Poor Planning

Poor planning on my part. Actually, no planning on my part. I simply assumed that since I have a ridiculous amount of Mill Hill beads, I would have the beads I needed to finish this. Unfortunately, I was wrong. So, right now it says "SNOW" instead of "SNOW ANGEL" since the ANGEL part is written entirely in the beads that I don't have. On the positive side, the rest of the stitching is done. The beads should arrive this week.

Here's a pic -

Then, I was going through a pile of WIPs. I found one of my folders marked "cherub" from sometime in 2005. Inside I had a collection of freebie Mirabilia cherub charts and one started cherub. Of course, its going to take some time to figure out which cherub I started. I don't know what I was thinking. Now I have something to do this weekend ;-)

We have a couple more of the Giggles in Snow charts in the shop. Be sure to stop by our Mirabilia page if you are looking for this design.

Have a great weekend everyone!

More snow-stitching

I've been stitching and finishing up Giggles in the Snow. I've been bringing it along to stitch in the car while waiting for school to get out - the sunlight makes it so wonderfully easy to see everything. (If I'm ever going to stitch on black Belfast, it should be midafternoon in the car!) Unfortunately, somehow in its travels this week and last weekend, it has gotten pretty badly creased. Bummer!

My younger boy has continued to ask for a knitted afghan for Christmas. I've had the Great American Aran Afghan book and the yarn for a while. I think I'll pick a few of those squares. I love the square that has an aran sweater on it. I'll use patterns from my favorite sweaters for the other squares. Not sure what I'll make for my older boy. Still thinking about that one.

We're still waiting for the leaves to change. It was 89F today and we haven't had rain for a while now. I hope the rain doesn't all come when the leaves do start to change. Its sad in those years when a couple of rain/wind storms knock down all the leaves in just a a day or two after they change.

Our apples are just getting ripe and so are our pair of pears (all we got this year). DH and the kids have great plans for apple pies, applesauce, apple dumplings and who knows what else. This is the first year we'll actually get some nice apples. I wish we knew what we did differently so we could do it again.

Off I go to finish the snow!

When is Fall coming?

Well, its supposed to be 85F here today, and it was yesterday as well. It had been cooler, in the 60s and 70s, for about a week. I know we usually get an Indian Summer, but generally that is after the leaves have turned, and usually after they have even fallen. So far, our leaves haven't really turned at all. I hope they don't just all turn yellow and fall off the trees overnight like they did last year (some sort of fungus or illness). Except for pumpkins in all the fields around here, it still looks like and feels like Summer.

No stitching pics today. I'm working on finishing up the Giggles in the Snow boy from Mirabilia. Its hard to show progress when you're stitching snow on white fabric. I should be done stitching this weekend and then a big finish-a-thon.

Items to finish:
Chris name tree - ornament
Kreinik freebie snowman - mirror case
Trick or Treat band - wrap for basket
Sweetheart Tree Rosebuds and Hardanger - not sure yet
Thistles kit from Victoria Sampler - not sure - maybe a needlebook?

Christmas stitching still to do:
Daniel's tree ornament
Golfing Chick from Valerie Pfeiffer
Another Kreinik freebie snowman (the recipients are sisters)
Brooke's Books Cherry on Top

And now my son would like me to knit a nice warm, soft afghan. I'll have to think about that one.

And there's some Christmas sewing to be done as well. Time to give the sewing machine some exercise.

Have a great weekend!

It feels like Autumn!

Its gorgeous out! Its about 65 F, not a cloud in the sky, a nice breeze and nice and dry. Just beautiful. Now that the nights are getting cooler, the leaves will start to turn as well. And, of course, fair season is in full swing. The Big E - (for non-New Englanders - that's the huge state fair for all of the New England states at once) starts this weekend. It sure feels like Fall. And best of all - both kids will be back in school today!!!!

We always have folks call to visit in the second of half of September that we only see once a year - due to our convenient location near the Big E. I suppose if we didn't live near it, we wouldn't see some of these people at all. This year, the littlest ones who stop by are going to help plant daffodil bulbs. Kind of keeping with agricultural theme of a trip to a state fair. I hope to get about 400 bulbs in the ground over the next few weeks. Can't wait to see them in the Spring.

On the stitching front, I'm working on Giggles in the Snow from Mirabilia Designs again. I still have the snow to complete and some more backstitching on the boy. I wish Nora would create some more boy designs. She does such a beautiful job on them, but she has only had a few and those - Giggles in the Snow and Seaside Kingdom - have been discontinued. Speaking of which, we do have a few more of the discontinued designs from Mirabilia Designs but, due to the limited quantity, they are not on our site. If you are interested in these, please feel free to send an email or fill in the request form on our site. So here's my little boy Snow Angel:

Cooling off

Its cool and rainy today. Yesterday was hot and rainy and Saturday was just wave after wave of thunderstorms. The good thing about being cool and rainy is that I can turn on the oven and we can have a more substantial dinner than usual. Some roast beast and potatoes will be a nice change from salads, burgers and sandwiches.

Rainy weather also means that I can get a little more progress done. And, when the little one starts school this week, I get even more done!!!!

I was able to finish my trick or treat band. Now I just need to line the back with my Halloween fabric so no stitches can be snagged by any canes sticking out from the basket, a little velcro on each end to secure the band and it will be done. Next - onto another name tree ornament, some more time on Mirabilia's Fairy Idyll and Giggles in the Snow, and then a big finishing marathon. Here's my Trick or Treat from Cross Eyed Cricket stitched on linen banding:

Each letter is really cute - a tree, a candy apple and caramel apple, a haunted house, Indian corn, a spider, a broom. Really neat!


Just a little shop note - the newest ornaments from The Sweetheart Tree will be up on the site this week. These are for days 5, 6, 7 and 8 from the Twelve Days of Christmas series. Really cute.

Halloween and Fairy Idyll

Just a quick note - for those of you who were unaware, Wichelt Imports, a major supplier for the cross stitch industry experienced major flooding in the floods that hit the mid-West last month. We wish the folks at Wichelt and the surrounding areas the best during their recovery.

Just a little stitching in the last week. Stitching time should improve now that the kids are in school and everyone has a regular schedule once again.

Here's a quick update on my Halloween stitching. This is the Trick-or-Treat banner from The Cricket Collection. I picked out a nice autumn fabric for the backing and I have the perfect basket to be dressed up with the finished band.

I did finally get some stitching done on Mirabilia's Fairy Idyll. The rabbit statue's head is done. I'll keep this piece out to work on whenever I have a few minutes waiting for the school bus or other stitching time that is likely to be interrupted at a moment's notice. That won't be easy since its so large, but I can't really work on holiday stitching for kids projects if they might walk in any minute!

I hope to finish off the Trick or Treat banner this week and then get to work on some smalls. I also have pile of pieces to finish off and I've been reading lots of blogs this week seeking finishing ideas. Its amazing how much talent is out there - and, thanks to blogs, we get to see so much more than we would have before the "blogger movement".