Amigurumi January!

I inadvertently crocheted a bunch of amigurumi in January! I thought about doing a couple for V-Day gifts and they just multiplied. I'm hoping my Galentine's Day recipients don't read this blog (I doubt they will!), and I couldn't wait to post them so here they are: 

 I made these hearts in a pod in worsted weight too, and I literally cannot stand how cute they are. 

 I mean, RIGHT? AAAAGH! So precious, lol. 

And I just made this today for my son's best friend, who is embarking on a new single life in his own apartment this weekend. Here's to all his good fortune this year! I hope you can tell it's a fortune cookie!

So, my stitching and designing have taken a back seat to these cuties. I could not help myself. 

My little Jenny girl is healing up, and getting back to her somewhat normal self, complete with a bit of doggie dementia. She is sleeping better and though we are now hand feeding her, she's eating, so that is good!

Feb will be the month for stitching! I have one project to finish and a million to start. How are you guys faring with the beginning of the year? 

My mom and I get together most every year to go over our goals for the upcoming year. But I had a suggestion this year that we go over them every couple months to see where we are at. Too easy to let things fall by the wayside. But you also don't want to set yourself up for any failure so we think hard about these goals. They were all pretty reasonable, so we shall see!

I hope everyone reading this is having a great start to the year and enjoying themselves. Good luck with all your goals and endeavors this year. I'll check in soon with more updates and hopefully a stitchy finish!

 

Fall Updates and Crochet!

Summer is gone. Halloween is over and I guess it's Merry Christmas time! I have not stitched on Summer Bouquet in a while. No update there. Haven't stitched on Good Witches either. Something is always taking away from the attention I want to put towards things lately. So I have been focusing on quick crochet/amigurumi project for a bit to take my mind off some things. 

 

I'm telling you-I LOVE these little ghosts! They are so squishy and cute. One of them made their way to my daughter in law, because OF COURSE! I love giving her stuff and she loves it too!

And I've made quite a few of these little mushrooms too. I won't bore you with all of them, but I flew through these and made a set for my friend's daughter. They should have arrived today in fact. If anyone wanted to see them, you can peek at my Ravelry Page HERE.

How does a person with no kids at home and a (basically) part time job NOT have time for things? Well, I have an almost 17.5 year old doggie who I love and she requires a super strict schedule, lol. That's one thing. The other thing is that my mental capacity just cannot deal right now. My husband had an emergency surgery and needed to be off work for a month, etc. Don't get me wrong-I WANT to stitch. But something always comes up. I hope it won't be that way for long. I need to get over it and start doing it. Story of my life sometimes!

And, shhhhhhh!, I started designing again. I have several designs I'd like to get out, but I need to update my Etsy shoppe and get some things in order before I do that. But I am filled with ideas, which is super weird to me right now. But I made myself a strict goal and I stuck to it and voila! Imagine what I could do it my brain was at 100%!!  LOL.

So many projects I want to do and create!

Need to get back on the walking and WW wagon again. I have goals there too. My mom and I went on a walk at the park recently and the weather was absolutely glorious! 

We literally went from 88 degrees to 47 degrees in ONE DAY yesterday. The day before Halloween, it was so warm and beautiful. Yesterday was super chilly and felt like a different world!

I hope anyone that comes across this blog is doing well and taking care of themselves. As the wheel of the year turns to chillier weather, it's time for reflection and introspection. I plan on trying out some new warm and cozy recipes, tackling some interior DIY projects, along with some more designing and stitching. I need to come up with a schedule for myself so I can utilize my time better and be more productive.

My plans do not include waiting so long to update again, and maybe this will be the kick I need to get some stitching in this weekend!

Take care and I will see you soon with more updates!

Goings on and Summer Bouquet!

Happy July! Hope everyone is well. Been working on a few things and trying to put some stitches in Summer Bouquet too, when I can! Here she is so far. 

Those bleeding hearts are awesome. I did something I've never done before and tried Anchor spooled floss! The hearts called for DMC 221, so I took it to JoAnn's and eyeballed the closest thing I could find and it was Anchor 0045. Here's a comparison pic for you.

At least for this experiment, I thought the Anchor was more vibrant with a very nice sheen to it. It was also "stiffer" or not as soft as the DMC, which I kind of preferred. It was also not nearly as fuzzy as DMC tends to be anymore. I usually wet and straighten the floss and use Thread Magic conditioner on it to try and cut down the fuzzy halo. 

So there you go. Just my own opinion on this first try of the Anchor. I would definitely use it again and wish I had decided to that with the brown used for the alphabet in this piece. Oh well! Next time!

