Advent Blog Hop

Today I'm joining in my 2nd Advent Blog Hop. The wonderful Jo over at Serendipitous Stitching is hosting a fantastic Advent Blog Hop. Each day we get to visit a new "doorway" for our countdown to Christmas. Today is Day 5 which means it's MY TURN.

For those people who are just hopping by for the first time let me take a moment to say Welcome and tell you who I am. I'm Katie. I'm a stay at home mother to a wonderful son who is 17. He is my life. I'm also lucky enough to be happily married. We own a home with my mom and I just love my family. I love traveling, geocaching, camping, and of course cross stitching. I stitch on anything that makes me happy. I love Heaven and Earth Designs and all things bright and fun.

Jo asked us to share how we spend Christmas Eve. Since my parents got a divorce when I was 10 I've woke up with my dad on Christmas Eve and then home for Christmas morning. We still continue it to this day. The day before Christmas Eve hubby, son, and me load up and head down to my dad and step mom's house. It's about an hour and a half away. We watch movies together. One we watch every year no matter what is National Lampoon Christmas Vacation. We go to sleep and my dad wakes us up early in the morning because he is worse than a little kid when it comes to opening presents. We open presents with them and eat a delicious breakfast. 2 in the afternoon we head over to my dad's parents. They actually rent this little building now since the family has grown so large. We have a lot of fun and sit around and tell stories about this and that. We head home and jump into bed waiting for Christmas morning here at our home. I just love Christmas. I love seeing the face of people when they open a gift. The smiles. The magic of the holidays. I just can't wait.

I would also like to share a piece that I not only stitched this year but actually finished. If you are a follower of my blog you know my pieces tend to just wait in a drawer forever for the finishing part. Guess what?!?!?

I finished my 6 Christmas Pals Ornaments!!! It's a kit from Dimensions. I started them for the Crazy January Challenge beginning of this year and worked on them for a total of 25 days. I enjoyed every stitch in them. I finished them off as little cubes. They aren't perfect but I love them anyway. Now they are happily displayed for the Christmas Season rather than hiding in a drawer.

Christmas Pals Ornaments Finished

(21)  November 19th
Part 6 of 6 Christmas Pals Ornaments by Dimensions
Used kit threads and 14ct Aida
Changed French Knots to Beads of Similar Color
Started kit for CJC Day 1. Took 4 Days.

All 6 Together. Took 25 Days total for all of them.

 

Wohoo I got them finished!!! This means another project marked off my 2015 CJC list. I guess I should have done them individually instead of as 1 project. Still they are done! Tomorrow starts IHSW or International Hermit Stitch Weekend. It's a great excuse to get some X's in. I'm going to bring out HAED Hope and start another page on her. Come and join in with me!

Monday Update

I got the 5th ornament from Christmas Pals Ornaments by Dimensions finished yesterday. I really like this one. Now I just have one left to finish. I'm pretty sure he will jump onto my Q-snaps as soon as I take this one off.

I'm going to link up to the Monday Stitchery Party again. I just love seeing what beautiful pieces each person who checks in has been working on. She has opened it up to anyone that does any type of hobby with needle and thread. She also gives a beautiful embroidery type pattern each week. Something I wouldn't know how to do but I know a lot of people who do.

Saturday we started Christmas shopping. Mom and me hit the stores and shopped till we dropped. Our whole bodies hurt after we were done. So yesterday we took a day to recover. Fred (hubby) volunteered at a Ham Radio event both weekend days. So I settled on my couch and finished up the ornament while watching TV. When I got it all finished I started something new but not stitching related. I'm sure you've heard of them or you live under a rock haha.....the new fad....adult coloring books. I always loved to color as a kid. Now it's "cool" to do it again. Santa Claus is bringing me a few coloring books but Saturday I found one while we were out shopping and somehow it followed me home for now haha. (I hate waiting for Christmas!!) So after finishing up my ornament I decided to try it out...

