Some Chit-chat

Hi all!  I hope you are having a good week.  Tomorrow is FRIDAY!  YaY!   It's been a busy week at work, I am conducting an internal audit and literally on my feet all day.  I go home and collapse. 

I stitched though, I worked on the Miss Snow Fairy.  I added her right wing and started on her pot o' holly on the right.  I've been trying like the devil to resist the urge to start something new but I caved tonight and started yet another Blackbird Design.  I started stitching the heart from Truly Thine, one of the early Loose Feather Designs.  I guess I got bit by the Valentine bug after seeing all the Valentine finishes on your blog.  I want to stitch all the Valentines that you have done but unfortunately I must work to feed my addiction.

Have you been keeping up with With Thy Needle and Thread blog?  Brenda's got the best tease on her site for an upcoming sampler she's going to post on Country Stitches.  I LOVE the colors and I am sure that it'll join the gazillion other samplers in my ever growing stash.  She's got neat punchneedle designs too.  I like how they look but I haven't had good luck with punchneedle. 

Do you think the designers could just cool it for awhile?  I know Nashville is just around the corner and there are teases everywhere on various designer's blogs.  Go check or the Blackbird Designs blog too.  Eye Candy!  Love that sampler she's got in captured in the hoop.

The Second Lieutenant got his official orders yesterday.  They will be leaving in March for Alabama.  He's going to Officer's school for 7 weeks and after that they travel to Goodfellow AFB in Texas for 7 months.  Say a prayer for them, it's a big change for both of them.  They've settled in nicely in Rochester, made some great friends and have nice jobs that they will have to leave.  They are sad but I think excited too.  Both of them are a little anxious.  And fearful of the unknown.  They'll get through it but it's just another strain on the newlyweds. 

Well dear friends, I am going to close for now.  I am so glad that you stopped by for a chat.  I hope that on Saturday I'll have pictures for you.  So thanks for your comments and your visits.  I love that you come by!  :-)

Happy Saturday!

Ok, Take 2 of this post. IE just shut down blogger on me while I was uploading pictures. I hate Vista.

Anywhoo...as I was saying...

It's a glorious Saturday here in Upstate NY. The sun is out and it's warm. Yes, W-A-R-M! Almost 40 degrees warm!  The David and I actually washed the cars out in the driveway and I was wearing a hoodie!  No, I wasn't bundled up to the point where I couldn't move. Contrast today to last Saturday when we were barely above 10 degrees, this is down right balmy. Not complaining one bit. I'll take it and I wish it would be this way for the rest of winter. Not going to happen though, ol' Man Winter has a few snowstorms up his sleeve, I bet.

Anway, back to stitching. I've got pics. Hopefully IE will allow blogger to upload them.  Well, blogger is being a poop and doesn't want to upload all my pics but here's Miss Snow Fairy. She's getting done!  This piece puts a smile on my face.  And it's one of those pieces that I am enjoying every stitch. 

I've made some progress but not as much as I'd like. Miss Snow Fairy now is standing on some snow and her holly is in it's container instead of floating in mid-air.  The week was very busy and I was very tired when I got home so last night really was the only night I stitched for more than an hour.  It was nice. There will be no stitching tonight though, cause we are going to a wedding celebration. My boss' son got married out of state in November and  there wasn't many of us invited to the actual wedding.  So tonight we are going to a party to celebrate the wedding.  It should be ok.  I am a little anxious about it cause I don't really know any of their family and I'm not sure who will be there that I know.  It's at their church so it's going to be dry.  At least I won't have to worry about having too much to drink and saying something stupid.  I'll just do that sober...ha, ha!

When it was so cold outside, the cats took turns laying in front of the fireplace.  Ella is toasting her belly...

And  her back...

This is Frankie. Frankie showed up at our door in the Fall around Halloween. He was really timid and wouldn't let us even touch him. It took him weeks to allow us to pet him.  But today, he rules the roost and is quite content. I really like him.

It's a little unnerving being in one room with 3 housecats and 2 barn cats. I feel like I am turning into one of those crazy old cat ladies hanging out with 5 felines.  (Not really, but...it does get crowded in the family room with all of them.)  Oh, geez, excuse the cat tree.  I didn't realize how terrible it looks.  The cats use it as their scratching post (better than my sofa, although they've managed to claw that too) and I didn't realize how shabby it looks...gee whiz.  The DH and I will have to do some repairs on it.

So, I think I'm going to pull out a bit of stitching or maybe my Kindle.  Thanks for dropping by!  I hope you are having a great weekend.  Until next time, happy stitching!!

My Sentiments...EXACTLY!!!

The DH just informed me (sadistically, btw) that it's a mere 10 degrees outside. 
With the wind chill it's a balmy -10.

