Winter 9 patch and AWESOME Ebay find!!!

This has been the longest week and it is only Wednesday!!!!  I had to tutor afterschool on Monday and didn't get home until after 6:00.  Tuesday-Thursday this week I am in class afterschool from 4 to 7 each night. This is for learning holds to control an out of control student.  Tonight I learned how to break a hold when a student grabs my wrist, tries to choke me, decide to kick me or grab a handful of hair!!!  Believe it or not, this does happen in some classrooms. 

I haven't been able to stitch as much as I would like.  This is the Winter 9 patch that I am working on this week.  As you can see, I only have 3 squares to complete on this one. I do hope I can finish it soon!

I found an Awesome deal on Ebay the other day!!!!  I have been looking for a great deal on 18 count fabric by the yard because I have several HUGE charts I would like to kit up and start.  Since most of my BAPS require the entire space to be filled, then the color of the aida didn't matter.    I found 36' x 60' beige aida for $6.95 a yard!!!!!  I bought 5 yards of it and now I am set with aida for a few big projects!!!  Actually, the seller was selling one yard in an auction format so I emailed her to find out if she would just sell me 5 yards and she agreed!!!

The plan is that I will work on my UFO stack until I get out of school for summer in May.  Then I am going to start new projects and a new rotation system!  Hopefully, I can make myself not freak out about not finishing my HUGE projects before I start a new one.  So I am going to rotate, new BAP, new small chart, UFO, etc....I am going to join my friends who have 10 to 20 projects in a rotation!!! This just means more UFO's for me!!! HEE HEE

Finish and Birthday Celebration

 Mark bought me a birthday cake!!!  It was YUMMY!!!  Both layers were Chocolate, with the top layer having carmel layer and the bottom had raspberry!!!  For my birthday, the boys are going to order a sewing table for my sewing room!!!

I have a finish this week!!!  I finished Fall of my seasonal nine patch design.  I now have winter and spring left.  I have had several people ask me where I got these designs.  They are from the JCS magazine.  Spring - March April 2008,  Fall -October 2007,  Winter - December 2008, Summer - August 2008.  I hope this helps you locate them, those of you who are on the search!

I got birthday cards!!!!  My ILCS yahoo group has a birthday card exchange.  I received some beautiful cards and a stack of floss!!!  Berly stitched me a really cute Mickey Mouse card.

Winter exchange!  I was involved in a winter exchange in my ILCS group.  Bridgette sent me: Cozy blue socks, 3 fat quarters of blue fabrics, hot cocoa, threads and a LK chart, fabric, lotion, stoney creek magazine, pink highlighter, YoYo snowman, a book of winter poem and finally a winnie the pooh birthday figurine!!!

What a great birthday!!!

Stitching and Pre-Brithday Gifts

It has been a very busy week!!!  First, I want to update my stitching and then at the bottom are some awesome cross stitch/not cross gifts I have received for my birthday.  These are pre-birthday gifts since the big day isn't until tomorrow (Monday).  I turn the big 40!!!!

I finished 1 page on my seasonal 9-patch design.  Spring turned out really cute....this week I will be focusing on fall as you can see below.

Seasonal UFO - Spring Complete

Fall 9-patch...working on this week

Mark invited some friends over on Friday night for a cookout and pre-birthday dinner.  He bought me an AWESOME birthday cake but I will post this tomorrow.  My friends came and Mark grilled ribs and chicken.  We had salsa, guacamole and cheese dip from the local Mexican restaurant.  My gifts were a GC to HL and a GC to Disney.  Do my friends know me or what?  I couldn't get a picture of the Hobby Lobby GC because I already used it!!

Disney GC Gift and 3 b-day cards from friends

 I bought myself the Bambi Thomas Kinkade Disney Cross stitch kit with one of my HL GC. This has been on my wishlist for awhile!

TK Disney Bambi kit-Gift from my friend Jammi

 Mom and I went to lunch with my Aunt on Saturday. She also gave me a HL GC. I found the newest Thomas Kinkade kit - THE LION KING!!!! Isn't it awesome?????

TK Lion King Kit - Gift from Aunt

 Last Sunday, we had a stitching party at my house.  I got some wonderful gifts from my stitching friends.  I was so happy to get all my gifts!!  I loved my new school post-its and a bag of markers and pens.  I am such a nerd...I love office supplies.  Not sure why but I do!!!!  My friends are such wonderful and generous people and I just want to say Thank you!!!

Pin Cushion and Posts it from Janeth.

Disney Jammies, Cards with stamps and a Bag of markers and pens from Janice.

Soap and candle from Sarah

Teacher kit from Mary

snazzy shoes and lotion from Carol

Hermit weekend and Winners

My stitching weekend was extended by one day!  We had a snow day today!! I curled up under a blanket and stitched my morning away.  As you can see I am almost finished with my spring 9 patch.  I would have gotten a lot more finished this weekend but, I had some house keeping to do!

These pictures are out of order and you can see my messy house!!!  Before Mark left, we had talked about rearranging the living room. He got the bug today.  We moved the sectional to the other side of the room and we even took one of the chairs out of it.

We moved my stitching chair and items to the other side of the living room.  We know have more space in the living room...

Saturday morning, I decided to tackle my kitchen.  The nutritionist mentioned I should clean out my cabinets and refrigerator, so I could get rid of all the tempting foods in my house.  I decided to clean out all my food cabinets and organize them.  As you can see, I moved all my spices to one drawer so I can find them when I need them.

