A Very Merry Christmas to you!!

May the Jolly ol' Elf leave you your heart's desire under the Christmas tree.

And may God Bless each of you, my dearest stitching friends.  I love all of you!

From our house to yours....

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Black Friday

Hey there!  I hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving.  Our Thanksgiving was very quiet, just David and me.  It's been that way for a few years now and although I do miss the bustle of family, it was very nice just to have a fairly unstressful day.   I roasted a turkey breast and made all the trimmings.  I like making that meal so it was a joy to do.  It came out very well and we will have leftovers for a few days. 

I have been working on With Thy Needle and Threads, Needleworker's Sampler. 

I've changed it up a bit and I am pleased with what I've done so far. It's really unusual for me to change up a design but something about it just didn't work for me.  I realized that the house and the basket of fruit above it wasn't centered and being a symetrical type, I move them over and then the fun began.  Now things didn't fit like they did before and well, the top half of the design is now "re-designed".  It's ok though.  It's good for the brain to shake things up a little.  I added a lady friend to the left side of the house and gave the man a doggy friend. I moved some of the pinwheels and will go about re-planting the flowers.  I will have to move the woman holding the needle in the next band too so she's centered under the house. After that I think I will leave the rest of the design alone. 

I did go out this Black Friday. I was very surprised how easy it was to find a parking spot and that the mall wasn't terribly busy even with all the doorbuster sales.  Maybe they were busier on Thanksgiving Day (GRRR...nothing is sacred anymore) and I got what I went for which really was for me.  I needed jeans and a suitcase.  My trip to Japan is almost here and I had to have a bigger piece of luggage than just the carry-on.  I wandered around but nothing drew the money from my wallet.  Which really is a good thing cause my wallet is pretty light.

I've joined the "Snooty Parrot" SAL on Facebook.  Terri from Chocolates For Breakfast is hosting it. It starts on January 4th.  I'm waiting on threads and we are 100 strong!  A beautiful sampler for sure. It pushed out a couple of samplers I thought about starting at the beginning of the year.  Oh,wait, I always start a little something Christmas Day so just maybe....who am I kidding.  I know I will but what is yet to be decided.

Anyway...that's all from Chez Doghair...I'm covered in it.  And it's time for a nap.  All that shopping just did me in. 

Have a great weekend everyone!  Thanks for stopping!

A Post - WooHoo!

It's been 5 weeks.  Geez Louise!  I don't even know where to begin. 

First of all, I have been stitching.  I started (and finished, *GASP!!*) Cross Eyed Cricket's, Be Ye Thankful.  I stitched it on 36 count mystery linen with the recommended DMC.  I think I 'm going to frog out some of the yellow that just fades into the fabric.  And I would like to get it framed before Thanksgiving, but I am not sure I can.  If I can't, it it will go into "the box" with all the other finished but not finished pieces.

I actually stitched an ornament from the Just Cross Stitch Halloween issue, Lizzie Kate's cute little witch.  It's also in "the box". 


And I actually finished finished October's Wordplay and December's Word Play too!  OMGosh. And there's another that I finished but for the life of me, I can't remember what it is.  I blame my forgetfulness on my thyroid brain.  No focus.

I am working out of my WIP box but I desperately want to start either A Yuletide Welcome or another Christmas piece.  But I'm holding strong and working on those pieces that I've begun.

My David has taken a job out of town during the week.  He is 3 hours away and has taken an apartment. He comes home on the weekend.  (I can't wait until Friday at 6:30PM!) So I am now caring for my 3 horses and the 4 cats and the dog.  Barn work at 4:45AM my friends!  And again in the evening.  Not much time to do anything in the evenings.  I am getting better though, I'm getting into a rhythm so it's getting better. And I'm not collapsing at 8:30 like I did the first week.

Dave's Mom passed away this week, so we high tailed it to Pittsburgh for a whirlwind funeral and all the stuff that goes with it.  The funeral was a lovely tribute to a wonderful woman who accepted me as her daughter and treated me as if I actually was.  She never had a bad word to say about anyone and I can honestly say that I KNOW with my entire being that she's in Heaven with our Savior.  She was 89 and God was gracious and took her home quickly.  No suffering and no lingering.   

