Last Post of 2013- Lots of finishes to show

I am off to Disney World tomorrow so I probably will not have time to post anything until I come home from my magical trip.  This has been a very interesting year.  The first part was better than the last where work is concerned.  I am looking forward to a new year.   I have set one goal for this year and it is for one project.  I am going to focus this entire year on my Sistine Chapel. It is such a huge project that I really want to see it finished.  There are 45 sections of this project, 347 pages and a total of 628,296  stitches.  This year, not really working on it but every few months I was able to finish 18 pages with 37,479 stitches for a total of 6.0%.  I have 44 sections to go!  I would like to complete 12 sections this year.  That is my goal, lets see if I can reach it!!

Christmas picture of me and my sweetie!!!  

12 days of Christmas exchange from my ILCS group- I received:  Package of paper bobbins, 3 skeins of Crescent colors thread, Disney Calendar, Package of needles, 2 packs of Mil Hill beads, Lindor truffles, Mill Hill Victorian Tree kit, Mickey stickers, 2 packages of tea, one stitching finishing tool, a hot air balloon bookmark.... Sandy really spoiled me!  Thank you Sandy!

 My final gift was this Beautiful 50th anniversary Disneyland ornament!  I love it!!!  It is now hanging on my Princess tree.

Close up!!

 I made my uncle an Eagle Rag quilt for Christmas.  He LOVED it.  My great-aunt tried to take it from her, but I promised I would make her one once I get back from my trip!

My local cross stitch group has a Christmas exchange and I drew Becki's name. Becki loves Halloween and I had a lot of Halloween fabric so I made her a rag quilt too.  She loved it!  

I finished the entire top row of my HEAD - A Wintery Heirloom.  I have to admit that I was a little worried that I might not have enough fabric at the edges but I did!!  This design is tucked away for a while.  

Close up of the page finished!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe New Year!!!!  My next post will be in 2014 after my Magical Disney trip!!!  So excited!!!

Winter Storm = lots of crafts!

I have been housebound since Thursday Morning.  They predicted snow and ice for Thursday afternoon.  It hit and it hit hard.  School actually closed before it started because we do not need 4000 teenagers trying to get home in bad weather.  I went to Hobby Lobby Thursday morning because I needed a couple of things to finish projects.  Ice came on Thursday and it snowed all day Friday.   For the past 2 mornings, Mark has gotten in his car, backed out of the driveway, drove up the road and then came back home 4 minutes later.  The roads are terrible!  One good thing, we are cleaning out the fridge.  Our meals and snacks have become very interesting.  Not sure when we will be able to get to the store, hoping that by Tuesday the roads will somewhat safe to drive.  As you probably guessed, No school!

I found a personal shopper that goes to Disney World and will make purchases for you.  This is very dangerous I know, but i had her pick me up 2 Mickey Mouse Popcorn buckets.  One is my tree topper, the other is a Christmas gift.  One of my best friends sons calls me Mrs. Mickey (he can't say his V's) and he loves Mickey Mouse so I am filling his bucket with crayons and a new coloring book for Christmas.

Mickey Tree with a popcorn bucket topper

My online Cross stitch group ILCS - had an online retreat called Finishing Frenzy.  The goal was to dig out unfinished projects and finish them.   I pulled out my finished Mill Hill Christmas Village designs.  I used those 6 x 6 cake boards instead of having to cut out my own.  One thing about being housebound, you find things to use when you are finishing projects.  I bought silver cording and blue fabric at Hobby Lobby, used silver ribbon that I had in my stash as the hangers.  I love how they turned out. One thing I didn't like, was that the cording kept fraying and on a couple of them you can see the frayed part.

Mill Hill Christmas Village

I also dug out all my stitched Disney ornaments and finished them.  I bought the fabric at Joanns, then found the cording and the hangers in my ribbon stash.  Amazing what you can find when  you actually start looking. 

Love how they turned out!  

Disney ornaments

I decided to make a few Christmas Gifts this year.  One of the items I made was this beautiful pink/gray rag quilt. It is for my niece in Chicago.  I hope she likes the colors. 

Gibbs is trying to be very helpful when I am laying out the blocks!

This quilt is for a co-worker.  I have been involved in a secret Santa exchange.  I had most of this fabric in my stash.  I did have to buy the Black Polka Dotted fabric at Hobby Lobby on Thursday.

