I did manage to stich!

With all the shopping and socializing I did last week, I did manage to get a few stitches in. On Sunday I worked on the Heirloom Nativity Sampler. This one hasn't had it's picture taken for quite some time!

At work, I got some good time into Christmas ABC's. I'm almost done with going to the right. Once I fill up the hoop, I'll move down and do the next three rows of letters.

And in the mail came this wonderful Cowboys fabric from Vicki over at Sew Fun. How generous is she? I can hardly wait until I get some time in the next week or so to take this fabric, and the stitched piece out to find some matching ribbon and then put it all together as a flat ornament. I will admit that I'm a bit tentative about putting it all together, but with the great tutorials that are out there, I'm sure I can manage it... I hope...

I hope you get more stitches in the upcoming week than I managed this past week!

Hugs and Stitches,
Kay

Stuff I got up to this week

And it wasn't much on the way of stitching! But there was a lot on the way of shopping.

Monday started the week off when I got home and Mom wanted to go to Khols, so off we went. We looked at a ton of stuff, tried on nearly as much stuff, and I came home with a goal dress for the weight loss thing. It's nearly the right size. It fits everywhere except around my stomach. Another five to ten pounds should do it. It'll be perfect for the cruise.

The neck is a pretty deep v, so I added the white cami and since it's sleeveless, the black shrug. I love that dress!

I also bought some new work out gear. My old work out pants were in a really sorry state, and I was happy to find two pair of capri length pants that fit. The tops were an added bonus.

Wednesday was Crafty-Stitchy Night with the girls. We didn't do any crafting or stitching, instead we went out to dinner to celebrate a birthday. After eating we went over to Lane Bryant where I bought some tops, a sweater, and some cami's. LSM also bought some cute tops and a skirt that's just adorable.

Great spring colors and everything is a size smaller than what I purchased back in December.  (I also hit a different Lane Bryant store on Thursday to exchange a few pieces that the first store had in sizes too large that the second store had in the right size.)  After Lane Bryant the girls and I hit Target.  I bought some shoes that I'd been after, the necklace is Lane Bryant.  I'm trying to learn how to accessorize.

Today, Saturday, Mom and I were back out running errands and shopping.  We hit JC Penny where I picked up another t-shirt and a slip, and some other places where Mom found what she was looking for.

My new computer arrived back on Wednesday.  I need to sit down and move everything over from this one to that one.  Getting a new computer is awesome!  Moving data is a bit of a pain.

I need to get my centering mojo on and really stick down my sparkly 'K".

Hugs and Stitches,
Kay

Tusal - March 2012

Well I've been a terribly busy girl (more on that later) so I'm a couple of days late with my Tusal post. As always here are Pinky and Dude with the jar:

There are a lot of green snips from Flower Power to the left. On the right you can see the blue and white snips from the Cowboys Jersey I posted a couple of weeks ago. And on top is a random assortment of colors from Christmas ABC's and the little ornaments I've done. It's more snips this month than I thought there would be!

For more information on the TUSAL, click on the cute little icon there to the left.

Hugs and Stitches,
Kay

1 week closer to the Cruise!

My handy-dandy count-it-down ap told me that it's 90 days to my Excellent Italian Adventure this morning.  I all giddy and stuff.  We've got our flights and hotels selected and paid for.  All that's left to do is reserve our train tickets (but we have to wait until 60 days out for that) and decide just what we want to do on what day.  Tee hee!  I should specify that we are doing a 1 week pre-cruise tour of Florence and Venice Italy and then a week long cruise of the Grecian Islands. I should also clarify that this summers cruise is completely different from the Lose to Cruise cruise where I've been chronicling my attempts at weight loss.

Anyway, stitching, the real reason you've wandered by.  I managed to sit in with Flower Power on Monday and Tuesday of the week.  I put in all the green stems for the daisies and started in on the leaves.  And then the rest of the week was a little busy and I didn't stitch on anything!

