Cut Thru Update

I put a couple days into the Cut Thru Pirate Ship. I don't know why but I just can't seem to get into this one. But I did make some progress. Here is where I was in October...

So progress is progress. Here is a picture of the whole thing right now...

It's fun and bright. I guess my other projects just win over it most the time. I have 2 other Cut Thru's I really would like to do so I need to get this one finished.

We are leaving tomorrow for a weekend trip. Our closest friend's son is having a birthday pool party. Yes it's at a hotel with an indoor pool haha. We are really looking forward to it. Jeremiah hasn't been out of the house since Christmas Eve! He's finally breaking out. A weekend with friends sounds perfect to me.

Vacation Day 9

Today was another retreat day. Instead of going out for breakfast this morning we opted for donuts in the room. After that I headed down to stitch. I love seeing all the different ways of stitching. It's amazing to see in a room of 100 people all the many different patterns and what nots people use with their hobby. We went to an early dinner and it was delicious. We went back to Giant Crab buffet. Tonight was time for the Halloween Exchange. Here is what I stitched for the exchange...

 Here is the beautiful piece I received...

A friend of mine finished it and I just love it so much!!! Today I worked on the Cut Thru Pirate Ship. Here is where I was at the beginning of the day...

Here is where I finished...

I did too much talking and buying haha. The vendors were all setup today and I had fun shopping. Ink Circles was there and I just love drooling on her pieces. So fun seeing the models in person. Several other vendors were setup and I emptied my wallet haha. Of course I need more projects right?!?!

2 Finishes to Report

I finished the last of the Cricket Collection seasons. Now I need to take them to my framer so they will be ready to be put on the wall. Spring is still hanging right now haha. They sure were fun stitches. I saw they made monthly ones but I don't think I will be doing them any time soon haha. The seasons are enough. I already have a million other pieces screaming STITCH ME. After finishing Autumn I needed something else to work on for the weekend. I really want to start something new. (I'll get to that in a minute.) Anyway Jeremiah said Work on the Pirate Ship. I said Oh yeah I haven't made any progress on it in awhile. So I worked on it Saturday and Sunday and finished page 4...

This is just too much fun to stitch and then backstitch and see what little details pop out. Now I have a piece I need to do for my step mom. She found it and decided I could do the top for her...

I'm just doing the tin top. It's a Just Nan Over the Top 2009 kit. I have everything ready to go so I can get it finished for her. Then I realized I was really in the mood for Halloween. So I got to looking through my stash and found this...

Glendon Place Ghoul School. It's really just a haunted school not really Halloween only. Jeremiah and I said we would leave it up in our school room year round so it can haunt us. So I'm going to put this in place of the Seasonal pieces on my Turtle Trot list. I kitted it up today so I'm ready to go as soon as I finish the little tin top piece.

Turtle Trot and WIPocalypse

This month both WIPocalypse and Turtle Trot happen today. So let's see what's been going on since July 14th when it was the last WIPocalypse and July 10th the last Turtle Trot.

Cut Thru Pirate Ship by Bothy Threads - Worked on 2 days.
Before...

After...

Advent Animals SAL - Worked on 10 days trying to catch up.
Before I had finished # 1
Now I have finished through # 6 the pictures are in my finishes tab above if you would like to look at them.

Dog Wisdom by Bucilla - Worked on 3 days.
Before...

 After...

Seasonal Word Pieces by Cricket Collection
Before I have them all finished except for Autumn. So I decided I better get it marked off the list too.
Here is where I was last time I worked on it which was October 31st 2012.

Here I am now...

None Days - 12 We had our long camping trip and no stitching was done. Also I just got back from 3 days of garage sale shopping in Ohio so nothing there either.

Well that's my check in for both SALs. Now to get to my relaxing day of stitching and TV. Tomorrow I have 300 loads of laundry to do (okay maybe a little more than the real number haha). Tuesday we are starting Jeremiah's school year.

Long Update

I always mean to do smaller updates and then I forget and it ends up being one long update. So stick with me. :o)

First yesterday was a new moon which means it was TUSAL time. Here is what my current thread pieces look like in my ornament holder...

We are getting closer and closer to our Disney trip. The new bracelets that replace the key cards (they are your hotel key, park pass, meal plan, basically everything you need in a bracelet instead of card) arrived the other day. Now we are really getting excited. So they just had to be included in the TUSAL picture.

Over the weekend we were pretty busy. Saturday we started the morning (in the SNOW!!!) by going to another local sale. The outdoor flea market my mom sold at for 17 years does a traveling winter show. They had one here in Ft Wayne so we went to it. I got some shirts and some jewelry cleaner. My wedding ring looks like the day I bought it again finally. Then Fred took me out to do some errands. My framing was ready. So first stop of course was to pick that up. Here are the finished pieces...

The seasonal one switches out so just the one frame will be used for all the pieces. She said it's alot cheaper than doing each one framed. It was funny cause she told me she loaded the Spring one for me and it was snowing still outside the window. I said maybe we should switch to the other one haha. Clay's memorial piece is just perfect. I love how they framed it.

Sunday we headed out again and went to a geocaching meeting. There were only a few there but the weather was finally fantastic so it was a lot better than Saturday to be out. We grabbed another cache and headed home. I did get a lot of stitching done this weekend in between being out and about...

