Checking In

It has been a while since I posted anything. It has been crazy busy around here! Last weekend, I did manage to stitch a bit on Two Haunted Houses. It wasn't spectacular progress, so no picture of that one. Since Halloween has now passed, I'm undecided about continuing on with that one or jumping on to Two Gingerbread Houses. I will admit, I'm not quite ready for this Christmas thing yet! It is quite annoying to go into stores and they are all decorated and playing Christmas music already!

Last weekend, a friend and I got together and did a little crafty project to prepare for an event that we're going to. I'll show a full picture after the event, but here is a little sneak peak of some of the "ingredients" :)

A week ago yesterday, my sweetie was finishing up our bathroom remodeling project upstairs. He buzzed by me with a ladder on his way to fix some of the seams in the existing wallpaper. A few minutes later, I heard a series of loud noises coming from upstairs. I ran up and found him laying in the whirlpool tub with the ladder on the floor, and everything was covered with wallpaper paste. He had lost his balance on the ladder, and tipped over. He broke his left foot, and had to have surgery on Friday. It has been a challenging week. He is starting to feel better, but it will be quite a while before he is back up to full speed.

I have also been putting in quite a bit of time at work. It really is great to be back, though!

That's all for now. Thank you for stopping by! I enjoy reading all of your comments and e-mails! Until next time, happy stitching :)

L@@K!

Today was an awesome day!

Cathey let me know that I was the pumpkin "carving" winner for her Pumpkin Day contest! If you missed it, check out my entry here. Cathey is a fellow Bon Jovi fan...and loved my Jovi smirky dude pumpkin :)

I also received my prizes from Missy's 13 Days of Halloween Contest!

The prizes were beautifully wrapped! I especially loved the skull & crossbones cellophane bag :)

The package on the left contained the most fabulous, plush, purple pumpkin pincushion with beautiful crystal pins. Love it!!

The cellophane bag was a bit mysterious, since it contained not only Halloween goodies to eat, but also a couple of wrapped gifties...

A gorgeous BBD Halloween stocking, adorable vampire pin, and fabulous spooky fridge magnets! The card was way too cute, too :) I absolutely love everything!!

Thank you so much to Missy for the fabulous prizes. If you haven't checked her blog out yet, it isn't too late to join in on the fun!

That's all for now. Thank you for stopping by! I enjoy reading all of your comments and e-mails! Until next time, happy stitching :)

10 Years Ago Today...

...I met my Sweetie :). It's a long story. The short version is that it on the eve of my 33rd birthday, I went out for the night. I met him, we liked each other, and we're still hanging out. It's a good thing!!

The first day of work today went very well. I am soooooo glad to be back! Especially so after the wave of news that went through today about what is happening to some that are still in the situation that I was one short week ago. I am a very lucky girl :)

I got an e-mail telling me that I was the Day 7 winner in Missy's 13 Days of Halloween. Yippee!!

That's all for now. Thank you for stopping by! I enjoy reading all of your comments and e-mails! Until next time, happy stitching :)

A New Start

Thank you to everyone for your wonderful comments and e-mails regarding my return to the working world :) I'm very excited about going back to work, and will be getting to sleep here shortly. Yes, it is very early...but I do have to get up bright and early to beat traffic!!

I haven't posted any stitching progress here lately, but I *have* been stitching a bit. It has been a bit sporadic, though. I had every intention of stitching on CDC when I was in Minnesota last weekend, but forgot my large Q-snaps. I do have to get going on that again, since it has been quite a while!

This is my progress on Two Haunted Houses, which I started a couple of days ago. This is one of the projects that I picked up on the way home, and couldn't wait to start it. The good thing, though, is that I do tend to stick to the canvas projects. I hope to finish this by Halloween, although I have no clue what to do with it once I am finished!!

Most of my stitching on this today was completed while watching the disappointing loss by my Minnesota Vikings. The loss was not as bad as the whomping that the Chicago Bears are getting right now. I had to convince Bryon to turn the channel and / or go do something else for a while so that he wouldn't wind up yelling at the TV because of the poor performance of Da Bears. He's working on putting up the new light fixtures that we got at our (way too long) trip to Menard's today.

