and taupe. Here are the pieces that turned out well.
I have another 5 or 6 that have to have the color taken out of them and re-dyed because there were a few grains of red or yellow dye that were not dissolved to make brown and they made little splashes of color all over my otherwise lovely fabric. Hopefully that will do the trick.

Stitching is slow. Nothing to show right now. I finished one small the other day, but have no pics. That's okay, though, if I just save 'em up for one big post a month, everyone thinks I've been stitching like crazy. :)

Stuff to show off...

First off, let me show off the lovely squares I received from Carolyn L. for the spring F&S round. Her squares perfectly speak of spring for me. I love to see the spring robins hopping about. Of course, since I have no lawn (just weeds) they never come into my yard for their worms, but the neighbors all get them.

I'll also show off the squares I sent to her. They were a Faby Reilly freebie that I stitched because I was in a St. Patty's day mood.

An update on my other WIPs. The BC Baby Globe for my friend Kelly's soon-to-arrive little girl. My May biscornu is Buzzing Around Biscornu by Barbara Ana Designs.

Here's also the HIH Happy Home Home Day,

the JN Boo Needlebook,

and a newer start, Mirabilia's Halloween Fairy.

I have added a couple finishes to my finish blog. You can see them there.

On my week off, I did get some stitching done, but this past week was pretty much all school. This semester I am in class or clinical all day on every week day but Thursday. On top of that, I am working 2 nights a week at the ED. After another 5 weeks, I get my Fridays back. But still, I am just exhausted already. I was too tired last night to even stitch. That's tired.

I did have my first 8 hour clinical this last week and it really was better than I expected. I know a lot of the skills already, but I just don't know the rules of this new nursing game yet. If I knew the rules and understood the culture better, I would not be so nervous. I'm sure everyone out there has had similar experiences. I know it will get better. My biggest obstacle is my own insecurity and anxiety. Anyway, I can't wait for the end of this semester because I will have THREE WHOLE WEEKS OFF!!!! My postings will be few and far between, of course, but I'll be checking in here and there.

Yay!!! Finals are over!!!

Now it's a week of whatever I want to do whenever I want to do it...

OK, not really, but a girl can dream, right?!?

Don't know my grades for sure, but they're in the B+ to A range, so I'm pretty darn pleased with myself. I have made quite a few friends in my cohort and that has been a real blessing. Thursday night after all was said and done, our cohort went on a "pub crawl" down Alberta St in Portland.

OK...I felt a little old. While it was nice to visit with my fellow students outside of classes, I am not much for the pub scene or the drinking. My libations consisted of a single Shirley Temple (grenadine syrup and 7up) and I was exhausted from the sheer number of people by 9:30. I think I went home around 10pm.

If you want to see what I've finished up latelyon the stitching front, I've updated my stitching journal blog. It looks like I just ripped through a bunch of them, but really I put the final stitches in on several different small projects. A few of them had been hanging around for awhile, so it was nice to have the stitching complete. Other than that, here's an update on my Celtic Spring. Put a few hours in her one night last week. It felt good. She's so close, really...

I'm awaiting the news that my Stitching Blogger Birthday girlfriend has received her gift before I can post a pic of that. My F&S Spring squares will go out on Monday, the deadline as always and then I just have the PIFs to finish and mail.

No pics to show...

...just a little update. Finals are next week and the main headache is Pharmacology. I thought I knew the drugs pretty well, but in the eleventh hour, I feel like I know nothing. 158 drugs that we had to memorize! Ugh! Whatever will be, I guess.

I have had a little time to stitch. Finished up my gift for the SBBC and just realized that I had posted my "mailed" post over on the HOE board. Had to quickly go and delete that post and put it on the right board. Doh! Also have stitched on a couple other things. I definitely have some progress to show, but the uploading of photos is too much time for me to take today.

