2010 Stitching and Reading update

Wow! I can't believe this is going to be my last post for 2010!!! I have had an interesting year to say the least. I am hoping and praying that 2011 will be a little better than this year. So lets see how I did on the Stitching and Reading goals I met/did not meet this year.
Stitching Finishes:
1. Mothers Wisdom - Heart in Hands Patterns
2. Snowy Day by Mill Hill
3. Winchester House by Debbie Patrick
4. Kim R's RR Quilt Block Piece
5. Cinderella by Mirabillia
6. Seasons of Love Ornament for Vicky L
7. Joy for the ILCS RR
8. Wedding Sampler for my friend Jammi
9. Historical Fashions
10. Santa Ornament for the ILCS RR
11. Karins Ornament for the ILCS RR
12. Christmas Stocking Ornament

Reading: My goal was to ready 150 books....I am pretty certain that I did not reach that goal since I stopped keeping track around Aug. Next year...I will do better.

Afghan update and Dragon Finish

I have reached the 1/2 point on one of my baby blankets. It is turning out so cute!! The baby isn't due until April so I have some time to finish it (I hope, that is). I finished Karin's ornament for the RR. I love how the scales turned out. The Krenick I used really made a difference.
I have a question that I would like some input on if you feel like commenting. I just want to make sure that I am not wrong to feel like this is just wrong. My LNS is having a HUGE sale on Friday. The email went out on Christmas Eve what the End of the year sale was going to be. Friday was the best day, 70% off the entire store from 9-10 am, 50% from 10- 12 and then 40% off in the afternoon. Talk about excited, I had won a $50 GC in a Drawing and was really going to do some shopping. Of course, I would have spent more than the GC. We were making plans to attend. Tuesday I got an email letting us know that she has placed restrictions on the sale. So now we will not be able to use our GCs, coupons and or any other discounts we may have in our possession. I find this is bad business. I think that if a store gives you/sells you a GC then you should be able to use it when you want. I understand this is her store, however, I also think the restrictions should have be placed in the first email announcing the sale. What do you think? I have decided not to attend the sale. I was so excited about using my GC and now I am just not going to go. I have so much stash that I will use the GC later. There is no expiration date on the GC so I will use it later on for some fibers or something.

Where would you like to go???

I have added a new ticker to my blog. I am the most unmotivated person in the world when it comes to exercise. To make matters worse...my jeans are so tight I had to move up a size which put me in double digits sizes!! I know some may roll their eyes but I was a size 2 when I graduated from graduate school in 2000. I was a perfect size 4 when Mark and I met....from then it has gone downhill and Up in sizes for me. So I am going to make myself lose weight. I checked an online weight calculator and for my height/frame etc....I should be 105 lbs!!!! Which means I am 35 lbs overweight!!! Which is VERY scary for me. Since my favorite place on earth is Disney World...I have decided I am going to walk there by using the treadmill and/or park trails while walking the dogs. I always stay at the Wilderness Lodge Hotel and that is where I am walking too. In case you are wondering, I went to google maps and put in the address to my location and clicked the walking icon. In reality, it would take me 14 days and 21 hours to walk there. The picture was taken from our room at the Wilderness Lodge this past June.
In case you are wondering...I am treating myself to a week at the Wilderness Lodge once I have walked there. I will tell Mark when I reach 1/2 way towards my goal. His thoughts of Disney is that it is HELL ON EARTH!! He would rather pull out his fingernails than go to Disney...but if I do this...lose my 35 lbs then he has to go with me!!! It will be my reward and his week of torture!!
So my question is...Does anyone else want to join me on this little adventure of mine?? If you had to pick a favorite location to walk to ...where would you go???

My Fantastic Christmas Present!!!!

