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

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,

Beneath the Sunlit Sky Update and more!

 Yep, I could not "just go with it" as I thought I could. Soooooo, long story short, I dyed a piece of 16 ct aida and am now using just one strand of floss throughout. THIS TIME, I am going to finish this sucker. 

Oh, and pardon the weird flower looking thing on the right. It looks a little obscene, but I promise it's going to be pretty, lol.

The fabric is a mottled sky blue. I didn't use any yellow in this one. It's a shame because I wanted a bit more of a greenish/turquoise blend, but the yellow was just giving me trouble (see prior post!)

Cross stitching just gives me so much joy. SO MUCH! Even when I'm scrapping a project to do a different fabric, or I'm not crazy about my stitches and start over--I just love the process.

I'll be getting a couple pieces back from the framers soon and I cannot wait to see how they turned out. I have a lot of framed pieces that I haven't hung anywhere, but I plan to soon.

I had been look for Birds of a Feather's Red Reindeer for so long. A kind and generous person on one of my groups on facebook said she had it and sold it to me! I really love this design.

The motifs here are so small that I'm going to just use DMC for it. But it's so pretty. 

I have been keeping up with Project Life! I finished Feb and started on March! One thing I realized is that I need to take some more pictures. With not going out very much, photos just don't seem to happen a lot.

I had such a great weekend! Spent some time with my mom going to lunch and walking at the park. This weekend was glorious in VA. Upper 60's and just beautiful. I accomplished a lot crafty-wise and felt pretty good about it. 

While at lunch with my husband last week, I got the email to register for my vaccine appointment!!!!!! So I did and it's tomorrow at noon. I hope my mom gets her notification soon too. I have tried to put lipstick on the pig with this past year of pandemic living, but I have to say, it's just been awful. AWFUL. And I will never ever forget all the people in this country who have succumbed to this awful virus. Living in fear just takes a toll on you. Fear of everything and for the ones we love. But with all the vaccines getting done, I hope all the numbers come down and a bit of normalcy can return! Woodlawn is in May this year and I really want to go with my mom! We didn't go last year of course. 

Well, take care everyone! If you are stopping in to read, I truly appreciate you taking time out of your day to do so. Be well and stay happy and healthy! Until next week,

I'm calling her DONE! Come see Fancey's Brooms!

I'm calling this one done! I left off the top and bottom borders. When working on linen, they have a tendency not to line up crisply after framing. I attempted the top border early on, but I hated stitching it. So there. LOL. Just to recap, I also replaced the pinwheels with various quaker motifs, which I really enjoyed doing.

Can't tell you how happy I am that she is done! I enjoyed her, but as usual, ready to move on to a new one. Being a monogamous stitcher is boring sometimes. I seem to move so slow at times, but as with everyone, it depends on what is going on in life (and my motivation). 

Keeping up with Project Life, I finished the first spread for Feb. Fancey even made an appearance!

The weekend has been sunny but cold. This week will be a little warmer. I want to put in a perennial bed this year, so I need to start sketching that out and deciding what I want to see out back. We thought we'd have a patio put in off of our deck but that hasn't happened yet, and I don't want to wait any more for flowers. I think I need moonflowers this year too.....

My little Jenny has to have surgery in a couple days (on Tuesday). She needs to have some lipomas removed from her side. This will be the third go-round for this type of thing. They just keep coming back. But we can't let it go, so surgery it is. She looks pitiful here, but she is still very spunky and ornery for being 14.5 yrs old. That's a Jack Russell for you!

I love this dog. She loves us all, but she's kind of a Momma's Girl. A real Princess and the Pea if you know what I mean. 

Hopefully every one of you is warm and has power. We have been very fortunate to have all our services without interruption. As much as I always enjoy seeing snow, I also long for warmer days, extended daylight and the possibilities that spring and summer bring.

Stay warm and see you soon with an update as soon as I figure out what I want to stitch next! Until then,

Vaccines, Setbacks, and Hopefulness

I'm trying to give this 2021 thing a shot. I really am. LOL. I had to frog this area TWICE, and gave up for a week or so I think. I was just off on my counting, and not feeling too well. This is reality.

I finally got back on track, and have worked my way out of the miscounting mire, but not enough to post a pic. 

During the past few years, I had given up on my Project Life scrapbooking. Truth be told, it was too painful at times to even work on it. Losing relationships leaves a big hole in your life, as well as things like scrapbooking. And although it can be cathartic to document it (and I have), it can also just be like rubbing salt in an open cut, and I just avoided it for a while. But I'm back to doing it, and after the horror of this past year, I'm hoping it will make me feel better. I also ordered a couple new albums and some supplies online and the bit of retail therapy also made me feel better.

I felt like I didn't know where to begin with it. Being out of the creative loop for a while will do that. So I'm keeping it simple and just trying to focus on enjoying the process and capturing some memories.

My husband is the first in the household to get his covid vaccine! He received the initial dose of the Moderna shot, and goes back in 3 weeks for the follow up. 

Hopefully the new administration can iron out some of the awful problems with the rollout of this thing, and have it running smoothly in (hopefully) short order. Fingers crossed for everyone out there.