How fun!! I know it's not "perfect" but I had a blast. Just what I need....another hobby to scream at me to Come Play! Today Fred had the day off work to use up leftover vacation days. So he had a long honey do list and also put up the Christmas lights (which we won't turn on till the day after Thanksgiving). So Mom, Jeremiah, and me loaded up and went to do more Christmas shopping. So now I really really can't wait till Christmas. We have just a few more things to get but we are mostly done. Feels great because we found some fantastic things. I can't wait for Jeremiah to open his gifts now. He's so spoiled haha. Yeah like I'm not haha. Well now I have to go rest. Shopping till you drop.....hurts!

Christmas Pals Ornaments

I've put 3 days into the 5th ornament in the Christmas Pals Ornaments by Dimensions set. It's slowly coming along haha. When I have so many things yelling for me to stitch on them it's hard to have something go slow haha. I've been busy though so I'm not stealing as much stitching time. I've been getting things ready for the Crazy January Challenge. I have 16 pieces all kitted up and ready to go. Of course now I want to work on all them too haha. It's torture to have such a wonderful stash to pick projects from I tell ya haha.

Christmas Pals Ornament Finish

Part 4 of 6 Christmas Pals Ornaments by Dimensions
Used kit threads and 14ct Aida
Changed French Knots to Beads of Similar Color
Started kit for CJC Day 1. Took 5 Days.

Just in time. Got him finished up last night. We hit the road tomorrow so it's the last day scramble. I have lots and lots to do but wanted to pop in and show off my finish. I love how the backstitching changed the drab design to an adorable snowman. See ya from the road. Hope you travel along with us.

Monday Update

Here's what I've been working on. I started the #4 ornament in the Christmas Pals Ornament kit. All I have left to do is white and backstitching. Just have to steal some time.

Linking up to Stitchery Link Party. Stop on over and see what it's all about and what the participants have been working on.

It was another crazy blur of a weekend. Saturday we went to a geocaching meal with friends. It was really fun to visit with everyone. Then two of our close friends came over to the house to visit for a bit. It was very nice! Sunday Mom, Jeremiah, and me went down to our hometown (Wabash, Indiana) to see Mary Poppins play. One of my mom's cousin's daughters was Mary Poppins. I LOVE musicals so it was a great excuse to attend. Jeremiah really enjoyed it and I just loved it. I hadn't seen Mary Poppins as a play. It was very well done. It was very well done for a very small community theater too. Now we have two days to get done since we leave Wednesday. So much to do! But hopefully I'll find some time to finish up this snowman in there too.

Christmas Pals Ornament # 3

Christmas Pals Ornaments Kit. I started these for the 1st Day of CJC (Crazy January Challenge). Last night I finished # 3...

So now I have the bottom 3 finished. These have been so much fun to work on and they make a nice little quick finish when working on those larger pieces I seem to be in love with haha.

Finished # 2 Christmas Pals Ornaments

Finished March 23rd

Part 2 of 6 Christmas Pals Ornaments by Dimensions
Used kit threads and 14ct Aida
Changed French Knots to Beads of Similar Color
Started kit for CJC Day 1.
Started # 2 Feb 28th. Took 3 Days.

He's finished! I really loved this one. I love penguins and purple! Well Jeremiah is doing slowly better. I have a lot of hope that he will be okay by the time we leave Monday. Mom had a doc appointment yesterday. If she had insurance she would have been hospitalized. They did give her something for nausea and today she is actually downstairs and out of bed. So hopefully that's a great sign too. I'm supposed to leave Thursday for my local retreat. I'm going to hopefully know more tomorrow afternoon. Right now I don't think I could leave her alone. Here's hoping she is better by tomorrow. I actually found the bottom of my laundry basket!?! I didn't even know there was a bottom haha. Tomorrow I'll have to pack so if I do go to my retreat I'll be ready to leave. Yesterday we got almost 3 inches of snow!! Welcome to Spring in Indiana. The weather guys missed this forecast. They said a light dusting. Oops. So it will be really weird packing shorts and capris. It will probably melt today or tomorrow cause it's warming up finally again. Well I'm off to see what is screaming Stitch Me today.