I have to confess that after my post saying that I didn't have ANY interest at all in Facebook or Myspace, I went and signed up on Facebook "just for the heck of it." Michele was the first to find me and suddenly I was finding lots of people that I knew or have known or have lost touch with or have just met. It IS addicting. Now was not a good time to start up with it. So now you know I'm there, come find me or at least try to find me. I'm not always on, but I do check in. Just like here.

Oh, and I'll try to get some stitchy pics up next week. Thursday is the last final and then I'm FREEEEEE!!!

(For a week.)

So much for up-to-date...

...yep that lasted about 12 hours...then it was back to business as usual. My papers are done, though. We'll see how they turned out when I get my grades back. Only 3 more weeks until the end of this semester. Woohoo!

Of course all that blog reading that I did do fueled a big round of start-itis...mostly for small projects. Here are some new starts...

I do have to mention that the Bent Creek Baby Globe chart is riddled with errors. Half of the symbols used in the charts are not the symbols used in the key. Thank goodness that 1) It is not a huge chart where these errors would spell death to the project and 2) I am now an experienced enough stitcher to be able to figure it out and/or substitute colors and not have nightmares of being ostracized by the stitching/designing community for "stitching outside the lines". LOL.

I also spent a couple hours the other night stitching a little on Celtic Spring. I had forgotten how addicting it can be to stitch on her. I put a fair amount of gold into her skirt swirls and treated myself by allowing myself to digress and work on some of the purples, too.

And remember my sob story about how I had not left myself enough room on the bottom of Quaker Christmas and so I was thoroughly discouraged and had decided to give it up and start over. And I was going to take the part that I was mostly done with and make it into the top of a tin...well, here it is. It is a belated birthday present for my best friend, Amber. It's not the greatest finishing job, as I do not have the skills of those like Vonna or Becky or Carol or Sally or Staci or Margaret or...good heavens, most of the beautiful stitching bloggers out there. I am pretty well pleased with the results, though, and I'm pretty sure she'll overlook the not-so-perfect points. Here also is a picture of the restart which will be stitched over one (and is therefore guaranteed to take a few years) on a 25ct. antique white linen with the same Crescent Colours of before (Steamed Broccoli, Cupid and Sassy Brass.) Also a little aside here, I always wondered why there were random letters and numbers scattered throughout the sampler. I thought it was silly. I didn't realize that it was all of the rest of the alphabet and numbers that were not used in the words or the date. Duh! It truly is an alphabet sampler... Like I said, silly me!

I also have a couple WIP updates for your viewing pleasure. SB Potter's Shed and L*K Love My Cat have had a few stitches put in them recently.

Well, anyhoo, I'm up-to-date now on what I can show off. Have a blessed Easter weekend.

A different kind of happy dance...

...I am now UP TO DATE on my blog reading!!!!! I read them, commented on some, laughed, drooled, envied and plotted on how and when to increase my stash!!! I am just so pleased with myself. Oh and here is a non-stitchy blog that you should read just because she tells it like it is so well...

To boot, the sun is shining here, the kids are outside laughing and I heard BIRDS twittering. My fat old cat is snoozing beside me and I have fruit salad, rice krispy treats and fresh banana bread in my house.

***POP*** The sound of my happy bubble burstin' because I was supposed to be working on 3 papers that are due this week, one of them tomorrow......

Ahhh...how quickly we can ignore our regrets...I'll write my papers later...the now is for enjoying!

Tags and Awards

So, back in February (yes, bad me!) I was tagged by Wendy Jo to list five addictions. That's a little tough because I'm really only addicted to two things:

1. Cross-stitching

2. Chocolate

However, I really love:

3. Sausage pasta (italian sausage, Kasseiri cheese, garlic, oil, pasta, roasted red peppers)

4. Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana soup (a sausage, kale, and potato soup)

5. Rice Krispy Treats (could eat a whole batch by myself...in less than a day)

Wendy also recently awarded me the Kreative Blogger award, which really should be the Lazy Blogger award for me.

Also, back in February (really bad me!) Sally passed the Your Blog is Fabulous award on to me!