I have the best husband in the world!! Here is the FABULOUS Christmas present he told me to go get myself!! It is a Brother 1250-D Innovis Sewing and Embroidery machine!!! I LOVE IT!! I was able to pick it up prior to Thanksgiving and I put it away until Christmas. I still haven't used it yet but I plan on figuring it out tomorrow. I was so tired with all the traveling and exicitment that I took several naps on Christmas day. Today, I am trying to finish some cross stitch projects. It comes with Disney designs!!! OH I am thrilled!!!!!The boys had lots of fun with our packages after we opened them yesterday. As you can see they destroyed our living room!!!!

I made a purse!

My mom mentioned that she would like a new purse and we happened to be in Joanns so we checked out their patterns. She found a bag that she liked so I decided to try my hand at stitching it up! After a few mistakes...ripping things out and sewing them again, this is the finished product. The only thing I am not happy with is the elastic bands that go over the buttons. I cut them to measurement but they still needed to be tacked down. Other than that...I think it looks good!

Winter Solstice Exchange

My ILCS group had a Winter Solstice exchange and I received a wonderful package from Berly. As you can see she sent me this great box of stitching/cocoa gifts. I received: a snowman mug, a tin of peppermint Hot chocolate, Twisted Threads - Christmas Basket Chart, Cape Cod Christmas from Pickle Barrel, snowman wire Welcome kit, package of 32 ct Jobelan Solo fabric, one skein of each GAST: baked apple, summer meadow, cranberry... Isn't this a fantastic package??? I LOVED everything and I can't wait to try the peppermint hot chocolate.
On top of this package, I received this HUGE package from Vicky L, for the 12 days of Christmas exchange!!! I want to open the package right now!!!!! I am being good however, and refraining!!!!

Need Opinion on Ornament

I have been stitching this ornament for my friend Karin and I am not sure how I like the backstitching of the words "Peace on Earth". The chart calls for DMC 3371 (dark brown) but I am not sure how it goes with the silver Krenick on the dark blue fabric. Here are a couple of pictures...there is a the whole ornament and then the close up of the words. As you can see I only stitched the "PE" of Peace on earth. I was thinking of switching it to DMC 415 (light grey)....what does everyone else think???

Stitching, Quilting, and Round Robins

I am officially on Christmas Break!!!! I honestly didn't think I would survive the first nine weeks. I have LOTS to show off!! In my last post, I explained about the ornament exchange for my stitching group. This is the ornament tree of everyone's completed ornaments from the JCS 2010 ornament issue. Everyone was given a kit with the fabric, fibers and finishing trim. I was able to get 5 new kits!! WHO-HOOO!!!This is pretty panel of fabric I found at a discount fabric store on my way to Branson, MO one day. I just added the back, stuffing, border and I had a Christmas present for my secret pal at work.
I took a quilting class earlier this year and this was our project. Since we took the class in Oct, I made a Halloween throw. I just finished it because I really hate the binding part of quilting. Too me that is just tedious stitching and I don't like it. However, I wanted to get this out of my to be finished pile and I bit the bullet to finish it.I was in a RR in my Ozark Sampler group and I decided to have stitched these cute little cupcakes using Ozark Samplers threads. I have had these in my to be stitched pile for a while and thought they would make a cute RR design. The sprinkles are beads.

I have to add this to my To be Stitched pile since I still need one more cupcake to finish and it looks like I need to finish backstitching one of my wrappers.
This week I plan on finishing a RR ornament of Karin which is a Dragon Dreams pattern. I am hoping she likes what I have done with it...I changed the fabric and changed one of the Krenick threads because I thought they would look better. SHHH!!! We just won't tell her I did this...lets just keep it here between us!!

ornament finish

I have a small finish to show off. I finished Christmas Candy Sock Hop by Fresh Threads Studios. You can find this design in the 2010 Just Cross Stitch ornament issue. I love how it turned out. Now I Just have to finish it by Sunday. My stitching group is having a Christmas party where you finish an ornament from the JCS issue....then you kit it up for how many people are attending. This way you have a finished ornament and 6 more fully kitted ornaments to stitch up!! Isn't that a great idea??? There are 7 of us attending so I will have to kit up 6 ornaments.