The boys LOVE the snow!!!!  it is deep as you can see...it is almost to Tusks Tummy.  

Patio table, you can tell just how deep it is.  Bert the cat kept going in the door and right back in.  He wasn't sure if liked the snow or didn't like.  When he did this, he kept the door open and air coming in.  So, we had to been mean parents . We took him down and placed him in the snow.  He HATED it...which is great because he hasn't been outside since Friday.  

Backyard ...so pretty!!

A Wintery Heirloom - HAED

My Thanksgiving break has been very restful.  I was able to get in a lot of stitching time.  I set to stitching goals for myself.  One was to finish Puppy Love and the other was to finish the tree on page 5 of my A Wintery Heirloom.   Last night or early this morning around 3:00 am I put the final stitch in on page 5.   This is my last HUGE tree on this project.   I have one more page on this row which is all sky!!!  

I have 19 pages to go on this design.  I just love it!!!  So happy that I have the majority of the confetti stitches completed.  

Puppy Love and Ornament Finish!!!

I set a goal to be finished with this by Sunday night and I met it!!!  I think I put the final stitch in sometime around 11 pm.  I just LOVE how it turned out!!!

Sunday was also our stitch party so I was able to finish my Thumper ornament.  This was my car project which is where I put one or two stitches in at stoplights.  I save the small stitches for our stitch parties.  Then I can put in the details and outlines.

So on my last post, I shared that I had ordered new Disney ornaments and some people wanted to see them.  My niece came over today to help me decorate my trees.  She took out all my ornaments and snapped pictures of them....Yes, I do have an ornament addiction!!!

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3 (start of my Cinderella Collection)

Group 7( rest of my Cinderella Collection)

All of them together!!

With these ornaments, I was able to have a 6 ft. Cinderella tree,  a 6.5 Fab Five tree(Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto, Goofy plus chip/dale)  and finally a 7.5 tree with all my other characters.  I am addicted!!  

The thing is...I will probably go hit the Hallmark 90% sale in January and stock up on more ornaments!!

Puppy Love and new Rag quilt

This was a busy two weeks.  My DH went out of town and left me to my devices.  I have to say I enjoyed being single again.  It was nice that if I wanted popcorn for dinner, then I could have that and not worry about anyone else. Wednesday the UPS man stopped by and dropped off a box from the Disney Store.

As you can see even Disney boxes are magical when you open them up!!!

 Insides was my new Disney ornaments for my tree this year.  I ordered 16 of them!!!!  I usually buy a few GCs during the year so I can order my ornaments when they go on sale.  I opened all the boxes just to make sure they sent the right ornaments.  Last year, they sent 2 wrong ones and I had to return them...which I hate doing.

Mickey has a body and feet!!!!  I spent today stitching that can of worms.  Who knew that a can of worms would take as long as it did.  Moving over to work on Minnies Body this week.  My goal is to finish this by the end of this month.  I just have Minnie and then Pluto to stitch.

I started a new rag quilt for one of the ladies in my cross stitching group.  She wants a Fall and Winter theme.  I embroidered a few fall blocs last night.  

My ILCS yahoo group is planning to have an online Finishing retreat weekend.  I have been trying to figure out how I am going to finish my Mill Hill Victorian Village designs.  They require a 6 x 6 frames and you just cannot find those anywhere.  To custom order them would be too expensive.  I thought about making them into a wall hanging or a quilt, but since Mill Hill keeps coming out with different designs, it would never gt finished.  As I walked through Hobby Lobby this weekend, I saw these 6 x 6 cake boards in the Cake decorating aisle...Inspiration hit and I figured I could turn my MH designs into a wall hanging.  I can get 3 wall hangings out of each package!!!  Best part....I don't have to cut any cardboard on my own.  Since I can't cut a straight line...this is perfect for me!!!  Now to find the perfect fabric and ribbon for the backing.  I will probably have to buy 2 yards of fabric and multiple rolls of ribbon so they will all be alike when I finally get them stitched and finished.

Small finishes to show!

OMG!  It has been over a MONTH since I last posted!!!!  Where has time gone???  I used to be so good at posting every week and now I have become a slacker.  That is the only way to describe me a huge slacker!  I do have some cute finishes to show off and I stitched something that I NEVER thought I would say I stitched....