Now, I have been so bad about blogging, that I don't really think I deserve these awards. On the other hand, it makes me feel good that somebody likes what I do write when I do write it...

Since I'm so far behind, these awards have probably already gone around a bit, so I'm just going to point you to a few wonderful bloggers that you might not always get around to, but probably do...

1. Look what Harmien has been creating...
2. Kim has been busy with a newborn and a toddler but still creating stitched beauties...
3. Sadie has been stitching and dyeing some lovely fabrics...
4. Coni does beautiful stitching and needlepointing and her adventures with Stewie are funny to boot...
5. Gaynor has some lovely projects going on at her blog...
6. I have downloaded so many freebies from the talented Maryse...
7. If you have a little extra stitching time, check out Donna's Stitching for a Cure blog...

OK, I could keep going, but I've got to make up the grocery list because my DH is doing that dreaded chore nice and early in the morning...woohoo!

Working, working, working...

So, if you check my journal blog linked on the right, you'll see I've updated it with some pics of little stitching that I've done over the past month. Sometimes it takes a little time for me to get pics up on Blogger, so my bragging is usually only in spurts. I have some pics that I can't share yet because they are for others.

You'll notice I've been on a Just Nan kick. Yep, I've been stitching through my JN charts like crazy. I've got a 3 more tin tops to stitch and 4 more accessories, and then I'll have to do the finishing on 4 tin tops and 4 accessories. The Halloween and Christmas squares in my finishing journal will be little ornaments when I get around to finishing those.

After I get through those, I've pulled some summer charts and I really would like to get stitching on my big WIPs again as those have sat untouched for awhile. This summer I would like to jump into Christmas with a big splash and actually make some ornaments this year. We'll see, though, as I also have a goal to set cross-stitch aside somewhat and get caught up on my scrapbooks so that I can have them finished and cross over into the digital era. I have, unfortunately acquired lots of scrapbooking stash that I will truly never use, so I want to use up what I need and sell or give away the rest. Then I'll really have space to organize my true love: cross-stitch.

I do have a little in progress picture. I'm stitching this Leaping Pony chart from the Sept. 2008 Cross-Stitch & Needlework issue for charity. I was stitching on a Tigger chart, but the vast number of half-stitches put me off a little so I needed to take a break from that.

I'm over halfway through stitching my Spring F&S square for Carolyn. I've actually stitched 5 of my 6 PIFs. I just need to choose and stitch the 6th and then I can finish them into something neat and get them mailed off.

On the school front, I only have 5 more weeks of classes and then I get 10 days off before it's back to the grind. I'm looking forward to the break even more than Spring Break because there's no homework to be done during the break.

Hopefully, our family will go somewhere during my break, but it's so hard to fork over the money to even just go up to Seattle for a few days in this economy. The boys and I went down to Eugene overnight this last weekend and went to a couple museums and an indoor wave pool which they thoroughly enjoyed. It was fun to get away, but even that one night was spendy. I don't know, but I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, right?

There! That what's happening with me lately. I've been slow to read blogs and I'm sorry that I'm not keeping up with all of you ladies who are so faithful to keep up with me and encourage me through school. I do appreciate the encouragement and the comments, though. Have a happy week with beautiful stitching and no froggy guests!

Spring Break! Yay!

Whew! It's so wonderful to have a whole week off from school! I haven't done much school work for the past four days and it has been fabulous! But, that can only last so long as there is a mad rush of papers and projects due in the next couple of weeks, so I will start working on some of them here and there this week. Other than all of the papers and projects, my exams so far have gone well...all A- or better grades. Having been a paramedic before really helps...though I'm having to learn to evaluate patients a little differently (emergency stabilization vs. hospitalization thru to discharge planning and beyond.)

I had high hopes of starting to get some yard work done this week. I have rose bushes that need pruning, weeds that need pulling, and a garden that needs to be ready for planting. But mother nature in her infinite wisdom has declared my needs to be a lesser priority than hers. So my neighbors will have to bear with us a little longer. I did, however, enjoy all the crocuses we planted last fall and I have one lone blooming daffodil and the promise of bunches more. Yay for Spring and the color she brings. Hyacinths, tulips, daffodils, irises...and whatever else I planted.

