Traveling again.

My daughter and niece on a little island in Belize

I guess I'm blogging once a month, at best. Hopefully my blog friends will still be interested in what I'm up to!

We have been vacationing... again. I know we just went to Florida, but my husband has to put in his vacation time a year in advance, so November was our 2nd vacation for 2009 and January our first for 2010.
We went on a NCL cruise with my brother's family and my parents. This is my 3rd cruise. Our first was with Disney, and my only complaint was that it was too short. The last 2 have been with Carnival and NCL. I have to say that even though these cruise lines do a lot of things right, (we did have a great time), I found it very annoying that they managed to charge for every little thing! It ended up costing a great deal more than we had planned. I'm not a huge fan of cruises. I don't think I want to do another one any time soon, unless it's Disney.

I loved the ports that we went to...Roatan, Belize, Costa Maya Mexico, and NCL's private island in the Bahamas. Here are some snaps:A perfect beach day! Belize (same island as above)

My DD getting her hair braided by Johanna in Roatan (a small island off of Honduras)
We went zip lining in the jungle just prior to this. I didn't want my camera as I was dressed for a day of snorkeling...a swim cover up and sandals. The weather was not great for snorkeling, and we ended up doing the zip line instead. I would do that again in a heart beat, it was thrilling!

These are the recently discovered Mayan ruins of Chocchoben about an hour outside Costa Maya Mexico. (Discovered about a year ago. They were amazing! You can see how the earth looks now, and how much they still have to uncover.)

My little family on the biggest temple uncovered. There are currently 3 temples that have been excavated.DH carrying DD after she stepped in a fire ant bed! (She was not a happy camper.)

A conch we found in the water on the beach in Mexico. I didn't know they had such beady little eyes!

My parents, SIL, DH, and niece and nephew in Mexico.

Some of the artwork from the midnight chocolate buffet. Really cool stuff, but it was too late to eat for me (except for a little bite of a chocolate truffle pie)!

My finishes and framing from January. I know I didn't come close to attaining my goals this month, but I didn't get a lot of stitching time in, like I thought I would, so I feel pretty good about what I have to show.

This is my little start from New Year's Day. I like the way it turned out, and it looks great on my little red wall in the loft.

Shepherd's Bush Baby Bug Ball, hanging in my DD's pink room.

Shepherds Bush's Spooky Sheep. I love this huge frame on this little piece. Shepherd's Bush Sail Away, finally finished!

Shepherd's Bush Snow Hill. (I didn't realize had so many SB pieces done the last few months!

A little prize I won from Sharlotte's blog a few month's back. Notice the framer put the hanger on the wrong side (the heart is upside down). I will have to take it back next time I go.

Blackbird's Flea Market Find.

Progress on Shores. I'm enjoying this again, and trying to get it done this year.

This is a new start for Valentine's Day. This is Bent Creek's Wedding Row, but I am stitching in Red and pink Valentine colors. Shepherd's Bush has this done up in their shop, and it's much better done this way.

Finally I finished the "F" house in my alphabet village. Only 9 more to go! I'm hoping to finish by April for my DH's birthday, as I am dedicating to him.

That's it for today. I know it's been a newsy post! Hope all is well with my blog friends. Thanks for your wonderful comments and friendship! I love you all!

A New Year...New Goals

Hi to all my wonderful blog friends!

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday! We did, and the memories are still lingering. I haven't wanted to take my Christmas decorations down yet! (A first for me.) I may just leave them up a few more weeks, before I switch to Valentine's.
I'm sorry I've been so silent on my blog. December was busy, and every time I thought about snapping a few pictures, the camera eluded me. (I did find it in the laundry room, after a good day of cleaning up!

Here are some of the things I got for Christmas!A new couch! (The other one was a love seat that we bought when we got married 16 years ago.) After it developed a big hole, we decided it was time for a new one!

A New plasma TV. Hubby bought it on "Black Friday" sale. Our other TV was older than a dinosaur. After trying to give it away, I looked on eBay to see if it was worth anything, and to my surprise we found one exactly like it, listed for 1200.00! Who knew it was so rare! I guess we will be listing ours, and hopefully we can pay for this one by selling it!

My wonderful Mom gave me this...

Cinnamon and Cocoa by Bunny Hill Designs
I absolutely love it! Doesn't it look great with my couch? I want to make the matching quilt called "Rabbits prefer embroidery". (Even bought some red and white fabric at a fabric sale last week to get going on it!)