This is my now clean out fridge.  I took out everything, including the shelves. I scrubbed it down and organized it.  I found 4 jars of Mayonnaise...who needs 4 jars??  I realized that Mark would use one jar until there was about 1/4 of it left and then he would put it back in the fridge. Then it would be placed on my list to go buy some more mayo.  This continued until I had 4 jars!!!  I also 6 jars of pickles.  Same thing happened....needless to say we had a little chat.    We have a pantry that has a shelf that I can't see it and have to stand on my tip toes to reach it.  So I pulled everything out, reorganized it. After 3.5 hours, I cleaned out 3 garbage bags of things I didn't even know we had!!!  Talk about feeling great!!!!!  YEA!!!

Winners!!!!
I had Mark pick random numbers for the Cupcake Drawing and the Houses drawing.  The winners are:

Cupcakes:  Shari from Shari's Sharings
Houses:  Sue from Sue's Stitching, Reading, and Family

I had to laugh since they both start with the Letter S.  Ladies if you will email me your address.... I will get these charts in the mail

My Hermit weekend, and new adventure

Next weekend is the official Hermit stitching weekend, however, that is my birthday weekend!!!  Plus, Mark is in Vegas this weekend so I have the whole house and all the TV's to myself!!!!  Talk about exciting!!  So this is my spring seasonal nine patch that I am working on this weekend.  I hope to make a lot of progress this weekend.  It is COLD here and we are expecting sleet, ice and snow Sunday night.  

Last night, I went to meet with a dietitian about my weight. I have been dieting and working out for over 2 months and only lost 2 pounds!!!!  sigh.....so I go in and meet with this really nice lady.  She has me stand on this machine that measure almost everything about me...weight, bmi, water.  Then I got this nice printout that said that I am 31 lbs. overweight!!!!  You know, there is just something about seeing it on paper that makes it really real. It just hits home and you go "Wow, I am fat!"  So my assignment this week is write down EVERYTHING I eat!  What time and how much.  You really notice what you eat when you have to report it back to someone else.  

I went to JC Penny and bought this new scale. I just didn't trust the old one.  One thing I do have to do is not to step on the scale but once a week....

Have a wonderful weekend!!!!

Buried in a Book by Lucy Arlingon

If you know me then you know how I love my contests right?  Well, Lucy Arlington was hosting a contest to win a ARC (Advanced Readers Copy) of her new book that comes out on Tuesday.   
I finished this book tonight and I LOVED IT!!!!


Blurb on the back:  
After receiving her first pink slip at the age of forty-five, former newspaper journalist Lila Wilkins is desperate for work, even if it means taking a pay cut. After combing through the classifieds, Lila accepts an internship at A Novel Idea, a thriving literary agency in the utopian town of Inspiration Valley, North Carolina.


Lila can't imagine anything better than being paid to read, but with a crew of quirky coworkers and a sky-high stack of query letters, she doesn't exactly have time to discover the next great bestseller-especially when a penniless aspiring author drops dead in the agency's waiting room.


No one else seems too concerned about the man's demise, but when Lila uncovers a series of threatening letters, she's determined to uncover who killed the man's dreams of literary stardom.....


My thoughts:
I want Lila's job!!!!  She gets paid to read and recommend future books to literary agents!! Wouldn't that be just awesome???  I know there is a dead body in her office but I could deal with that, I think.  She has been struggling with her son Trey and his I am now out of high school so I don't have to listen to you attitude.  Her goal is to get him to college in the fall without killing him!
Her mother, the Amazing Althea, is a wonderful buffer between mother and son.  She is a believer of the universe, read the cards and is truly amazing!!!  


The book is truly worth a read and as I was reading I could just picture the entire scenes in my head.  To me that is a wonderful book!  If when I am reading the author can make me lose myself in the story and to forget where I am.  I actually want to visit this little town, the community on the hill and the secret garden!!!!


I give it 5 stars!!!

2 UFO Finishes!!! Plus 2 Giveaways!!!

I had a VERY productive week!!!!  I was able to finish 2 UFO's.  My goal for February it work on all my one page UFO's projects.  This way I can focus on my HUGE  UFO projects in the coming months along with finally getting to start some newer projects that I have been wanting to stitch.  I won't have that stitchers guilt for having tons of UFO's around.  I think it my teacher brain that tells me to finish what I start! 

My first UFO finish is my Ozark Sampler House window.  It came in a kit and I decided to change out all the threads.  I turned it into a Disney Christmas scene!!  I ordered a keychain off ebay, took it apart and used the characters on the house. I found the buttons in a pack at Hobby Lobby.  I cut off the button hook and then glued them onto the design.

Ozark Sampler Houses

Mickey's House

Donald's House

Minnie's House

Second UFO finish is a cupcake design that I found in a magazine.  I changed all these threads also, I just can't help myself!  I think this will be a pillow when I am finished.

Giveaways!!!!


First giveaway:
I would like the cupcake patterns to go to a new home.  If you would like to be entered in this drawing leave a comment with your favorite cupcake flavor , your name, and your email address!!!

Second Giveaway:
I am giving away the House pattern and all the threads that came in the kit.You can see what the original design was suppose to look like before I got crazy and changed the threads.    The only thing not included is the fabric.  My design is stitched on 7 ct. I believe but you can use any type of fabric you like. 
To enter this drawing leave your name, favorite disney character along with your email address!!!!


If you want to enter both...answer both questions in one comment!