Sunday, January 30, 2011

Interesting week



It has been an interesting week and LONG week. I have been busy at work. This semester has gotten better because several of my problem students are no longer in my classroom. I have to say I am enjoying not being yelled at all day. I am still waiting on my test results from ETS to find out if I have passed my certification test. My fingers are still crossed. Mark asked me if I did pass my test would I leave BHS to teach Regular Junior High Math...and I have to say yes, I think I am ready for a change. It all depends on if I pass my test and if there is a regular position open. Alot of if's!


I have been really working on my Teddy Afghan. I have 18 letters finished now and 8 to go!!! I was hoping to finish this by the end of the month but I didn't make my goal. Oh Well....I know today was UFO Sunday but I really want to this design finished. I am so close that I can taste it.

Stitching Afternoon: Today was wonderful! I had my local stitching friends over for a late lunch and an afternoon of Stitching. We celebrated Becki's birthday. It was a fun afternoon. The boys loved having everyone at the beck and call. There were lots of pats, hugs, kisses and scratches behind the ears. That is all they require. Mark took off. He decided that he was going to go play cards instead of being home with 7 ladies sitting around stitching.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Faery Tales Update


I worked on Faery tales yesterday for UFO Sunday. I now have 7% completed for this design. I forgot how much I HATE confetti stitches that I can't park for later use. It took me over 2 hours to stitch one 10 x 10 grid.. This is the portion that is under the globe. This little portion took the longest!!! I was ready to pull my hair out. I figure at that rate I should have this finished in 1o years!!!
Today was the first day back after my snow days. I am exhausted. It was like the first day of school all over again. In case you are curious...Gibbs ate a portion of my insurance card for the new car. He pulled it off the counter and ate half. Luckily there were two of them so I still have one I can use. What am I going to do with him?????

Sunday, January 23, 2011

G and H Teddy Bears



I finished another 2 letters on my Teddy Afghan...it is moving right along. I had a busy day today. I entered over 100 books onto my trade file on Paperbackswap. I also took 2 loads to donations to Goodwill. One corner of the garage is looking much better. I still have some other things to clean up but I am doing a little bit at a time. I have needed to declutter for a while...this is a much slower process than I thought. I didn't realize how much stuff I had stuck in closets, under beds, in the garage...it is just amazing. This afternoon I was watching The Princess and the Frog and I was craving Copelands and Mark was a wonderful husband because he went and picked us up some takeout. We are still eating at the dinner table and it is nice. It is working out ok. We are talking more and spending a little more time together.
You will never guess what Gibbs ate today....He ate my sewing Chalk. You know the chalk you use to mark lines on dark fabric. When I told Mark, I asked him if thought Gibbs would blow out puffs of chalk when he passed gas. Mark looked at me like I was strange...I think it is a valid question. In case you are wondering, Gibbs has been eating things since we brought him home...I thought it would be funny to post what strange thing we eat each day.

Friday, January 21, 2011

D, E, and F Teddy Bears





I used my snow day productively today. I was able to stitch all afternoon and evening. It is amazing how much I can get stitched when I don't have my computer on and I am checking emails or playing on my frontier or Island on Facebook. I have 20 letters to complete on this one and 14 on the other one. I hope to have them finished by the time the babies are born in April.
In case anyone is wondering, the only thing Gibbs ate today was a tennis ball. He did try and play in the trashcan but he got a spanking for that...yes I am a bad mom for spanking my dog. Right now he is chewing on his log of wood . Yes, the boys have a firelog to use as a chew toy, it is better than eating my table or chair legs, or the molding around the windows (the older dogs did that).

Ozark Sampler Finish

My goal this evening was to finish block one of my Ozark Sampler Afghan. We are doing one design per month. He just turned out so cute!!! I have insomnia tonight. I had a coke and a took a small nap this evening so now I am awake!! Snow days aren't good for me because they get me off my schedule.
I told you about the book Gibbs ate on Monday. Just thought I would fill you in on what else he has eaten this week. Tuesday: one skein of DMC 310..Hes fine, Mark caught him with it and pulled it out of his mouth. Wednesday, he found a sock, Thursday - He ate my bra. I had it laying on the bathroom counter and he grabbed it and ate it. My poor Gibbs...what am I going to do with him???

