Sept 18th Monday HUGE Update

It was another week full of stitching. Still joining in the Go Stitch challenge with the Semi Sane Stitchers Facebook group. Having a blast. It is just the push I needed. So let's see what I've been working on...

Monday Day 11 - Letter M. I was very surprised I don't have a M title chart. That's okay I wanted to finish up Summer Gnome so perfect. Needed 400 stitches got 268 added...

Tuesday 

First up last 132 for Day 11 on Summer Gnome...

Day 12 - Letter Q No Q for me. So another 400 Go Stitch Day. Hoping to finish Summer Gnome...

378 stitches and it was complete!!! Wohoo! Happy Dance. Still needed more stitches for my total for the day so grabbed Camping Out Mill Hill Kit...

252 stitches and it was finished!!! Major happy dancing. 2 fantastic finishes in one day. 

Wednesday -- Day 13 Letter B Finally one I had several choices for the letter. 4 choices. We picked Beer Dragon because I want at least 500 stitches this month in him...

Added 400 stitches even though I needed 200.

Thursday - Day 14 Letter S Another 4 choice kind of day. Jeremiah picked an old WIP...

This is Stitcher's Code SAL from Stitchingly it was a SAL in 2019/2020. I am doing them individually and I finished Part 4 in 2020. Jeremiah picked #6 this time because the cute little frog of course...

Another great stitching day so 600 stitches added. This is exactly why I love this challenge. Made me pick up this old WIP. I promised it I will be back soon. I have a 2nd SAL from them too. Plus they make adorable little pillow type finishes to display. #4 is on display here at our tiny house.

Friday - Day 15 Letter Y No Y for me. So Beer Dragon came back out...

Added 400 more stitches. So goal met for this month.

Saturday No stitching day. We ran up to Fort Wayne to the old house. We picked up a trailer to haul furniture again. 2 HUGE loads. One to help the home owner. One for our last big stuff. Of course all this stuff was upstairs. So OUCH. It was hard hard work but it's done. My poor left lower leg still hurts today from all the work. This is all the big stuff now though. Just hodge podge stuff left. We are crossing all fingers we just might actually be done this coming weekend with what we want out. Ohhh I hope so...

Sunday I planned on not moving. Hurried to do a few things like put out bird seed. We had a delicious breakfast and sit I did...

Makeup for Saturday Day 16 - Letter W Another older WIP Wish Upon a Starfish by Designs by Lisa...

Added 207 (oops extra 7 haha) to complete Saturday

Day 17 Letter O No O for me so why not keep that beautiful Starfish loaded on the Q-Snap...

651 stitches!!!! Told you I wasn't moving all day. WOW. Only one symbol left. I was so tired. I would have loved to keep my eyes open just probably an hour more to finish but no luck. Trust me....soon.

So I'm curious again...Last Monday I reported 3,039 stitches and was proud of myself.....this week....3,288!! Wohoo! Still loving every stitch. 

I wonder what I will work on this week. Can't wait to report it to you. Smile. Love yourself. Have an amazing week.

Sept 4th Monday Update

Happy Labor Day. It's been a busy and a HOT weekend. But I am here with an update. Long one today so let's first talk about what stitching I did last week...

Monday I worked on Camping Out Mill Hill for Mill Hill Monday. I got 152 stitches added....

Tuesday and Wednesday I worked on the Summer Gnome. Tuesday I added 632 stitches. Wonderful stitching day. Wednesday 196 stitches. I'm up to Day 9 now...

Thursday we had several friends show up to start the weekend early. My step mom's family takes over the campground for a reunion type gathering. We had less people than normal but still busy busy and lots of fun. A lot of work to get ready but it was a great time. There were like 20 kids running like crazy. They all seemed to have had a blast. This is the perfect place to have so many kids run around. They spent a lot of time in the pond. Since unfortunately 2 of the days were horrible hot. Upper 90 heat index again. So I'm exhausted from sweating. Plus I didn't sleep well. I always know people are up and jump awake to not miss anything haha. But...it was worth it. It was a great time and now it's over. Probably our last big camping bash here. We will have a fun Halloween party but not really much else. Which I'm secretly excited about. More stitching. Lazy time. Haha. We will have some fall cooler temps type things to do around here but still it will be more calm. Plus a few more weekends ahead to finish clearing out the old house. Anyway I'm rambling.