Stitching has been here and there. I have not touched any of my larger WIPs in a while. I'm on a Just Nan kick right now...trying to get all of these limited edition tins and other charts stitched up and maybe, just maybe finished. Here are a bunch of in progress pictures of those things. You'll see

--the top of the Jingle tin

--Making Friends (just need silver braid)

--Peter Cottontail (just need green braid)

Some other in progress pictures:

--Sweetheart Tree Cat Biscornu (just couldn't get it done in time for last month's biscornu)

--March Quaker by The Workbasket (for my March biscornu)

I also have a pic of the squares I sent to Heidi for the Winter F&S. I stitched Father Winter, a freebie by Teresa Wentzler. I changed it slightly to add in a little purple as Heidi likes purples and greens. I didn't notice till I saw it posted on her blog that I was a year behind and signed my square with 2008 instead of 2009. Ah well.

After posting this, I'm going to get down to some blog reading. I have a lot of catching up to do, but it will make for an enjoyable afternoon and it postpones that schoolwork.

A quick update...

So, a fast and furious update here. I sent out my squares to Heidi B. today. Last minute as always but I think they will be worth the wait. Hopefully she likes them. I've almost finished the stitching on the 3rd of my PIFs. When I have all six done, I will finish them and then mail them out.

I haven't worked on SB Potting Shed since the beginning of the year, but I thought I'd show the minimal progress I made since the last showing.

Also have made very little progress on L*K Love My Cat. But it's a pic.

Here's the latest on Celtic Spring. I'm in the swirls of the skirt now. Hadn't worked on it for awhile as I went on a smalls kick, but I pulled it out earlier this month and put a couple hours into it.

Speaking of smalls, I have posted a few finishes on my finishing journal blog. Check it out if you have a chance. Anyway, gotta run.

Drumroll please....

...with a little help from random.org:

Gaynor is the lucky winner of the fob and Suzanne has won the traveling pattern and fob. Thanks to everyone who entered my drawings. I just need a snail mail address and your prizes will go out Monday.

It's been a busy couple of weeks and I would like to tell more about my stitching and school and all, but dinner is cooking and I work in an hour, so perhaps tomorrow.

I have been stitching. A few must-dos are just about done. If I can find the silly camera, maybe I'll even share a pic. But don't get your hopes up. I'm not. :)

Have a blessed day.

Happy Blogoversary to Me!!!

Two years already??? Where has the time gone? I've posted a little over 180 posts in those 2 years, so I'm averaging a post every 4 days. Not too shabby. And I've met so many nice people and seen so many beautifully stitched and finished projects. Ya know, I don't have Facebook or Myspace pages, and don't really care to...but I don't know if it would be the same without my cross-stitch blogging friends. Thanks for a great 2 years.

Now, what would a Blogoversary be without a giveaway? Well, I don't know what. So, I'm having one...or shall we say, two?

The first one occurred to me because I found the pattern in Friendship Crossing, the LNS in Corvallis, OR. (This was the first LNS I ever came across.) Remembering how I liked the idea of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pattern, I am also offering up this pattern as a traveling pattern. It is Waxing Moon "My Needle and My Floss". I ask whomever gets this to stitch it, sign it, and then offer it up to other stitchers. (I don't remember who should get the credit for this idea, but if I did, I would credit them. Now if you wind up winning this pattern, I am also including a handmade beaded scissor fob in colors of your choosing.

The second giveaway is another beaded scissor fob in colors of your choosing. That way, if you don't want the pattern, you can at least enter into the drawing for a fob.

So, to enter, please leave a comment on this post between now and midnight, February 14, 2009. Please specify which drawing you're entering, leave me a way to contact you, and specify your favorite colors.

Thanks for stopping by my blog. Happy Stitching!!