Kudos to you rocker girls who "got" my mocked up pumpkin. In case anyone is wondering, it was the smirky dude from the Bon Jovi "Have a Nice Day" album cover. Cathey is a fellow Jovi fan, so I thought it was appropriate for her contest :) Speaking of Bon Jovi...they just announced a tour for next year to support their new album! I was in Kohl's the other day (shopping for new work clothes), and heard their new song while I was trying on a mound of clothes. I sincerely apologize for my enthusiastic singing along with what was playing on the loudspeaker :)

Last (but not least), don't forget to stop over at Missy's blog to check out her 13 Days of Halloween contest :)

That's all for now. Thank you for stopping by! I enjoy reading all of your comments and e-mails! Until next time, happy stitching :)

Cathey's Pumpkin Day

Cathey is conducting her annual Pumpkin Day festivities!.

This is my entry in the pumpkin carving contest. I "carved" this using picture editors, and it is what I would do if I was talented enough to carve a pumpkin without injuring myself ;)

Fabulous Fat Quarter Giveaway

Be sure to check out this fabulous fat quarter giveaway at Pumpkin Patch Primitives Quilting!

Big News

Has it been a week already since I posted? A lot has happened! I'll start with a few little tidbits, and the BIG news is at the end of this post :)

I bought myself an awesome new coffee cup. I'm going to use it all year long!

In case you are wondering, I found it at Walmart. It was in a gifty type of area near the jewelry department, and wasn't with the rest of the Halloween merchandise.

I spent a couple of days in Minnesota visiting my family. We had a great time, and the fall colors were fabulous. I really enjoyed seeing the deer wander through the yard early in the morning and in early evening. This little guy was munching his way through the hostas in the neighbor's back yard. If this was happening in MY yard, I wouldn't think it was so cool :)

On the way home yesterday, I made a quick pit stop at The Needle and I in Rockford. I really didn't *need* anything, but rationalized that I had finished two of the pieces that I bought last time and have a good start on the third. Plus, I really LOVE the new Two Haunted Houses and Two Gingerbread Cottages pieces. I bought those, as well as Evening Star. They usually have the pieces kitted up so it makes it very easy. I also found Shepherd's Bush American Sampler on clearance, so I couldn't pass that up. I felt a bit guilty when I saw the damage, but figured I deserved a little early birthday present to myself.

And now the REALLY BIG news...I found out late yesterday that I am going back to work on Monday!! It will be at the same work location, in a slightly different role. I am so happy! I felt a lot less guilty about my purchases after that :)

I have a lot to get done this week. I definitely need to get the car fixed, since I will be driving 100 miles per day again. The speedometer is really acting crazy, and I think that I need new brakes. I need to make sure that I have clothes that fit, and will probably be making a trip to Kohls to buy a few new things. I also need to tie up the loose ends on a few projects that I have started around the house, and start getting ready for Christmas. Our annual feast is now less than two months away. That sounds like a long time, but we have a lot going on the next couple of months so it will be here before we know it. We have to plan the menu, send out invitations, deep clean the house from top to bottom, decorate, wrap presents, and coordinate the craziness. It's a lot of work, but always fun.

That's all for now. Thank you for stopping by! I enjoy reading all of your comments and e-mails! Until next time, happy stitching :)

Wowza!

You just never know what treasures are lurking underfoot :)

Today started out like any other recently. It was cold, dark, and gloomy. I had my coffee in hand, and surfed the web for jobs. I had every intention of spending the day stitching. I decided that I needed to get myself an ID with my nickname rather than my awful real name so that I wouldn't have any problems flying with the new security restrictions. I started rummaging through a cubby that I have above the desk looking for the proper identification papers to take with me to the DMV. All of that eventually led me to the basement going through a filing cabinet. I was rummaging through crap I hadn't seen in years, and pitching it left and right.

BORING...I hear you :) After several hours of this nonsense, I started rifling through my stitchy stuff. There was a box that had all of my back issues of CS&CC, and had a recipe book in the front. Little did I know that there were two other stitchy books sandwiched in there.