IHSW

It was the last week of my HAED March Madness. I started 3 new HAED charts. Spending a week on each one. I gotta admit I got burned out toward the end. I found myself finding excuses not to pick up my stitching. Dragon Moon had some fun colors in it but Aquamarine just drug on. So I'm glad they are all started and I will now be happy to sit them aside and let them rest for awhile.



Anyway this is another artwork done by Nene Thomas. It's called Aquamarine and is now out of print since she decided to stop allowing her work be made into cross stitch by HAED. Here is where I got after the 5 days of working on her 1,233 stitches in...

Sunday I picked up the Christmas Pals Ornaments again. I'm working on the 2nd ornament of the 6. It's the Penguin in the bottom row...

Here is where I got on him after the 2nd day of work...

Life update. We are busy getting ready for our next vacation. I also have my local stitching retreat which I leave for Thursday morning. Then we are leaving Monday for the start of our Disney trip. We are taking our time and enjoying our way there. So I've been busy trying to get things done so I can be ready to leave. Shopping for the last goodies you can't survive without. Sorted what needs packed and what needs to be in the laundry to be packed. On top of it Jeremiah got sick. He hasn't left the couch for 2 days. Then yesterday my mom got it....bad. So I'm trying not to breath and trying to take care of both of them. Week from today guys. You both have to be better!!

HAP SAL

I wanted to get work in on another HAED so I concentrated on her this month. I did get 3 days in on Selkie though. Here she is last check in...

Here she is now...

This is 16 days progress and a count up of 6,598 stitches now. Yesterday I started # 2 of the Christmas Pals Ornaments. Here is a reminder of what they will look like...

Fred picked out the Penguin. Here is my progress from yesterday...

Today I'm starting my HAED March Madness. Jeremiah picked Dragon Skies. I will be back in a few days with an update.

Christmas Pals Ornaments Day 3 and 4

I didn't take time to post an update this morning cause I wanted to get to stitching. Here is where I got yesterday...

So close. This is sure one of those designs that looks horrible until you backstitch and add the details. Anyway here he is now...

All finished!!

I decided to add beads instead of french knots. I just love how they look. So 1 of the 6 ornaments are finished. I'm going to finish them into little pillow type ornaments I think. Oh they would make cute little cubes too. Until then they will go into the bin of shame haha.

Christmas Pals Ornaments

Day 1 of CJC I started Christmas Pals Ornaments by Dimensions. I'm working on the bottom middle snowman here is a picture of the kit...

I picked it back up yesterday for a little bit of stitching...

I'm going to work on it today too. So I need to get off this computer and get busy haha.

HAP and Day 1 of CJC

I can't believe it's 2015. We had a nice night just doing nothing. We watched movies and switched to watch the last half hour of Ryan Seacrest's show. Since it was a night to celebrate I figured I should work on 99. I got two more bottles stitched and some more of the shelf under them.

Today is the First of January which means two things.

Today is the first HAP SAL check in. I started a new HAED because none of mine fit the category for the SAL....well also cause I wanted to really bad haha. I started her on December 21st. I got to work on her for 7 days so far. Here is the progress picture...

I have 2,360 stitches in. She is my beautiful blue blob haha. Her name is Selkie. Her picture is on the right hand side.

Today was the first day of the Crazy January Challenge. I'm starting a new piece everyday for the first 15 days. I put the names of my picks into a container and let Jeremiah pick which one I will work on. He picked Christmas Pals Ornaments. Here is what it will look like...

Then I told him pick 1 through 6 and he picked 5 so I started the middle snowman on the bottom. Here is my progress after today...

Today we watched the Rose Bowl parade. That's my favorite parade to watch by far. I love the decorations on the floats. They sure spend a lot of time and it's just breathtaking. Fred enjoys watching the bands since he was in band growing up. After that we watched old TV shows we have stored on our DVR. Poor thing has over 100 shows haha. We got caught up on Resurrection finally. I really like that show. Tomorrow is Day # 2. See ya then.