On New Year's Eve I pulled out this....

Grandma's Porch by Carol Hopkin's Designs One of her Civil War Legacies Patterns.
(An exchange we did in my quilt guild last year)
Kim posted on her blog that she likes to work on a quilt for New Years. I thought it was a great idea, and I worked on this until about 10:30, when my internal clock told me it was time for bed!
I can't decide on borders, so it is just sitting on my sewing room floor at the moment.

I've been working on this during the holidays....

This is my oldest UFO project, started the year I was married in 1993. I debated several years ago, if it was worth finishing. My husband loves it, so I'm going to finish it for him. As you can see I've already stitched the year, so ... the pressure is on.

I did a bit of kitting...

Now this is what my kitted cross stitch projects looks like! It's a little overwhelming to see how many things I have to do...but I love that I can just pull something new out, whenever my stitcher ADD kicks in. I have a basket of new patterns that I have yet to kit. When I met Barb Adams from Blackbird, she related that many stitcher's, she has met, have a kitting fetish. That is so true of me! It gives one a sense of satisfaction to see all of these projects.

And finally my Christmas miracle...

I finally finished Sail Away! It was so hard to do that over-one stitching on the hill! It seemed that I would stitch on it for hours and never see any progress. I wish that I would have just done half crosses on the hill, as I ran out of floss towards the bottom, and could only do half crosses on that section. It is very hard to see, unless you hold it up to the light. I went through every finished Shepherd's bush project I had, and used every bit of that green silk that I could find. (Good thing they like that color to design with.)
Anyhow, it is great to be done with it! What a fun project to work on with friends.

Happy New Year to all my friends. Thanks for stopping by, and for your wonderful comments. They make my day!

There's no place like home!

Shepherd's Bush Designs "Snow Hill"
A quick stitch on vacation from start to finish in a few days!

Hi to all! I've been silent for awhile as we have been on vacation in Florida. It was great to get away, but I've payed the piper all week trying to play catch up. I'm still not "caught up" with my kids school stuff, but sometimes it's just nice to let things go!
Friday and Saturday I was sewing up a wicked storm, as I had to complete 2 baby blankets for baby showers and a birthday gift for one of my best friends. I made her a retro apron from Cindy Taylor Oates' book "More Retro Aprons." I'm telling you, it was the cutest aprons, EVER! (I made the one in the center of the photo) I give this pattern book a full "10". The instructions are very well done, and it was a perfect fit! I'm kicking myself for not taking pictures. I was literally clipping threads and wrapping these gifts five minutes before the baby shower! I hate feeling rushed to finish a project, and wish sometimes I could get more organized!

My little fam on Daytona beach. Notice my DS is the only one brave enough to go in the water the first few day. Towards the end of the week, we all ventured in!

No, we did not make these sand sculptures, but they were so cool! Every day we would enjoy watching this talented guy spend hours creating a new design. He used a little stick to smooth the sand.

Anyhoo, back to vacation fun, The weather was a tad on the chilly side. A tropical storm was brewing off the coast, which brought wind and cooler temps for the first 5 days we were there. Towards the end of the week, we were back into the high 70's and the beach was wonderful. We had a chance to sit around a watch a lot of movies, and I got a lot of stitching done!

Baby Bug Ball Finish. Dedicated to my little daughter, who is always dressing up, and to my friend Jane from Australia.

In addition to stitching "Snow Hill" (above), I finished up my BBB, that I've been stitching with Jane. It was a delightful stitch, and I am so grateful for her friendship, and encouragement. I probably would not have gotten this done without her. Just knowing that I had made a commitment with her, kept me on track. Thank you Jane for everything! You are a sweetie! Go to her blog for better photo's. Jane is the Queen of perfect photos!
I had issues with my little black crow. There weren't any button holes in him. You should have seen the look on my hubby's face when I asked him to drill some pin size holes in it! I decided to ignore his counsel and do surgery on the poor thing with a sharp quilting pin. I thought I had done it when all of a sudden I was holding two pieces of a crow! I know, I'm stupid and stubborn, sometimes. I super glued the little guy back together, took it to Shepherd's Bush, which they were happy to exchange, and I'll be sewing it on after this post!

A little present for myself.
A needle minder (which I don't have, and have always wanted), and
Shepherd's Bush Halloween scissor fob kit.