I did do some stitching on Christmas ABC's at work, but I went and left it at work on Friday so I don't have an update picture of that. Speaking of work, it was employee appreciation day on Friday and they catered an amazing lunch for us. There were panini's in your choice of ham, turkey, or roast beef (or have a taste of each...) located in one conference room. In another conference room they were cooking up chicken chow mein bowls. And in a third conference room they had shrimp cocktails and crab legs! But the coup de grace were the doughnuts for desert. Yeah, I know... all that fancy food and doughnuts? Trust me. These were basic glazed doughnuts that had been fried and flambeed in a skillet, thus caramelizing the sugar of the glaze and rendering a nice crunchy texture to the outside of the doughnut. Add to this warm, crispy, carmelly doughnut some caramel ice cream and you are talking something akin to heaven. Oh. So. Tasty! How did I not gain any weight this week?

Monday at the gym brought the surprise that the corporate offices had decided to shut down the location that Mr. Trainer and I have been going to. Luckily there are a couple of other locations of the franchise close by that we can go to. I had a stress filled couple of days until he decided which location to go to, and I shall simply follow him there. Unfortunately it's a busier, more crowded location, but it was the best option after checking into a few different locations and what-not.  On a side note of the gym, I love my Kindle Fire.  I love to read along as I work out on the elliptical.  Time seems to go by a bit faster when I'm reading than it does when I'm just watching TV.

This computer is having issues, and has been for the past year or so. I've been nursing it along but the other day I'd finally had enough so I ordered up a new one. Luckily I'm getting some money back from taxes and that will cover the cost of the new computer. The new computer is going to be purple. Is anyone surprised? (Probably not.) I need a name for the new computer. Historically I've named the computers after dogs. So what is your dogs name? My computers have been: Zippy, Ernest, Baluba, Auggie, Colby, Murphy, and Alfie. I'm pretty sure I'm missing a few in there as Zippy was a 386 from back in the early 90's.

I've been asked what the name of the fabric is that I stitched Something Wicked on. I'm answering here since the dear questioner has a no-reply address. Here's an early progress picture of that piece so you can get a good view of the fabric.

Sadly, I don't know what the name is. I won it in a blog draw and the color name wasn't on the package. What was on the package was that it's a Silkweavers Solo. What with the problems that have been experienced since Silkweavers was bought by another company that little bit of fabric is really a great treasure.

 I think that's everything for this week.  Hope your upcoming week is a good one!

Hugs and Stitches,
Kay

Not a whole lot of stitching

This post was almost going to be titled Not a Single Stitch, but I managed to squeeze some in on Saturday.  I have been a busy girl and so not a lot of time has been dedicated to stitching.  When I did have some free time this week, it was dedicated to planning the upcoming trip to Italy and Greece.  I'm pleased to announce that I've now got airfare to and from.  I'm very excited.

I've been seeing these cute little ort baskets all over blogland, and I guess my Mom has been seeing them too.  She made me one out of some of my favorite fabric.  I love it!  It's sitting here on my desk next to my computer.

This past week was also a church activity called Grandview Stake's Got Talent!  They asked for things to be displayed, plus performing acts.  I signed up to display some of my cross stitch.  There were other displays of model building, photography, quilting, drawing/painting/sketching, beadwork, and woodworking.  It was really a lot of fun to wander along and see what hobbies other people have.  Not surprisingly, mine was the only cross stitch there.

As I said, I nearly didn't do any stitching this week, but on Saturday I found a few hours and sat down and finished up Bazinga!  The pattern called for completely different colors, and the flowers and vines were five squares farther away from the word.  I didn't like that so I changed it.  You Big Bang Theory fans know the meaning of this.

I'm hoping for more stitching in this upcoming week.  The travel plans are pretty much set so there is less research for me to do.  I'm missing Flower Power again.

Hugs and Stitches,
Kay

WIPocalypse - March 2012

I've been busier than I prefer to be and that leads to less stitching what what I'd like. Here is the run down of the projects I worked on:

Flower Power by Crossed Wing Collection at February's WIPocalypse Post:

Flower Power by Crossed Wing Collection for March's WIPocalypse Post:

Christmas ABC's by Lizzie*Kate from February's WIPocalypse Post:

Christmas ABC's by Lizzie*Kate for March's WIPocalypse Post:

And the random smalls that I worked on in between:

Be Mine heart ornament. A blog freebie that I can't trace back to the designer to give proper credit.

A Dallas Cowboy's Jersey for the fan-boy. I bought the pattern from a gal on Etsy.

Love heart ornament by The Workbasket. It's a freebie.

Merry ornament from the 2010 JCS Ornament Issue. I'm debating taking the pink out and putting it back in as a nice shade of turquoise.