Another thing to share is a really fun thing that happened. I received $100 from a survey company I participate in. So since it was unplanned money I decided to get some stash haul because I mean why not haha...

The new Jim Shore Mill Hill Kits since I found a love for Gnomes lately. I decided I will do them one at a time. I'll have Jeremiah pick which one each time of course. Probably in October. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to get them done for the Winter season. No pressure though.

I got our Zodiac Mill Hill kits after seeing a friend work on one. Nice thing Jeremiah and I are both Taurus so I only have to do 2 for the 3 of us.

Enchanted Pumpkin yet another Mill Hill kit. I've had this one on my wish list for years! So it was about time plus with the other Mill Hills coming it fit right in the cart to.

Last two I got the free chart of the month which was a mummy from Stoney Creek. I also got this Irish chart from 123stitch because it was on sale so again.....why not. Jeremiah loves his Irish heritage so I thought it would be nice to stitch for him. So 11 new patterns added to my stash. I couldn't help it. Free money. I ended up only paying like $6 for all of these with shipping. Perfect. It was a fun stash enhancement that we all need sometimes.

Now I'm joining in a fun game for September called Go Fish in the Semi Sane Facebook group. I will explain more about that in my next post though. This one is already long enough I think haha. 

Have a great week. We have a few more days of heat and then it's supposed to cool off again. Hopefully this time for the rest of the year. We keep joking about never turning on our heat because we look forward to being cold finally. Love yourself. Smile. Enjoy your life.

August 28th Monday Update

Hello my lovely readers. Let's see what stitching I got done last week...

Monday I actually worked on my Mill Hill Monday piece Camping Out...

Finished the bear section lower right. 2 sections left now. Wohoo!!

Tuesday and Wednesday I worked on Simple Treasures...

Thursday was Book Dragon day...

Friday and Sunday was back to Summer Gnome...

Tuesday I took a day off of everything and stitched my little heart off haha. It was the first day of using my new stitch counter...

I got it for $7.99 on Amazon. Does exactly what I need it to do. It was very easy to get used to. When I move the magnet to move to the next row of stitches bump up the number of steps. Easy Peasy. I had no problem remembering luckily. So no worries about getting use to it. Let's see for fun.

Tuesday - 582 stitches....great day! Wednesday - 175 stitches. Thursday - 478 stitches. Friday - 371 stitches. Sunday - 244 stitches. 1,850 counted stitches. I didn't count Monday. So it will be fun to keep track now plus I can join in the counting challenges finally.

Here in Indiana we broke some heat records last week. Yuck. Today the windows are open and gentle cool breeze is blowing. Who knows what our weather will be haha. Supposed to be hot again later this week. I'm really ready for Fall and Winter haha. 

My WIP tab is all organized at the top. I had it down to 36 WIPs but couldn't leave it there so added the 4 to get to 40 haha. Needed a rounded number. I know I could easily get it to 50 but I'm leaving it there at 40 for now haha. I know one thing. I am in love with my stitching again completely. After looking through it all I'm excited about any stitching time. I just love stitching on this and that and this again nope that. I am just happy. 

We have a big camping weekend coming up. My step mom has a lot of family over for the Labor Day Holiday. Not a lot of stitching time but I am going to try to steal some. A big fun challenge from the Facebook Semi Sane Group is starting on the first called Go Fish. It's my first real different challenge. One letter of the alphabet will be called each day by like 9am. If you have a chart titled with that letter you stitch 200 stitches on it. If not you yell Go Fish and stitch 400 stitches on any WIP of your choice. I'm really looking forward to it. Entries into a drawing every time you complete the daily challenge. I haven't heard some rules. I did hear no time limit. I would assume by the end of the month maybe? I don't know for sure yet. 