And the biggest news is that in a month, I will be in Japan for 10 days visiting Mike, Jenna and my sweetie pea, Alena!  She's 11 months old now and I will be there for her first birthday!  I can't wait!!

 

So, that's the news.  I hope not to be away for so long.  It's just been a wild ride these last few weeks!

Take care and thanks for stopping by!

Pumpkins for Cathey!

Happy Blog Anniversary to Cathey!  Sending you hugs, prayers and best wishes to you! I will be adding you and your family to my prayer list.

Thanks to DaffeyCat for such a brilliant idea! 

It's been a long time!

Hi all!

Well, well, well....a long time has past since I posted on this little piece of cyberspace.  I guess I just didn't have much to say so I didn't say anything.  LOL.  And today, I really don't have a lot to say either. 
I've been stitching but I don't have anything to show.  My camera takes such sucky pictures, and I was waiting to finish True Virtues before I posted but let me tell you, we all would grow OLD before that happens.  I am 80% done with it and I love her but she seems to be the sampler that Just. Won't. End.  So she's back on the end of the list for a little while cause now I'm working on my favorite time of the year pieces, Halloween and Christmas and I picked up another WIP to work on, Cricket Collections, Be Ye Thankful.  It's moving right along.  I also stitched a little witch and will be starting on October's Word Play. 

I've been thinking about what I want to stitch next year already. I think I will continue stitching WIPs and I want to stitch Christmas samplers.  Also, I've come full circle and want to stitch repro samplers.  Samplers are my first love, it's what drew me into needlework.  I have a ton of them just waiting to be stitched and most of my WIPs are samplers.

I've been watching for Market Releases and I've fallen in love with Plum Street Samplers, Yuletide Welcome and Threadwork Primitives, Beggar's Night.  I have pre-ordered them and I am waiting to see what With Thy Needle and Thread comes up with for Christmas...her Noel sneak peek is calling my name.

Our sweet Alena is 8 months old now and she's pulling herself up and talking a blue streak.  Mainly she says RAWR, RAWR, RAWR and DADADA but she's so funny to hear.  I can't wait until March when they come back to the States for good.

So again,  thanks for hanging with me.  I hope to blog a little more now that the summer is winding down.  I am glad that you are part of my life. Thanks!

Have a blessed Sunday,

Joanie

I Don't Know What the World Is Coming To...........

My heart is just saddened by the tragic events at the Boston Marathon.  Wow.  I just don't know what to say!  It just boggles my mind why anyone or any group would want to harm folks out to just have a nice time.  Innocents.  All of those victims and their families.  Just innnocent.  Senseless death and harm.  Certainly, the Devil is having a field day here in the good ol' USA.  I usually don't voice my conservative opinions here but I will say this as a Christian...we've turned our back on God here, in our schools, at our work and in our families and I guess I shouldn't be surprised at the state of our country and our world.

So, my heart and prayers are going out to those who were harmed or killed and to their families left to pick up the pieces.

Enough.

Connie, you will be pleased to know that I am rockin' True Virtue.  I stitched the verse and I'm tickled pink at it. You are right, she is a piece that is just a joy to stitch and I don't know why I put her down.  Well I do know, JCS is not known for doing a terrific job of proofing their patterns and the color key had the wrong symbol and one color was left off the color key.  I stitched the entire top of rice stitch grapes using the wrong color.  And I have to frog them all out.  ALL. OF. THEM. I got discouraged so I banished it to the "Land of Misfit Projects".  And I did stitch an entire alphabet in the wrong color (my mistake this time and no, I'm not frogging it, it looks just fine).  I'm a little hung up on the 4 sided alphabet, I'm going to have to do some research on how to properly stitch the letters (if you've got tips and hints, please share!).  So I'm going to wait until most of the stitching is done and then stitch the satin stitch border, the algerian eye vowels and the 4-sided stitch alphabet.  And probably the queen stitch flowers too.  I want to put the sampler on a roller frame to do this band and the border so I can have even tension.
 I did have a visit with the frogs this weekend on True Virtue but not so bad that I couldn't take care of it.  Now, I had a major frog infestation with WTN&T's  April Word Play.  I am using a piece of linen that is made up of thick and very thin linen thread.  I accidently crossed stitched one of those threads together with the other two (Instead of going over 2 threads, I went over 3).  And I was 75% done with stitching it and I caught the error.  I actually pulled a "Marly" and burned it in my fireplace.  I couldn't face ripping out the bunny in the wagon and the center section of words plus the bee skep, at least 50% of the piece.  I was so mad and burning it was a fitting thing to do in my opinion.
Health-wise I am not much better, the pendulum has swung the other way.  The autonomous toxic nodule covered my entire left lobe of my thyroid, it measured 4'' by 3" inches by 1" covering most of it.  The radioactive iodine killed it and most of the lobe. And my right lobe hasn't woken up yet from being suppressed for so long.  I've gone from subclinical hyperthyroid to hypothyroid. And I'm tired all the time. So, the doctor has prescribed a dose of synthyroid that's going to take the edge off the hypothyroid symptoms but will still allow him to monitor my hormone levels to see if my right lobe has come around.