Yay.

He wants to go cross country skiing. 

Stupid man.

I think this sums it up quite nicely, don't you?

I saw this pic on With Thy Needle and Thread.  It made me laugh.

Thanks!  I really, really needed a chuckle.

Stay warm, kids!!

P.S.  Stitchy pics to follow!!!!

Baby, It's C-O-L-D Outside!!!

Wowser, it's bitter cold AGAIN in Upstate NY...I must tell you I am really, really tired of this weather.  After a few years of relatively mild winters, one's with a week or 2 of this weather, a winter like this is just plain brutal.  And a dreary steel-grey color to boot.

I've been stitching. I've worked on Miss Snow Fairy last week. I'm about 1/2 done now. I switched out working on her with This is the Day. You remember that sampler in JCS by Heart in Hand?  The one with exhuberant colors?

Well, with all the grey in the recent days, I've decided I needed something colorful to work on.  So I pulled it out of my ever growing stash pile.  I'm stitching it with the original colors.  I have a love/hate relationship with the sampler, though.  The linen I'm stitching it on, 36ct Lakeside, Autumn Gold, is very, very scratchy.  It grabs the thread.  It distorts the stitches.  It makes me unhappy.  But I'm too far into this sampler to start over.  This linen will NOT get the best of me.

So tomorrow,  I'm hoping for some sun.  Then I'll take some pics of my stitching.  And BTW, I snagged the pic from Edgar's blog, Blacksheep's Bit of the Web...

So until tomorrow, stay warm!  I'm curling up by the fireplace with my Kindle, my stitching and a cup of cocoa.  How about you?

The holidays are officially over

The Second Lieutenant and the lovely Jenna have returned to their home and tomorrow we head back into the routine of work.  I really enjoyed the 2 long weekends we had for the holidays, not quite as good as the 2 weeks I normally save but none the less, a welcome break from the office.  Now, back to the stress of projects and money and bills.  It was nice to put aside all the routine and have a few days where I didn't worry about anything.

All things end, right?

Tonight we watched Iron Chef America and I stitched some on Miss Snow Fairy.  I am disappointed that the Steelers didn't get into the playoffs as a wild card.  But honestly, they didn't deserve to be in the playoffs so I'm not too disheartened.

Anyway, I do want to take a moment to thank each and every one of you who come by and come back to see what the ol' blog has to say.  I thank all of you who leave comments and I thank those who don't too.  I enjoy everything that you write and I hope that you find something worthwhile when you visit here.  I am grateful to all of you.  Many times over the past year I thought of deleting the blog.  But I am glad I didn't.

So, it's onward and upward to Monday.   I wish everyone a great week, I hope you stay warm cause it's freezing here in good ol' Upstate NY.

See ya later!

Hello everyone! My Stitchy Year in Review

I hope everyone rang in the new year in grand fashion.  We did...on the sofa with the DH softly snoring beside me.  Actually, he woke up about 11:45 and we watched the ball drop on Times Square. We were snug in our bed by 12:30 AM. Such party animals!

The 2nd Lieutenant and the lovely Jenna went to a friend's house for a little get together.  They were home relatively early but I couldn't say for certain what time cause I didn't even hear them come in.

I have been blog surfing off and on today and I see many of you've posted your stitchy accomplishments.  My 2009 accomplishments were very, very thin this year.  Mainly I started many, many pieces and most aren't too far along.  My usual MO.

The biggest accomplishment I had this year was to finish Bea.

I also finished Parson Brown, a lovely snowman from Notforgotten Farm.

I participated in a few exchanges and had a couple of small finishes. Nothing to brag about, really. I am hoping my stitching 2010 will be better! I'm going to work at it. As I said in my previous post, my plans are to stitch from my stash and to work on my Wips.  Currently, I am stitching on Miss Snow Fairy on an evenweave with the intention of making her into a pillow too. She's about 1/2 way done.

I have been bad with buying new things though.

The 2009 Blackbird Designs Loose Feather Club:

Some Lizzie Kate, LHN, Prairie Schooler..oh too many to list!  I feel like if I don't get what I want when I see it, it will be gone forever. I can thank all of you for that! I see what you are stitching and then I MUST have it too! Much to my husband's displeasure, I am sure. LOL!!! I tell him it's cheaper than therapy and when I am old and gray, as long as I have a magnifier, I am ALL SET!

I also have been drawn to more Primitive pieces, particularly for bowl fillers and little sachet pillows.  Have you seen this designer, Country Rustic Primitives?  She sells in e-patterns which I absolutely LOVE.  They come quickly and I like that you can save them on your computer.  How green!

Well, I should go for now, we've had a rather lazy day here.  I hope you all are having a great start to the new year!  See ya soon!