My mom and I went to In Stitches yesterday!!!!! No pics, but I promise, we were there! We got up and went early and I took two pieces to be framed. She was so sweet as to purchase my framing, and I'm telling you, it ain't cheap. They do such a fabulous job however. I can't wait to see them come back!

I just haven't been doing much else with the month of January. I haven't crocheted anything. I had a setback on my stitching-see above-and I've just been feeling pretty bad for a month or so. Got a doc appointment tomorrow and my husband is having knee surgery on Tuesday. Wish us luck! LOL.

Take care and I'll be back soon with some better stitching updates, and a bit of stash. Until then,

Finally a Finish!

I finally finished that sweet little Pineberry Lane October 31 design into a little pouch! 

I used fabric glue to secure the binding, since hand sewing didn't go well at all. And I also used the glue to make the bias for the handle. It worked out pretty good. It sure isn't perfect, but it's done! I like this design so much I might have to stitch it again for a frame.

I added some more rows to my crochet dresser mat. I am loving it!

A smal stitchy update. I have only taken a few minutes here and there to work on it. 

 The weather here has been absolutely beautiful. I cannot overstate that! It is REALLY finally Autumn in VA. I want to be more present in my daily life this month and really drink in everything about the season. I want to try and meditate for 5 to 10 minutes every evening or during the day if I break from work. I plan to eat all the seasonal fruits I can. And I plan to stitch more, and try to relax more. With everything happening in this country, I need to step away from the news and turn on my Fall or Halloween playlist and just chill out. I need to take more photos too. I have slacked off from Project Life for the past couple/few years, and would like to get back in to it at some point. So much to think about and do. I should have plenty to keep me busy over the next few months, at least!

I hope you all find lots of little pleasures in life this month and find some ways to appreciate what we have and plan for the future, whether that is tomorrow, next week, next year or beyond. Take care of yourselves! Thank you for checking in on my blog. I really appreciate it. 

Until next time,

Giving Sisters progress and Kitted Up Projects

I've left Mrs. MaGuire's Garden for a bit (nearly done) to work on my Giving Sisters and I'm making good progress. I'm thoroughly enjoying this stitch and have loved this design ever since I saw it.

I kitted up my projects that I bought floss and fabric for while on vacation too! So I thought I'd show those off.

 

I can't wait to work on all these designs, and I have plenty more kitted up and ready to go as well. I found a great system that works for me using small and large acrylic envelopes to store kitted projects in. I keep the fabric and floss separated in the envelope however, to avoid any bleed that might happen.

I look at all my beautiful stitching supplies and I feel very lucky indeed. I'm a crafter by nature, so I have lots of yarn, beads, and scrap stuff too. My project life book from last year is paused at August. I've yet to do one this year. It's been a hell of a year around here. Some good, some bad. But I feel stuck as I've never felt. Just need to get all my things back on track! Actually completing stitching projects is so huge for me. Staying off facebook certainly helps.

If you are taking time to stop by this blog and are generous enough to leave a comment, thank you. It's no small thing when people take time to notice you and acknowledge what you are doing.

Hello September!

 I haven't been cross stitching, but I did have a good summer! I take that back. I did do a few stitches on my Moon and Stars from LHN, but not enough to even post a pic. I've been doing some other things, not the least of which was making enormous headway in cleaning out closets, cabinets, garage and shed. Every end of summer, beginning of fall, I feel an overwhelming need to clear out and clean up. Not just material things, but mentally as well. This year is no different!

We had summer vacation in July at Ocean City, MD, as we usually do. I broke TWO toes the week before vacation. Did that stop me? Nope. Of all the times we have gone to the shore, I never seem to take a sunrise or a sunset for granted. There is just something so spectacular about seeing the sun come up and go down. Granted, I'm easily entertained, but it truly is a bit of magic in the everyday.

Got a great pic of my son sitting on the beach and my husband waving hello as he comes in. I love this shot.

August was nice. Our weather hasn't been too awful hot and the rain has been to a minimum. I took the opportunity before I went back to work to do some crocheting.

This one is called the Cloudburst Shawl, and you can find it on Ravelry. It's super easy and free, if you would like to try your hand at crochet. I made two of them because the pattern was so nice.

This is my second year keeping up with Project Life. I absolutely love it. LOVE IT. I can't tell you how important it is to record your memories and take photos. Print them out. Enjoy them. Share them. It's worth it. This is just a small example of a spread from July. I do 6x8 Project Life. The larger size just put me off and I was never able to fill it up it seemed and I would stop doing it. The smaller size just clicks with me and I look forward to working on it. Doesn't take too much time and is really enjoyable for me.

I also turned 49 in August. That's A-O-K by me! I love being here. It's a wonder to be in this world and get to enjoy all the things I enjoy, have the family that I do, and live the little life I have here with them. I'm going to approach this coming year as I do so many others-with gratitude, appreciation, and love. It's a good way to go.

I hope everyone is up to something good and enjoying the few days left of summer. Autumn Equinox, or Mabon, comes on September 23rd this year. That means celebrating harvests, and enjoying lots of fresh fruits, vegetables and grains. I think of apples and pumpkins automatically! I'm looking forward to all things Autumn! I want to cook more, and that's one of my goals for this upcoming harvest season.

Until next time,