Thursday, January 20, 2011

My Stitching Room is Organized!!

I am sad to say this is what my stitching room looked like this morning! This is the closet area. It is crammed full! If you look in the center of the room you can see my sewing machines, chairs and some of the bookshelves.
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Then to other side...you can see theother corner...it is crammed with bookshelves that are stuffed to the max!! I had ` filecabinet, 6 bookshelves, 112 drawer stand, 1 -9 shelve (3 x 3) with baskets, 1-4 wire basket, 1- 3 drawer rubbermaid holder and 1 3-drawer small rubber maid holder. There is also a trunk in the corner that holds sewing fabric...it is STUFFED!!

I started cleaning around 7:30. I took almost everything out of the room and I made a goal that I wouldn't put anything back in the room without going through it first. I had to put up 3 shelves in my closet. I took down the closet doors because frankly they were ugly. Unfortuantly, they are still standing her because I am waiting on Mark to take them to the garage. I went through all my charts and kit because I was in a cleaning mode. I think I have a stack of at least 100 charts and kits I am going to put up for sale. As you can see from the pictures below that things are organized and I have room for a chair so i can stitching in my craft room. Who would have thought that!!!! The dogs have room to walk around. I even brought in a bigger TV, with a my DVD/VCR and set that up. Now I can watch movies!!! The next thing I am going to do (besides move the closet doors) is to buy a craft table to put against the wall.


Monday, January 17, 2011

Ozark Sampler Aghan


As most of you know I take a class once a month from Mary(AKA Ozark Sampler Designs) at my local LNS. This year it was decided that the monthly class would be a great afghan design. There would 12 designs from Mary, one for each month, and then we are supposed to find a quilt design. It can be any quilt design, we are just to use the same colors we used on that month's design. As you can see I am 1/2 finished with my first months design. I think I am going to use the free quilt Cross stitch patterns from Cyberstitchers. I typed in the word "quilt" in the search box and there were several cute ones!
On the not so funny note, I thought I would share a "Guess What Gibbs ate today????" it seems that Gibbs found my book that I was reading. I had gone to take a shower, laid my book on the arm of charm marking my spot. Gibbs decided he needed my book. I wouldn't have minded so much if he had eaten the part of the book I had already read....but he at the part I hadn't read so now I have no idea who the killer was in my mystery!!! I am going to have to go to paperbackswap and order a new one!!!! Mark thought it was kinda funny....since this is the 2nd book he has eaten. At least this one wasn't a library book I had to replace. What am I going to do with this dog?
Mark and I have started something new in our house. We are going to start eating dinner at the dinner table instead of TV trays in front of the TV. We are going to see how this works. This was the first time in 5 years just the 2 of us at the table. It was kinda fun!!!!!

UFO Faery Tales




I worked on my UFO Faery tales today. I knew this design was 49 pages but I had forgotten how much fabric this actually was to hold. I managed to put in around 600 stitches. The two pictures are the before and after so you can see the progress from today. Isn't the floss box pretty?? These are all the colors that will make this pretty design. I decided to make a new spreadsheet for my stitching and I realized that I have stitched 7% of this design. I think I had better get to stitching!!!



Mark was going to bed tonight and he asked me to come look at Gibbs. I think my dog is very comfy and doesn't want to be bother....what do you think????

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Teddy Afghan update


The letter C is complete!! This means I only have 21 more letters to stitch until I am finished with this blanket. Last night I kitted up all my floss for Faery Tales so I can work on it on Sundays. I prepared my Round Robin piece to be mailed tomorrow. I am using the 4- 9 patch seasonal designs from the JCS magazines. I have 5 of the 45 squares stitched so I am hoping by the time it gets home 10 more squares will be be finished.I ordered this Jane Austen day book to keep up with all my appointments. I just love Jane Austen and decided I would keep up my appointments, books read and stitching progress in the calendar!!! This weekend (after payday) I may decide to order myself the diary too.....but not sure I really want that. I am excited about the day book though!
I LOVE my new car but it is smarter than me! I can't seem to get the Garage Door programed to the car. It just doesn't want to register. UGH!!!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Teddy Bear Afghan and a NEW CAR!!!!