Feast your eyes on this...

Don't worry...I didn't get too excited, either...at first. At least not until I saw this...

Lo How A Rose. I have admired all of the stitchy bloggers who have done this one. Thought to myself I must have had this book at some time...but thought I had gotten rid of all of the hardcover stitchy books. Luckily, I was wrong!!

I'm not sure if I will get around to stitching this, but it sure is comforting knowing that I *do* have it if the mood strikes :) I guess it really does pay to go through your stuff once in a while :)

Edited to add: Lo How a Rose is by Brightneedle. It is in Better Homes and Gardens "A Cross Stitch Christmas - Celebrations in Stitches" which was published in 2001.

That's all for now. Thank you for stopping by! I enjoy reading all of your comments and e-mails! Until next time, happy stitching :)

Favorite Witches

Hope it is sunny where you are!! It is another chilly, dreary, rainy day here. There is a frost advisory for tonight. If it ever stops raining, I need to check out the garden to see if there is anything worth saving.

I seem to have ADD when it comes to stitching lately. I pick up a project, stitch a bit, and then give up. I am hoping to snap out of that soon! On days when I feel like blogging but don't have any earth-shattering stitchy progress pictures to share, I will share some of my favorite Halloween witches from my collection.

This is a small painting that I bought at a crafty shop a few years back. On the back, it says the name is "Witch 2002" and was painted by Sandra Somers of Somers Primitive Painting. I love how her hair continues onto the frame!

I did stop into Stitches-N-Stuffing last night. I know that I have absolutely no business setting foot in a needlework store these days...but I had a meeting nearby. I don't get up that way very often, so I had to stop! They have always had a lot more quilting stuff than needlework. They were in the midst of remodeling, and it looks like they have a lot less needlework stuff these days. They had a lot of things on super-duper clearance. I didn't find that until I was about ready to run off to my meeting, so I resisted...for the most part, anyway :)

My 500th post is coming up soon. There will be something to celebrate. I'm not sure what that will be yet, but stay tuned!

That's all for now. Thank you for stopping by! I enjoy reading all of your comments and e-mails! Until next time, happy stitching :)

Opening Day

The other day, Natasha posted about wishing for ski season to start. Bryon has been scheming with his ski buddies to plan a trip soon. It is now official...ski season is starting in Colorado in just a few hours! Loveland is opening today, and Arapahoe Basin on Friday. They are the first ski areas to open in North America. This will be the earliest opening day in history for the Basin, and the earliest in 40 years for Loveland...so much for global warming, huh?

Those are my two favorite places to ski, and they have very long seasons. Most of the time they are open through most of May. It's all about the mountain there. There are no fancy condos or ski villages. You can't buy designer purses or expensive jewelry there. You drive to the resort, park your car, walk a short distance to the lodge, put your gear on and get on the chair lift.

Edited to clarify: The pictures below are from April 2009.

Here is the view going up the Chair 1 lift at Loveland last spring. There are no fancy lift names there, either :)

Bryon was the one taking the picture. I probably would have gotten sick if I had turned around. I have a fear of heights, so I have to hang on and look straight ahead! I'm okay once I'm up to the top, though.

Here is a picture of me at the top of Chair 2 at Loveland last spring.

The elevation is over 12,000 feet, so it is a bit windy up there. The ridge behind me is the Continental Divide. It is pretty wild when the ski patrol does avalanche blasting on the ridge.

I don't look too thrilled! I think that it was pretty late in the day and I was worn out!! In any case, I do love that Fire Bowl!! It is a green run, and that's just right for my ability. I would be a better skier if we lived closer and I could get out there more often. The view from the top of Fire Bowl is incredible. I know that I have pictures from there, but can't find them. You'll have to trust me on that one.

I have rambled on long enough. I *am* going to stitch today, so hopefully I'll have some progress pictures to show for it tomorrow.

That's all for now. Thank you for stopping by! I enjoy reading all of your comments and e-mails! Until next time, happy stitching :)