My sweet kid turned 27 last month. Becoming his mom changed my life so much. I cannot imagine it without him or his wife and all they've brought to my existence. I sure miss them not living here, but I'm so happy they are enjoying life on their own and we see them all the time! 

My little Jenny turned 17 last month too! WOW. She's not as strong or as able as she was as a young 15 year old Jack Russell, but she's aging gracefully and still capable of trying to take down a rabbit (if she sees it of course) and showing up on time every day for breakfast and dinner! It's been 17 years of entertainment with this one!

I've been working on creating this simple little fun pattern of a chick. SO fun and SO cute. You can get the pattern HERE. She has other super cute ones too!

It has been SO hot here. Humidity too for good measure. I have tired of VA summers. And winters. I always love the sky in summer however. I caught a pretty cloud display the other evening.

Can I just please get paid to go around and take pretty pictures? Is that too much to ask? I think not. Oh well.

I hope everyone is getting lots of stitching time in and life is treating you well. I'll be back again soon with more updates and hopefully a near or full finish of Summer Bouquet. 

Take care!

Happy Mother's Day! It's been a couple weeks!

Wow, it's been a couple weeks since I checked in! Mostly due to slow stitching progress, but I did complete an amigurumi I'd had in WIP stage for a while. So I did do something! 

First up, progress on Cedar Hill's Summer Bouquet. 

More sweet little french knots. So much fun to do. The DMC violet color is just gorgeous!  I really enjoyed stitching those violets.

The peony bulbs we got my mother in law two years ago finally bloomed this year. I am so sorry she missed the first blooms. They were her favorite flower. We miss her very much, and these will always remind me of her.

I'd been working on this little elephant amigurumi for a while now. I finally finished her up. I was going to give her away, but I think I need to downsize my hook for this yarn first. When I stuffed her, it made the holes a bit bigger than I would have liked. She's super cute though!

Of course, I have another one on my hook right now and it'll be even smaller than this one! Just too sweet, right?  LOL.

I made a REALLY good strawberry pie last week with some gorgeous fresh picked strawberries the kids brought to me after their berry picking date. You can find the recipe for this super easy to make, no-bake, pie HERE.

Everyone gave it rave reviews, so it must have been good! And it's a really pretty pie too, especially if you dress it up with some whipped cream and a fresh berry on top.

Today is Mother's Day and my son and daughter in law treated us to lunch out at a nice restaurant. We had such a nice time chatting with them and they gifted my mother and I with some really sweet and thoughtful gifts. I love those kids so much. And my husband got me a couple more charms for my Pandora bracelet-perfect gift for me anytime! Very thoughtful and I love them.

My own mother is just the best. I cannot say enough about all the things she has done for all of us without batting an eyelash. I really can't. She means the world to me and I don't know what we'd do without her! Love you Momma! 

Well, that's it from here. It's been nice weather in VA and I am loving it! I hope wherever you are that you are experiencing great weather and lots of stitching time and family time. 

Happy Mother's day and I will see you soon with another stitching update!

Cedar Hill and Tiny Mouse

Been a rough, busy week here! In spite of it all, I managed to work on my Cedar Hill Summer Bouquet. 

I think she's turning out lovely. I am trying to let go of my perfectionist nature a bit. Perfection is the enemy of good. And perfection is the enemy of DONE. I still waver between my idea of perfection and good enough for me. In between is OK!

For instance, the directions on the piece said that doing one stitch at a time is the ONLY way to achieve the desired effect on the black eyed susans. Well I really loathe doing "xxxx", and much prefer "////", then making the full cross stitch on the way back to the left. And as you can see, they turned out lovely with really nice variegation! Good enough for me!

I started crocheting a little tiny mouse and have the head done. And seriously, her face just melts me! I won't be able to work on the rest of her for a bit, but she's going to be precious!

Let's see...my little granddog, Franklin, got neutered last week and boy oh boy, was he pitiful. Then at about 4am Friday morning, my father in law had to go to the hospital by ambulance with some breathing and heart issues. He soldiered on through, but needs some medication changed up and he should be good to go with maintenance of course! He will be 88 in June, and I think he's done quite well, especially after losing his wife last year. 

I hope everyone reading this is doing well! I'll be back soon with more updates!

Take care and get lots of stitching in!

It's a MIRACLE! Stitching project finished!

A miracle has happened! I finished Pineberry Lane's Shoo! It has been a long time coming, but in my defense, this has been a heck of a year. Some good, some bad. Health challenges, and just dealing with a huge lack of desire on my part to do much of anything since fall. This is such a small project, I almost hate making a big deal of it, but I'll get to that later. Here she is! 

As I have been looking around my office during the day while I worked, these unfinished projects of mine were feeling unloved and making me feel somewhat guilty! I like finishing projects. I really hate having things not done and just waiting around. Since I've been getting some medical things taken care of, it's spurred me on to get moving on a couple of them and Shoo! really needed to get done!