Speaking of Shepherd's Bush, I had "stitch group" the day after we got home. I was so happy to leave the mess and go and stitch some more! We have about 10 members. We rotate houses and have a great time enjoying lunch and stitching. One of our members needed to stop at Shepherd's Bush on the way, and we all ended having to buy something. I think between the 5 of us, we spent several hundred dollars. It was great! I didn't buy as much as some of the others this time, but I did splurge on a Kelmscott needle minder and a Halloween Scissor Fob by Shepherd's Bush, for my orange stork scissors that Jolene sent me!

I have been the lucky winner of 3 blogs. It is so funny, because I have been entering every contest found under the blogging sun, since last December, and I never win anything! For some reason, my luck has changed because I have won 3 times in one week! How lucky am I? I should have bought a power ball ticket! I'm not sure why my luck has changed, but you can bet that it was the incentive I needed to keep entering contests!

My winnings from Heather's blog!

My first win I posted last time, the cute stitchery from Sharlotte. The second was from Heather. Her blueberry pillow is darling, and the patterns were fun too. The needleroll from Lorri Birmingham was a kit, so that should be fun to do. Thanks so much Heather! You are so wonderful! I love everything you sent.

My winnings from Jolene's blog!

I was so incredibly fortunate to win Jolene's giveaway in October. She sent me Plum Street's Designs "Gobble", with the NPI silks! Also some wonderful hand towels, and a sweet card with leaf "hugs. I've been wanting this pattern, so I was thrilled when I opened it! As always, Thank you sweet Jolene! I love it!

A wonderful surprise from Terri!

And if that didn't show how lucky I've been, then this will. Terri, sent me a wonderful surprise! I inquired about a sampler she has hanging over her fireplace in one of her photos. A lovely sampler called "Mary Allen". Terri, the sweet dear, sent me the pattern, along with some wonderful floss tags for the Mary Allen sampler and for "Alphabet Blocks" by CHS. I had asked her some questions about that one as well, as I have just kitted it up, and she was the model stitcher for it! She also sent a wonderful blackbird pattern, that I love, and will probably do very soon!
I feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends. Thanks to all my blogging friends out there! I do not have a lot of interaction with friends, being cooped up on the house with my children every day. You are my outlet! My chance to connect with adults, and to be inspired. Thanks so much for your friendship.

I will be working on Christmas gifts the next few weeks, so I will have some fun things to show. Take Care all, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving week!

I almost forgot to show you that I kitted Blackbird's "Greetings" from the Peppermint and Holly book. I don't know if I can finish before Christmas, but I'm going to work on this during the holidays!

Little House Needleworks Stitched by Sharlotte

I got a wonderful surprise in the mail on Thursday from Sharlotte.
I won this darling LHN sampler that she stitched and gave away on her blog, The Happy Needle. I love it! I tried to take it to the framing store on Saturday, and they closed an hour earlier than normal because of Halloween. Darn it! I'll have to take it another time this week.
Thank you so much Sharlotte!

Baby Bug Ball Shepherd's Bush

I've been working on Baby Bug Ball by Shepherd's Bush, with my dear friend Jane. My photo's pale greatly in comparison to hers, so if you want to see better pictures, head on over to her blog, Miss Jane's Stitching. It has been really fun to work on this with someone else. She encourages me to keep going, and I like that we are working on different parts of the sampler. That way we can help each other with any snags that may come our way. Thank you Jane! I love working on this with you.Another American Girl Outfit!

I have also finished another American Girl outfit. This one is Josefina's Birthday party camisa and skirt. We bought the fan and yellow shawl, but I made the skirt and top. I added a green velvet ribbon from my husbands Grandmother's stash. I was the lucky recipient of all of her sewing trims, and stash when she passed away. (I also inherited her Bernina Sewing machine, which I could not live without!)

Popping some Indian Corn

While carving pumpkins last week, we popped some Indian popping corn that we bought at the farmers market. I was really surprised that it worked! You stick it in a paper bag and pop for a minute or two. It was delicious, and left me wanting more. Darn carbs!

Eating "POPcorn on the cob"

This is my 12 year old son. I feel bad I don't talk about him much on this blog. Most of my sewing revolves around my DD. He is a great kid, always willing to have fun.
Hope you all had a wonderful Halloween! Until next time friends!

A big surprise, finishes, and a get away!

A surprise from my dear blogging friend, Jolene!