I set a goal for my snow day to do 3 stitch-related things. I was going to finish Angela's RR project...I did that. I was going to stitch 2 of the Teddy Bears on my Teddy Bear Afghan, as you can see from the picture above, I did that. They are just so cute... Finally I was going to pull the Threads for the UFO- Faery Tale. I didn't do that. Instead...my DH and I did something more fun.We bought a new car!!! He found a used 2009 Acura TL at a local dealership and he wanted to go LOOK at it. Bad idea....I LOVED it. It has so many bells and whistles in it and I loved it so we made an offer...2 hours later with all the haggling and test driving...we bought a new car. It has 22,000 miles on it and it talks to me. It has one of those sensors that beep when you back up and it get to close to something. It also has a on board screen that shows me what is behind me!!!! The manuals (there are 4 of them) are 4-5 inches thick in measurement!!! It is going to take me forever to figure this car out!!!! But I am going to really enjoy it!!!

UFO Poll Results and RR finish

The poll results are in and I am a little shocked. I thought people would vote on the projects that were close to being finished but boy was I wrong!!! As you can see they chose for me to stitch my HAED Faery Tales. This is the one project that has the least amount of work done on it and is the BIGGEST UFO I have!!! The design is 49 pages long and I have finished 2!! So there are 47 pages left to stitch. The runners up on this poll were my Disney Castle and Victorian Village. Since I am on a snow day today I will go pull the fibers for this chart so I can work on it on Sunday's. This will be my UFO day.
This is my finished section of the RR I am participating in my Ozark Samplers Group. This is Angela's design, a Carriage House Samplers chart. She decided to stitch it in blues...very lovely! I did the part below the letters S-Z....Mary I believe stitched the HUGE center design in this section and I completed the medium and smaller designs. It is really pretty!!

Sunday, January 9, 2011

First Finish of 2011

I finished one of my Mill Hill Village Kits. The first one I stitched was Victorian House. I have to tell you that the picture does not do this design justice. The beading is really spectacular on the opalescent fabric.
I opened the 3 packages from my 12 days of Christmas exchange. Vicky dyed me some beautiful purple fabric. In the Christmas tin she sent 2 small packs of mill hill beads, 1 tube of seed beads, 2 packs of needles, and a skein of red thread. My final package was several skeins of my favorite colors of DMC! I loved all my packages and I have to say I am kinda sad I don't have a present a day to open anymore.
Mark and I are looking at a purchasing a new car. I am opening for a little sports car but I have a feeling Mark is going to make me be practical. We test drove a 2008 BMW series 3 car on Friday. We LOVED the car and we probably would have purchased it right then and there but it wasn't BMW certified. It seems it was a consignment car where the owners are having BMW sell it for them so it is sold as it with a limited warranty. Mark didn't like that. We we also went and checked out a sleep number bed. I really want one and am trying to convince Mark we need one. However, the price really freaked him out especially since we are looking at a new car.
The weatherman is predicting snow for this week. I would love to see snow and get one snow day...maybe Wednesday morning since I have morning detention every Wednesday...would be nice not to go to detention

Sunday, January 2, 2011

12 days of Christmas

My ILCS group is doing a 12 days of Christmas exchange. You get a partner and mail them 12 stitchy gifts they get to open starting Christmas day. We are in day 9 of the exchange and I wanted to show all my prizes I have received so far from Vicky L. She has sent me:
Day 1: Beading Necessities Kit
Day 2: Thomas Kinkade Cinderella kit
Day 3: Cheshire Cat Disney Kit
Day 4: Disney Thumper Kit
Day 5: Disney Chip kit

Day 6: 2 purple fat quarters
Day 7: 2 Stitchy Coasters
Day 8: Lizzie Kate - Cat Lessons for people
Day 9 - 2 Charles Craft Bookmarks with a READ chart
Jag was being nosy and just had to be in the picture! Thank you Vicky...I LOVE everything and I can't wait to open the other 3 packages!!!

Saturday, January 1, 2011

UFO Help


I have a list of 10 UFO's that I need to stitch. I REALLY hate having UFO's and I am determined to finish at least 3 of them this year. I have listed them on the left hand side and with how many pages there left until completed. So I am going to have a poll. I will let my followers decide which UFO I will work on first. As you can see that I have a lot of stitching to do on some of them. The Poll will be on top of the UFO list. Just pick your favorite and it will close on Jan 10th. Thanks for the help!!