Another thing that was just waiting for me for about a year in a plastic ziploc bag was this sweetie!

That face kills me! I love him so much. If you wanted to do him, the pattern can be purchased from THIS SHOP on Etsy. She has the cutest things. I thought he turned out so adorable! I'm getting better and better at doing some of these things, and having too much fun with them!

As I mentioned above, finishing these couple of things that have been staring at me for nearly a year-well, it gives me a big sense of accomplishment right now. I dare say I'm proud of myself, lol. AND, I am caught up with Project Life as well, so, whew.

My son turned 26 yesterday and we took him to our favorite steak place and we all had a great time. I'm so proud of him. He and his wife are moving out at the end of the month, and though they'll still be in our neighborhood, I can't tell you how much I will miss having them here. But I'm really excited for them to start their proper married life and I know they are too. Having to see Mom and Dad when you come and go all the time sure gets old I know! I've just had such a great time having them here. And this is what you raise your kids to do-be independent and self sufficient. It's so hard (and expensive) anymore!

The wheel of the year is turning toward Summer in just about 9 days! I cannot believe it. I will be taking care of lots of things for myself over the next few months and beyond. Time to get back to me for a bit and get my mindset and my physical health back on track.

Well, I hope everyone is doing great and getting way more stitching done than I have. I will shop around in my stash and start another one soon. I'll have to pull a few this week and decide. I have no shortage of things to stitch, that's for sure. I'm excited to begin something new. 

Take care of yourselves, and until next time,

Family updates and a new crochet Unicorn

So. It's been a bit rough. My mother in law passed away on 3/1/22. She had been dealing with cancer and kept saying how ready she was to go. We will really miss her. I'd known her for 40+ years. I'm so happy she got to see her first grandson get married. She so enjoyed that day and felt relatively good and had a really nice time too. Something I'll always be grateful for.

My goodness. That last photo was taken in Oct of 1996, so my son was about 4 months old. He sure loved his Nana. And she ADORED him--before he was ever born. He was there for her throughout her illness and was so sweet about taking time to spend with her and talk and just be. I'm so proud of the young man he has become. Good kiddo for sure. There are no words to describe how much I love him and my daughter in law. She was right in there with us, and it was hard. But we came through it.

On the crafty front, I made my daughter in law another amigurumi to add to the now ever-growing collection! This was so fun to make!

Seriously. The face. I learned a lot of new skills working this one up. Sometime soon, I'm going to try one with a DK weight or lighter weight so it can be smaller. This one is about 10 inches from the horn to the feet. You can purchase this pattern HERE. The instructions are fantastic and it really is quite easy.

No progress on the stitching front, even though I promised. To be fair, I've had my own health challenges the past couple months and a couple surgeries to boot, lol. My husband and I joke about how I'm due for an ER visit--then whaddyaknow, there I go! All is pretty good now. I just need to get myself back to where I want to be, and I'll be feeling better.

My state was down to 3.2% positivity rate for the pandemic recently. I just checked today and it's back up to 8.3%. Sigh. I don't even know anymore. Between that and the aggression against Ukraine, my brain is spinning sometimes. I truly do need to get back to walking and stitching. It makes me SO happy. Crochet does as well, as you can see. 

Sometimes these crafts can present problems for me that I never had as a younger person. Ever get elbow or back problems from hunching over your projects? UGH! It can really put a damper on your crafting time. Project Life does not do that for me, and I am several months behind on that. Lots of things have taken a back seat to more important issues lately. I hope I can catch up soon.

I hope everyone reading this is doing well and enjoying all their time, crafting or otherwise. Take care of yourselves and one another. Until next time, 

Happy Stitching, Tammy

Quick February Update!

Feb. 9th. I'm starting this year in more disarray than I ever remember. This ongoing pandemic. A very serious health issue for my husband's mom. My stitching mojo just up and disappearing. I did do some stitching on my most recent one, and hope to have it done soon. Things are just a bit discombobulated. I need some new routines I think, in order for me to get straightened out and back on the track I need to be on. Anyone else feeling similar? 

We rounded out the year with an AMAZING dinner at one of our favorite gourmet places. The food is incredible, service is amazing and the whole holiday vibe was just awesome. We had so much fun. The place is called Fahrenheit 132 in downtown Fredericksburg VA. I am STILL thinking about the meal I had!

I crocheted my son a cute little S'More for their growing collection of stuff I make that they probably don't want, lol. 