I got the most wonderful surprise in the mail on Friday. Jolene, one of our sail away members, sent me a gift of orange, rust colored stork scissors and a darling card. I was so blown away by her kindness! When I opened the card these wonderful Fall leaves floated into my lap. It was like getting little hugs from a friend. I've never met Jolene, but can you just tell by how generous she is with others, that she is one sweet, kindred friend. I hope to be a friend like her. She makes you feel good and loved, which is a true gift. Thank you a million times Jolene! I can't wait to meet. There are so many bloggers that I feel this way about. To all of you, I thank you for your comments, and inspiration in helping me be a better person. By the way, Jolene is having a fabulous blog give-away. You will definitely want to check it out.

Spooky Sheep by Shepherd's Bush. One of the few finishes I've done lately. Made perfect with Jolene's sweet gift!

Flea Market Find by Blackbird Designs

I've managed to finish another work in progress. I changed the colors of the fabric, and stitched the vine on the right side of the house instead of the left. I also added the date, a couple more motifs around the house, and the mother-of-pearl button. I'm still trying to decide if I like it the button. What do you think? Does it need more buttons to even it out?
I stitched spider-web roses on my vine, and added a few more motifs. I also changed the color of the stem and leaves in the third block to GA Dried Thyme. It went better with my fabric color.

This week I have been trying to make some progress on Sail Away. I'm hoping to finish soon, so that I can work on another Shepherd's Bush Design, Baby Bug Ball.After about a half of an hour of frustration, and staring hopelessly at this project, I discovered why I was off one thread. Can you see that stitch right in the middle, that I went over one thread instead of two? When I discovered it, I just about died! At that moment I certainly wanted to! My kids wanted to know why I was talking like Yosemite Sam! This screw up could not have been in a worse spot since I had completed the water and lighthouse section already. To fix it, it would have meant ripping out half of this section. Thankfully I was cheered up by Jolene's gift, and decided to try and figure out a way to fix the problem. I am stitching the entire hillside over one thread instead of two. It will take twice as long, but it's better than the alternative of ripping this whole section out. Shepherd's Bush, Baby Bug Ball.
I'm stitching this with Jane, my blogging friend from Australia.

Another dear blogger that I love to read, Miss Jane's Stitching, is starting Baby Bug Ball. I asked her if she minded a tag-a-long stitcher. I always work better on something if I can be inspired by someone else's photos. She is on board, and I'm thrilled to be able to stitch this with her. I actually started this about 3 years ago. I worked on it all night, and this is how far I got. I remember being so proud of myself that I got so much done, and then, for some unknown reason, I put it away, and there it has sat in the back of my closet ever since! I have it on my UFO finish list for 2009, so with Jane's incredible photos, and support, I hope to get it done in a timely manner. Thanks so much Jane! I'm excited to stitch with you!

Inside the American Girl museum, Los Angeles

Last month we snuck away to Los Angeles for the day. DD and I wanted to go before Christmas so she could pick out her doll. It was a really quick trip. We were there less than 24 hours. I've been sewing like mad to get some outfits made to put under the tree. It has been a fun endeavor for me! I love sewing doll clothes. I won't show you a picture yet, but I promise I will when it gets closer to the holidays.

Lining up for the doll salon. We did not do this, but I thought it was cleaver and fun!Julie, the doll my DD had her heart set upon!

I was prepared to lay out a lot of cash at this place, but the only thing that my daughter wanted was the Julie doll, and a black fan. I told her she could get an outfit or two, but she was dead set on just having the doll! Now these dolls aren't cheap. I had to do a heck-of-a lot-of- talking to get my husband to agree to buy a $95.00 doll in the first place, so he was thrilled we didn't buy more.Riding the trolley outside of the mall where the American Girl Store is. What a beautiful California Day!

DD made out again at the hardware store last week, when I had another moment of weakness and my husband and I bought her a bunny. Twenty minutes after leaving the store I was wondering what in the heck I was thinking! I don't need more stress with another animal! This little guy is really friendly, and loves to be held like a baby. He hardly gets put down between husband, DD and DS.

A Vintage Christmas By Bunny Hill

Last but not least, I've been working on A Vintage Christmas by Bunny Hill. It is a darling quilt that I've started with my Mom and Sister-in-law. We got together on a Friday last month, and pooled our stashes together to get a quilt cut for each of us. We did buy some of the fabrics that were used in the original, but over all, we saved a lot of money by sharing stash. I am pumped over this quilt! It is so cute. Hopefully I can get it done for Christmas. I am using the "spray starch method" of applique.

Thanks for stopping by to see me! I'm so grateful for my dear blogging friends. I hope all is well with you. Thanks for your sweet comments. I love hearing from you.