Here is my Puppy Love design...poor Minnie has a floating head...

Wintery Heirloom is looking good....this is the LAST huge tree I need to stitch and then it is smooth sailing after this!

Finished another page on Sistine Chapel....Only 331 pages to go!  If you look closely, you will see that I stitched a penis.  Yes, you read that correctly, I stitched a penis!  Never thought I would say that phrase but  I did!

Finished Kermit the Frog!  He is such a cutie!!!

Made some Tutu bags for my Halloween exchange.  I will post a tutorial if you want to see how I did it!

My local Cross stitch group picks out an ornament from the JCS halloween issue or the sept./Oct. ornament issue, and we stitch it, kit it up and exchange them.  Today, I came home with 5 new ornaments kitted up and just waiting for me to stitch...

Here is the back of mine.  I got really lazy this time and went to Hobby Lobby, found 2 pieces of wood that were already cut and used that to make my ornaments.  I don't cut straight lines so this was perfect for me!

Today I stitched Tigger!  He is so cute!!!

My Life

I am struggling this year with school, my depression, family issues and my weight.  I have quit working out and started pigging out to make myself feel better.  I have put on 5 lbs and decided that is enough.  I made the decision that I am no longer bringing work home with me.  I am starting a 5 day fat flush challenge to get my weightloss back under control.  This morning, I planned out my menu for the next five days, including all my snacks.  I am really trying to get my life under control.  Once the depression and stress starts to take over, it is really hard to get it under control.  I won't lie.  

Sistine Chapel, Puppy Love and AWH updates!!

 Wow!!  I haven't posted since the 3rd of this month...this is going to be full of pictures.  First of all, I am having a Thirty-One bag party on Sept. 29 and it will close on the 30th (that is when payment will be processed.  In case you are in need of new stitching bags.  The special is if you spend $35 dollars then you can get the Large Organizing tote and Super Organizing tote for 1/2 price!  My Super Organizing Tote holds my entire Sistine Chapel project - a Jammer Box full of threads,  3 in Binder with my working copies, Extra bag with extra threads and small thread box for each scene.  Impressive!!!

These make EXCELLENT Gifts for Christmas!!!

If you are interested in ordering a tote....Click HERE and look under My parties..find My name and then start shopping or just looking.  Now on to stitching

Super Organizing Tote

Super Tote

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Inside Super Tote

Below, is my Keep it Caddy.  It is a very small tote with lots of pockets.  I use it for my car project and to keep ornaments in it.  Very handy little tote.

This is my Room For Two Utility Tote...yes, that is my dirty laundry in it because I use it as a laundry basket.  It has a zipper divider I could put up if I wanted to.  I think I may order another one to store wrapping papers in it.

Here is my puppy love project.  Love how it is turning out.  This is what I will be working on this week.  Hoping to finish Minnies ears this week;

I have put my A Wintery Heirloom back into my rotation....I am stitching another damn tree.  Yes I used a bad word because I am tired of these trees!!!!!

Here is this weeks progress..the tree is slowly taking shape.  I am happy to say this is the last BIG tree I will have to stitch.  After this page and another page of sky, I will finally be stitching the houses!

 The whole project so far....love how it is turning out.

Sistine Chapel....still working on it on Sundays.  This was last sunday's progress. Not much to show since I worked in my classroom for 5 hours last Sunday

Here is today's progress.  I finished another page.  Now I only have 332 pages to go!!!!

Just to get an idea of how big this project is...here is all my fabric stretched out on the floor and my little progress to date.  Bert was a little confused because he was taking a nap and I accidentally woke him up.

My little world:

School/Work - is not any better.  It seems that this is the murphy's law of school years.  That is all I am saying.  We did get the millage to pass so in 2 years we will have a second high school!!!!  Hopefully, I can make it 2 more years!  Last weekend I spent 14 hours grading papers and doing paperwork.  I am still not caught up.  This weekend, I said NO NO NO NO! I watched movies, read a book and just took some me time.  I am really behind, but I will worry about that tomorrow.

I am officially down to double digits on my Disney New Years Eve trip.  I have watched enough videos to have $500 extra spending money for this trip!!  If you are interested in watching videos and earning money by doing it....let me know.  

The furry children are doing well...only a lizard in the house this week. It has been a very tame week.