I'm sorry. I just cannot get over the faces, lol. So cute! We had a really horrid snowstorm the first week of January. Our major highway was shut down for over 24 hours and people were just stuck there with no way out for all that time. Power outages were everywhere and my mom came to stay with us for a week due to that fact. I loved having her here though! I got to wait on her and just visit at length. I can't remember the last time I spent that much time with her and I really enjoyed it! My son did too.

Next update will definitely include some stitching! There is just so much good stitching to be had, you know? I think that buying stitching supplies and patterns is a totally separate hobby from actually stitching. I'm really good at the first part! LOL.

Well, that's it for now. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year (and January!). Here's to starting some new habits, and bringing back some old ones that were good....

Until next time,

Less than a week till Christmas!

I cannot believe we are here again! This time, Christmas will be so much more special because I now have a(n OFFICIAL)daughter(in-law)!!! The wedding was wonderful. They wrote their own vows, each of them doing a spectacular and beautiful job. It was truly wonderful. We only had about 22 people, so very small, but I know they will always remember their special day and the loved ones they had surrounding them.

 My only child is now a married man! I am so happy for the both of them. She was glorious in her gown and he was like a handsome prince in his tuxedo. Though we only had about 6 weeks of planning, everything was great. They are perfect for one another and we wish them a life of love and laughter ahead. She is not just my daughter in law, she is my friend as well. And I love them both to the moon and back.

Still no cross stitching to speak of. My Pineberry Lane Shoo! is staring at me every day just wanting to know when I will finish her. Soon, I promise, soon.

I decided to whip up another poinsettia plant. This one is named Peppermint, and she is a gift for someone for Christmas.

These are so incredibly fun to make. Putting the face on is the most fun, but I find all aspects of doing this just relaxing and meditative. After an incredibly stressful week at work and coming off of all the wedding festivities, I needed to do this. 

So are you prepared for Christmas? I don't know if I ever consider myself prepared. When I love people, I want to buy them all the things for the holidays. I'm just getting less and less willing to tromp around stores to do it. My husband is kind of hard for me to shop for. But we make it work.

I've noticed a change in people over the past 20 years or so. People are just not as nice somehow. There is meanness on the roads and in the stores, and on planes. I'm not sure where we are headed as a country, you know? Now we have another covid variant, Omicron, threatening to overwhelm the medical systems again, and I don't know how much more these poor medical people can take. Or the teachers for that matter. 

I think this coming year, I need to double down on my crafting and reading. I need to stitch more and I might have to give up project life this year to do that. Or maybe put down my crochet hooks (nooooooo!) for a while. I have some crafty goals I want to accomplish, and something has to give in order for that to happen. But what a problem to have, right?

Hope all your Christmas preparations come together, and everyone is well and happy! Stay safe, and until next week,

Wow, where did the Fall go??!

Neglected the old blog for a few months and the time just flew! I really want to do an update now, so I can at least stay on track a bit and catch up. Whew, this fall has been a whirlwind. I don't have any stitching to show. I did a lot of beading earlier this fall, and have been crocheting some amigurumi plants and just working.  

My son and his lovely girl are getting married this coming up weekend, 12/11 !!!  I'm so happy for them! I couldn't have picked a more wonderful woman if I picked her myself! I will fill in more after the wedding, but it's coming up quick and we have little details to worry over.

A recent finish, (TODAY!), is my little Poinsettia. OMG, I cannot even with this face!

I used a combination of a couple different patterns on Etsy. These are SO fun to make and though I hate weaving in ends, I've tried to make it a meditative practice, so thereby possibly enjoying it more. SPOILER ALERT: I don't.

Thanksgiving was nice, with being able to see my nephews. Since their parents divorced, seeing them can be quite tricky. Half the time they are with the other parent, so holidays with them are very sparse anymore. But they are getting older and busier too, and that makes it hard as well. It was good this year.

Halloween was pretty low key.

The actual day of Halloween, we went bridal dress shopping and had a nice lunch out with all the gals involved! Very fun, and I am thankful every day to be included in all these goings on, and thankful I am here to see it all.

We've all been vaccinated and boosted and there's nothing more we can do. The wedding is small, only about 23 people and all but a couple of the children are vaccinated. My mother in law is dealing with cancer and chemo so we have to all be as safe as we can and try to protect our vulnerable people. Wish everyone felt the same. 

I have too much cross stitch I want to do, and not enough time for the remainder of the year I don't think! I may forgo Project Life next year to concentrate more on stitching, but I'll see. I have enjoyed doing it again. Work has been insane the past month or two and I'm feeling burned out on so many things. This is going to be a busy week leading up to Saturday and I want it all to go off without a hitch for them. 

Take care everyone! I hope to update before the end of the year with a couple wedding pics and more crafty updates, but I cannot promise a dang thing. 

Until then,