And started, but not pictured is a little 'Bazinga' ornament. Another pattern from a gal on Etsy. I should get it done in another week or two... depending on how my days go and how my love affair with Flower Power is progressing... In fact, I'm missing FP right now, so I think I'll go visit it for a few hours.

Hugs and Stitches,
Kay

March Stash

How can it be? Only 6 days into March and I've already blown my stash budget!! So what did I spend it on?  Well... Two of M Designs letters patterns.  I bought "K&L" and "S&T"

 But what really blew out the budget was this bit of sparkly fabric from Sassy's Fabbys.

I worked with Lauren and she mixed a couple of her different dyes for me.  The lighter blue is her Bluebell dye, and the darker blue is her Heavenly Skies dye.  I love love love it!  I had planned to do a handful of little L*K designs on it but I am having a hard time bringing myself to cut it up into little squares!  It's just about as purty as can be!

In summer cruise news, I've got my hotel in Venice booked!  Woo-hoo!  Now I just need to figure out where to stay in Florence.  Hard hard decisions.

Hugs and Stitches,
Kay

Safety Pins are my Friends

Yes it's true. Safety pins are indeed my friends.  This is mostly because I'm not so good with the sewing machine and making alteration to my clothing just sort of boggles the mind.  Maybe one day I'll get brave and start to cut things up and sew them back together. ... But naaaaaaah.  Who am I kidding?

This is one of my favorite skirts.

I bought it a few years ago and then proceeded to loose some weight so it didn't fit any more.  What's up with that?  My favorite clothes should shrink right along with me!  I ran the skirt through the wash and dryer a few times, because, you know, sometimes that actually does shrink stuff.  But not my skirt.  So here is where the safety pins come into play...

I measured, and folded and pinned, and now I can wear my favorite skirt again.  Granted, it might look a bit funny from behind.  But I can't see my behind so what do I care?

This week my tour books arrived!  Wa-hoo!  I have been sitting up very late in bed reading them, trying to decide what I want to see, and when.  Can you guess where I'm going from this picture?

I'm excited.  My sister and aunt are coming along too.  I'm booking flights on Monday, and hotels shortly there after.  Now I just need to learn some Italian so I don't get lost on the train from Florence to Venice.  We have to trade trains in Bologna.  Right now it's the only part of the trip that is worrying me.

And somewhere in between reading and safety pins, I've managed to get a little bit of stitching in.  I've missed my old friend Flower Power, so I sat with it for most of the week.

I have to tell you about my oopsie with the white.  I finished up a skein of DMC Blanc while stitching those flowers, so I got into my stash and pulled out another skin from the bag of white, black, and ecru that I have.  Away I started to stitch, mixing in some strands of the new skein with a few of the old skein.  But something odd was happening, some of the white looked kind of yellow-ish.  I couldn't figure it out.  Sometimes more white, and sometimes a little yellower... in fact the bits of flower I stitched with the old skein were now looking kind of yellowy when they hadn't before.  Strange...

And then I finally figured it out.  The new skein was not a skein of Blanc, but a skein of B5200!!!  Ack!!!  I stared at those white flowers for a while.  Trying to decide what to do.  In the end I decided to forget about it.  I did put the B5200 away and this time checked to make sure the label said Blanc before starting up again.  Now I have a little funny story to tell about the piece whenever I get it done.  I'm nearly done with the daisy petals and I think I'll get back into the greens for a change of pace before finishing up the yellow centers.  There's so much green I'm trying to break it up here and there so I don't get overloaded with the color and decide I can't face any more green stitching.

Here is the progress for Christmas ABC's.  It's coming along nicely.  I nearly fill the hoop each week at work.

And I finished up the stitching part of the Jersey for the Cowboys fan.  Now I just need to track down some Dallas Cowboys fabric, acid free matboard, matching grosgrain ribbon, small d-rings, small lobster clasp, a properly scaled chain, a bit of batting, and some glue.  ... Yes, that should about cover it. When finishing up for a guy, I don't think extra beads and frilly bits will cut it.  (Name has been blacked out to protect the fan-boy.)

I can't believer the next WIPocalypse is almost upon us!  I'm pretty sure it was only the 10th of February a week ago.  I'm certain of it!

Hugs and Stitches,
Kay