Lastly I will leave you with this adorable photo of Spike. One day Jeremiah was brushing his teeth and for some reason Spike decided he needed his support. So Spike is "helping". 2 years ago today is when we went to pick him out. We didn't get him right away. They kept him a few days to do the fix and let him heal. Boy we are so lucky we found him...

Love yourself. Smile. Find your happiness. Stitch! See ya next time.

August 21st Monday Update

I survived the week of moving. First let's see what little stitching I got done...

Mill Hill Monday was a bust so moved it to Tuesday again...

Progress on the lower right section where the bear button goes. I'm trying not to rush it but I'm excited for the finish on this one. I wonder which one I'll pick next. I will probably have to let Jeremiah pick. I have them all into one container now. Trust me....lots of choices!!

Wednesday and Sunday was the only one time I got more stitching time. I worked on Book Dragon. I finished the first page and started the 2nd page...

That's it last week for stitching. Moving Moving Moving. I have never really heard anyone talk nice about moving. Especially when majorly downsizing. I was so exhausted every day. The choices of what to keep are coming a lot easier than I expected though at least. I'm ready to have it off my shoulders. Friday Jeremiah went with us for the first time. It was hard for him but he said it helped a lot. He saw the house only one time since mom passed away so he was really worried about going but he wanted to say Goodbye. He moved into that house at 9 and he's 25 now. I talked to him on video chat so he would see how empty the house is. It's crazy. It's like a shell of an old home. No love. Just empty. He explained it perfectly ....Grandma is not there any more. She's gone and we have her with us she's not in these walls anymore. So the house feels just different. Not ours anymore. We were very happy to get home to our happy place where we fill the place with love and new memories of our life everyday. We love living here and being in the country. All those million dollar houses on top of each other is just crazy. Give us corn fields anytime haha.We've changed so much. 

Friday we got a lot of large furniture pieces that  meant a lot to me so that felt fantastic. My grandfather had built me a bookcase, converted a singer into a beautiful table, and a hope chest. They are all safe in our storage unit now. It was a roller coaster of emotions all week. Severe storms made us cut our day short Thursday as we hurried to get home for Jeremiah (of course we arrived after they were over luckily nothing severe here just heavy rain and wind). So we were so disappointed in how much we got done several times. But looking at what's left we are probably well over half way done. So I think we did better than I thought.

We are going back after Labor day on the weekends to finish it off. Until then hopefully rest up. This week we have record breaking heat so I'm hoping to curl up with my stitching.

Speaking of that I have been going through everything!!! Time to reassess what I want in my WIP tote and what I can let sit aside. So far I've found homes for what I want here and the rest will be a short drive to storage away. I have one tote of WIPs here and the threads needed. I will be updating my Goals tab at the top soon. Anyway here's some of the moving photos...

We have 4 dressers, a washer and dryer, and some other stuff still to come down. Then we will restack and organize it all. I believe it will fit at least. I was worried at the beginning. I have definitely downsized well. Hubby said he was shocked at how well I've done with that part haha. He knows I'm very sentimental but realistically the memories will never leave me just the item. No reason to take up space I don't have anymore. 

Okay I'm off to fix my goals tab. Have a great week. Stay cool if you are in the heat like us. Love yourself. Smile.

August 14th Monday Update

Hey Readers. Time for another Monday Update. It's been a crazy busy day but let's look back at last week...

After being at the house I got a major cleaning bug here. Get this I emptied, organized, and dusted the junk drawer haha. Hoarding here we are NOT! I am so happy though. I found spots for my stash. I didn't have time to get it organized the way I want just yet but I found spots to hide it all haha. That's hard in a 12x24 home. So I cleaned my Monday gone.

So Tuesday I decided to do my Mill Hill....Tuesday haha...

I got that section with the canoe finished. 3 sections left now. By the way Did you see the new Mill Hill winter set? Gnomes!!! They are so cute!!!

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I worked on Beer Dragon. I signed up in Full Coverage Fanatics for a monthly goal where you pick the amount of stitches. I picked 500 because I knew it was going to be a busy month. Here it was before...

