Progress Reports

Just to let everyone know, I have been stitching, just not much. Having a 10-week old kitten the house really takes up a lot of my time, you know! :) Also, I lost some of my stitching mojo in June, but it's slowly returning.

But first, let's start with a finish! Yes, I said a finish!


Blessed are the Pure chartpack by Little House Needleworks

Here are the first two seasonal saltboxes together. I'll be starting the next square on Saturday.



Caroline by Miss Crescent's Crowne has been my lunchtime stitching project since the beginning of June! Needless to say, I don't do much stitching at lunch or I'd be done by now, but it's been a fun stitch anyway.


Lastly, Evergreen by Blackbird Designs. Have I ever mentioned that I've never stitched a BBD without having to frog??? Well, it's true and the pattern continues with this one. I have to frog the entire left vine, leaves, and flowers on this thing because I'm missing one row of stitches!! I tried to figure out a way to work around it, but it'll throw off the entire design, so out it will come. :( Phooey! Phooey! Double dog phooey!


The Tumbleweed is adjusting well in his new home. He's still in the front bedroom, but today we put the screen door up, so he's got free roam of the room and he can see the girls and they can see him, but they can't touch each other (I hope!). He's enjoying his freedom, but spends most of his day napping under the bed. He loves to play in between naps. He's still a little unsure of the humans, but he'll come out when we talk to him, but any quick or unexpected move on our part sends him skittering away. We've decided that we'll have to continue to socialize him and just take it nice and easy with him. Some of that skittish behavior may go away or subside when he begins the integration process with our girlie cats.

Forward Progress and Staying on Task

Last night was Saturday Night Stitch and I worked on my LHN Seasonal Saltbox project. I am happy to report that I made much more progress this Saturday than last Saturday! I got in about 2.5 hours while watching all kinds of winter games and cheering the US team on to victory. (DH doesn't like it when I cheer loudly, so I have to contain my excitement. LOL)

Here's where I started...


And here's where I stopped, after watching Lindsey Vonn and Apolo Anton Ohno win bronze medals in their respective sports, as well as watching the men's bobsledding heats on that very, very fast track!



This year with my stitching, I'm trying something new. Since I stitch on several projects each month, I like to record my time (just to see where it's going), and I have goals I'd like to meet I'm trying to do a better job on keeping organized. I have a terrible habit of setting goals, posting them, and then going off and doing something totally different! My stitching friend, Mary, does something similar, so I'm really borrowing her idea and then tweaking it to suit me and my personality.

First of all, I found some free calendars on the internet I could download. I found them at Graphic Garden and you can download the entire year at once or by the month. I know there are tons of other sites you can get calendars from, so do a search and find something that works for you. I like these because they have nice big blocks and room to write notes at the bottom or top of the calendar.

After printing off the calendar, I then pencil in what I'm going to work on for each week. Saturdays are SNS night and Sundays are usually my day for stitching on my incentive project. When I'm in between incentive projects, I stitch on one of my WIPs. For example, the last incentive round has finished and the next one starts the end of March, so on Sundays I'll be stitching on Quaker Friendship Sampler, which hasn't seen the light of day in who knows how long! One week is usually for an ornament, and if I'm involved in any exchanges, that goes on there as well. The rest of the weeks are either projects from the WIPs pile or something new. At the bottom of the calendar, I write my monthly goals. When I sit down stitch, I start my little hot pink stopwatch/timer. When I get up, I stop it, if I remember! At the end of the night, I record my day's time on the calendar, then I reset the timer for the next day. (Yeah, I always remember this part! NOT! LOL) Here's what my calendar for February looks like. You can click the pic to see it in all it's detail.



You will notice that it's not the neatest thing in the world, but it works!

This week in my little stitching world, I'll finish up my colours exchange piece and move onto my Jan. 1st piece, which I should be able to knock out before the end of the month!

:>)

It's the Start of a New Week!

And I'm feeling immensely better! It's amazing what cough syrup with codeine can do for a good night's sleep! LOL I'm sure the antibiotic my doctor prescribed for my sinus infection is helping some, too. Now, if the mountain cedar would just go away, I'd be able to truly get well. I hate that stuff!

So, the Saints are going to the Super Bowl! Woohoo! So proud to see a team that's never been in the Super Bowl advance to that all important game. I hope the beat the tar out of the Colts! Honestly, the Colts have a GREAT team and Peyton Manning will no doubt be in the Hall of Fame someday, but really, it's time for some new faces in the Super Bowl. Geaux Saints!!!!

This past week was a stressful one, plus I didn't feel well, so my stitching time was minimal. I started my January ornie, "Joy", a complimentary design from Lilybet Designs. I've been working on this during my lunch/dinner time at work.