Well, don't forget to follow me on Bloglovin...and I hope that the weather gets better soon so I can take some pictures.... I know this gets boring but I did want to check in.

Take care kids,  thanks for coming by!

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A finish times 2! :)

Hey everyone!  I hope you all have been good and are having fun.  I am most definitely ready for Winter to go away.  It hasn't been bad snow-wise but it sure has been cold.  And I most definitely hate cold.  Especially days on end where it didn't rise above the mid-20's during the day and stayed in the single digits at night. 

It's been an interested couple of months.  In January, we lost our hot water heater (well, not exactly) and along with it we replaced our furnace with a new propane furnace.  We heated our home with fuel oil and the price of oil was over $4.00 a gallon.  Each fill up was just under a thousand dollars.  It was getting pretty expensive to keep it up on one salary. To make a long story short, we called the hot water heater guy out who informed us that it wasn't the heater at all but we ran out of oil.  He recommended that we replace the heater anyway because it was ancient and half filled with sediment.  So we called out the furnace guy who gave us a pretty good deal on replacing both.  Hot water rocks!  And we should cut our heating costs a little bit because propane is 25% cheaper than fuel oil.  We shall see.

I found out that I have a toxic nodule on my thyroid which besides sucking out all the iodine my body produces, it sucks the life out of me.  So later this month, I will take a dose of radioactive iodine and hopefully (crossing my fingers) it will kill the toxic nodule and won't harm my thyroid.  I just want to feel better.  I have zero energy, am completely irritable and I find that I am just not myself because of it.  Say a prayer that this works. 

The boy child has deployed for 6 months and Jenna and little Alena are in Japan.  It was very hard for him to leave them.

Alena is 3 months old already.

 

 

 

On the stitching front, I have been busy! I want to show you that I can finish things, so here's what I've done this last month.

 

 

I broke out the sewing machine and got my creative on!  The pillow came out a little longer than I hoped (I am math challenged, so the David tells me) but it looks cute as a bolster on the bed.  This is a With Thy Needle and Thread pattern,

 

 And With Thy Needle and Thread's February Wordplay which doesn't Blogger doesn seem to want to right itself.  Sorry.

 

 

I also finished December's Wordplay and started on April's version.  I also worked on Baby It's Cold Outside but didn't take a snap because it's really wrinkly.  And I stitched 2 LHN Christmas Ornaments, the Saltbox house and Snow Cold. 

 

So that's what's going on in Joanie's World.  I want to say hey to my new followers and a thank you to all of you who visit.

Stay tuned for a March giveaway...you know there's a pot of gold at the end of the stitchy rainbow...just sayin'.

 

 

 



The winner is....

Hey everyone!

I really wish I could give all of you these patterns.  I always feel bad that there only is one winner when I do this.  But, I feel really good sharing them with you.

So the winner is....
PJ!

Email me at mikes1mom@gmail.com  with your address and I'll pop the patterns in the mail to you pronto.

I've decided to do this each time I finish up something or when the mood just hits (I'm thinking of going wild and crazy around Valentine's Day).  It's just something I want to do this year.  Share.  Be grateful that I can.  Makes me happy.  :)

Till next time,

Blessings,

Joanie