I ended up adding 1,051 and finished the column...

I just fell in love and off my needles went. Look at that wing?!? Gorgeous.

Saturday and Sunday I got some work on the Summer Gnome...

I at least found stitching time. Wednesday I had my follow up CT scan...

Found out now that my lung nodule has not changed so I will just get another scan a year from now to watch it. But my spleen was swollen and my lung bronchial tubes are having some issues. Which might explain my slight cough and shortness of breath. I think it's related to all the extra stress and weight I put back on. So I'm going to pay attention to it and see what happens. Anyway the nodule hasn't changed. So I'll take the positive. 

Thursday Jeremiah has an eye appointment and everything is looking great. Tests in September to see if anything has changed for him. But she was happy with his eyes.

Saturday we did corn as a family. We ended up putting up 125 quart bags between everyone. We all got 19 bags. Yum can't wait to eat it all winter.

Today we started the process of moving everything out of the old house. We did a lot of little nick knacks so it took a lot of time to package it all up and make it safe it safe in it's new box home...

We were very happy with the van load moved to storage. Back tomorrow. I would rather be here stitching haha.

Okay well love yourself. Smile. Find happiness. Fred took this stitching photo of me so I'll share wtih ya all...

August 7th Monday Update

Lots to talk about. First let's see what stitching I did last week...

Mill Hill Monday was back to Camping Out...

I had a good long stitching day Monday. I had Jeremiah pick a number from the remaining sections. Fire pit spot was his first pick. I enjoyed finishing it up. Then he picked the small little section to the left of the fire. It was quick. Lastly the canoe section. I enjoyed working on it yet again. I also went back and did the sun backstitching. It will be okay with a dark fabric behind the piece I think. 

Tuesday I started the August Year of Celebrations Season 2 piece. I worked on it through Friday every day. Luckily Friday I finished it up...

(11) August 4th

August - A Year of Celebrations Season 2
from Hands on Design
Stitched on 32ct Dark Cobblestone Lugana
Using Suggested Classic Colorworks Threads
Started August 1st. Took 4 Days.

 

Saturday we didn't exactly know what we were going to do. We did get a storage unit during the week. 10x20 here locally...

So we were trying to decide if we wanted to go up and grab stuff or spend the day on other stuff. Dad and Bev stopped in and said they were going to a work picnic and wouldn't be back for hours. It was the sign I needed. So we hit the road. It was my first time back in the house in a long long time. So sad. So weird. Just so.....not my home of 15 years. It's an empty shell. A void. Lifeless. Yet countless countless items everywhere. I caught myself just turning in circles. I knew I wanted to grab stuff but what. What is worth the small space we have.  

I grabbed some of my stash to sort through...

Sunday we offered to go back and help Betty move some heavy furniture to her new apartment. Being good people like we should be. In the morning Sunday though we peeled tomatoes...

You warm them up just a few minutes in boiling water. The skins fall right off easily. My step mom cuts them up and makes salsa and spaghetti sauce. It's always fun to help with the peeling part at least.

In the afternoon we went back up to Fort Wayne. The furniture was a pain but we got two TV's and two cabinets took over for her...

Then we ran back and just loaded up arms of clothes in trash bags. I was mentally exhausted and we can sort them here slowly instead of being there. 

This week is Doctor week. I have a follow up CT scan on my lung nodule to make sure it's not changed in a year. Thursday Jeremiah has an eye appointment. Fred has next week off work. So we will be working hard on the house. It's mentally just Wow. I am overwhelmed with sadness, angry, helplessness, excitement of it being done, memories, more sadness, thankfulness, just every emotion every few seconds. But....it will be done....sometime. We have all agreed it's not worth killing ourselves. Some things can't be taken till September sometime like the laundry machines. So I will take breaks when I need to and do the best I can. All I can do. 

Okay. I'm off to finish what I need to do so I can stitch hopefully. Have a wonderful week. Love yourself. Find a reason to smile.