I'm stitching this on a scrap of 28 ct. Vintage Autumn Fields linen, using DMC, CCs, and GAST.

On Saturday, I worked on my SNS project, LHN's Seasonal Saltbox series. Got the main body of my house "painted" and started on the flowers in the border.


Yesterday, during the Saints v. Vikings game, I stitched on my incentive piece, "Give". My plan is to work on this at home during the evenings. I'm so close to a finish, that I've got to get it done!


In other news, my potatoes have been taken out of the box and are getting ready to plant. I've only got about 2 more weeks!! They're starting to grow eyes. The Kennebecs seem to be growing the slowest, but they're also the biggest potatoes, so maybe that's why. We have also added onion sets. I absolutely LOVE onions! We have 3 sets of 1015Y ("THE" Texas sweet yellow onion) and 2 sets of Red Burgundy, a red onion. I'm thinking of going back and getting a bunch of the white onions they had.

These are the Kennebecs. Come on babies, you can sprout!

The Reds and Purple Vikings are doing great!

The Banana Fingerlings are going like gangbusters. I even have one that reminds me of a walrus! LOL

The onions awaiting their permanent home in the garden. I've put them in a pan of dirt and then I water them about every other day.

Heart of America Progress Update

Here it is as of last night. I'm heading into the home stretch, but I don't know if my arm, neck, and upper back muscles can handle the pain and tightness finishing it will bring about. Thankfully, I have a massage scheduled for tomorrow! LOL


In other news, I'm on vacation this week! So far, I've done a bunch of nothing, and it's felt great! I have managed to take a nap each day, watch a couple of movies, and stitch. Yesterday morning, before it got really hot, I got out in the garden and pulled out the horrible looking cantaloupe vines. The plan is to start working on that bed for fall planting. So far, that hasn't happened!

I have been having fun in the kitchen! Sunday evening, I made some homemade flour tortillas. They were really good. Last night, I made Cowboy Cookies. They were amazingly good! My husband tasted one and declared them to be "really good". He then proceeded to eat several more! You can check my food blog (link on the right) for the recipes for both of these. (Hint! Hint!) Today, we're grilling chicken using a new marinade recipe and I'll also be making a pasta salad, also using a new recipe.

In closing, here's a picture of Hannah, enjoying the morning sun.

LHN Seasonal Saltbox Progress

Here's this past week's progress on my future masterpiece! Thank you to everyone for your encouragement to compensate instead of frogging on that house. While I normally would've just done that, since it wasn't too much to frog and I didn't think the fence would look right next to the house on the right side, I went ahead and frogged. I think that was the right thing for me to do. It probably would've driven me crazy if I didn't frog! I have a boo-boo on the fence, but I'm living with that!

This week, I'll move onto my incentive piece, LHN's "Heart of America". Here's my starting point.


For a peek into the garden, check out my gardening blog, The Haphazard Gardener .

Monarda and Mealy Blue Sage

Monday Update

I am still alive and kicking, though you wouldn't know it by my lack of posting. My husband and I have been very busy outside building the raised vegetable beds and working on other outside chores that are most pleasant to do early in the spring when it's not 105º and oppressively hot outside. It's actually pleasant to be outside at this time of the year! Of course today it's very, very windy and only going to be in the mid-50s with a freeze warning for tonight. I'm so ready for the spring temps to hang around for a few weeks so I can get my stuff planted! If you'd like to follow my gardening adventures, you can do so by reading my gardening blog, The Haphazard Gardener.

Since we've been spending so much time outside, my stitching time has greatly diminished. I am stitching SOME, just not a lot. I haven't even finished my ornie for March yet!! I did start my incentive piece last Sunday, but I only put in about 20 stitches. Just enough to say I'd started on the start date. LOL

Here's my March ornie, Walt the Malt by Raise the Roof Designs from the 2008 JCS ornie edition. He's stitched on 28 ct. Rocky Mountain linen from Silkweaver using GAST threads.



And yes, even though I'm using overdyeds, I still do the bottom leg all the way across and come back and then cross the top like when using DMC. I just like the way my stitches look when I do it this way.

Here's my incentive piece for this round on the OOE board. It's LHN's "Heart of America" stitched on 32 ct. something or other from R&R. I think it's Iced Cappuccino, but don't quote me on that. I'll have to find my note and get back to you with the correct answer. :) I stitched almost all of this last night while watching the ACM awards and the 10:00pm news.



I'm on vacation this week, and while I plan on spending the bulk of my time outside and some time working on some indoor chores, both of these are on my stitching agenda for the week. Maybe I'll have a finish on that ornie by my next post!

:o)