I finished the stitching for the 3rd page. Now just need to do the backstitching and I can move up on the ship. Jeremiah had the icky over the weekend. Just a head cold but just didn't feel like moving off the couch. So we got a ton of shows watched together. He said last night it was kind of nice being sick cause we got all caught up on our WWE shows off the DVR. I told him Yeah Come on Be sick more often haha. Makes sense right? Well I think I'm finally done with my update. I know you're glad aren't you?

IHSW Results

Friday I started Joan Elliott's Spring Fairy. I'm stitching on a light pink colored fabric. It might be a linen cause it's sure uneven which for me is something I don't like. But I stuck with it. My new frame worked perfect. Instead of my typical Q-Snaps it's a scroll frame so I can bead as I go along. I liked that but it's a lot bigger to handle. I worked on her all Saturday afternoon too. Here is where I got...

I finished the pink section on her skirt on the top page. So Saturday evening when I finished this section I pondered do I want to work on her Sunday or the Pirate Ship which was jumping up and down beside me screaming Me Me!!!

So Sunday the Ship forced me to work on it and I'm so glad I did cause I finished the 2nd page. I'm so happy! Finished just in time for the start of Walking Dead too haha. Priorities ya know. Now I can start the 3rd page which is a lot smaller than these two pages. As of my count right now I just finished Day 26 on the Ship. Not bad for that many days work on it.

Saturday morning Mom and me headed to our first garage sale of the year. It's a nearby town (Auburn for people who know Indiana). It's called the Great American Garage Sale. You can find a little of this and a lot of that. Anything from $.25 to $1,000 mixed in. I got a little plastic holder for beads or what nots. Some tie dye shirts. Mom found a really neat wooden boat decoration. It was a fun time. We bought lunch and brought it home for the boys. It was a very nice weekend. Now let's get this week to be the same. Today's already been great. So far so good. So how was your weekend?

Ship Update

I worked on the Pirate Ship again this week. If I haven't mentioned it before....I LOVE THIS pattern! LOL. Now I'm trying to find the 2 others I really want to do. The lighthouse and the castle. Evidently it's going to either be really expensive or really hard to find. This one will take me a long time to finish so I have time at least. Plus not like I don't have anything else to work on haha.

I'm going to put it down to work on Clay's memorial piece. We are supposed to be getting yet another winter storm. Of course each channel is saying different information. So anywhere from 1 to 12 inches haha. Nothing like that wide range right? My theory is if it's not warm enough to be outside camping and doing stuff it might as well be snowy. So bring it on. We'll all be sweating and miserable soon enough I'm sure.

Cheating IHSW

So I was excited cause I thought this weekend was IHSW (International Hermit Stitch Weekend). Then I was reminded it's the 3rd FULL weekend of the month. So that makes it next weekend. Guess what? I'm busy next weekend. I'm going out of town and spending two nights with friends. So no stitching for me. So I cheated. I did IHSW this weekend instead haha. So here is my check in...

I worked on the Pirate Ship the whole weekend. I had finished up the first page Thursday. I'm happy with my progress. Now it's going to sail off for a week so my other projects can come out to play. If you notice the last picture I ripped out the water in the lower right. I used the variegated thread and went up and down instead of right and left. I didn't like how it looked. Can you tell the difference? Does it look better to you? I'm so glad I did it cause I think it makes a HUGE difference.

Jeremiah can't wait to go away this weekend. He hasn't been out of the house since Christmas Eve (well other than to play in the snow for a bit)! His best friend is having us up for a hotel/pool party and just so happens we are best friends with his parents. It's about 3 hours away. So we are going Friday and staying 2 nights. Another friend lives up there too so he's stopping by Saturday to visit. Now to get through this weird week weather wise. Tomorrow we are getting more snow. 3 to 5 inches. We haven't seen the grass for months now. Then we have 50's heading in which will of course mean flooding but the dogs just hope to see grass again haha. Then possible severe weather. Then cold again. Crazy. We're prepared for whatever comes. Hope everyone has a fantastic week ahead.

WIPocalypse

Today is WIPocalypse so that means we check in with our projects and the progress that has been made. Also Measi made prompts for us to write about this year...

February 14 – Topic: How many projects do you generally feel comfortable having in progress at a time? Tell us about your one-at-a-time or rotation habits!

I don't care how many projects I have going. I have a neat basket and these awesome envelopes that have my projects in them.

I just pick whatever is screaming Stitch Me and work on it. Lately I've been in love with the Cut Thru Pirate Ship. So I started working on it a week then working on other projects the next week then back to the ship. It's working right now.

So the post before this one is the Turtle Trot post and shows every project I've worked on since the last WIPocalypse on the 16th of Jan except one...

This is All I need is love...and a dog by Rovaris. It's not in my TT list but just screamed Stitch Me anyway.

I keep a little calendar and mark down what pattern I've worked on that day. Here is the breakdown on my time since the last check in...
HAED Grow - 1 Day
Hug the Dog - Started and finished 1 Day
Rovaris Dog - 2 Days
Dog Wisdom - 1 Day
HAED Grow Together - 3 Days
Cut Thu Ship - 13 Days
Winter by Cricket Collections - 2 Days
99 - 1 Day
Didn't Stitch at All - 4 Days

*Edited* Just realized I've made a lot more progress on the Ship since my TT post...

I finished the first page and the backstitching. I'm ready for the next page. Love it!!!

It's a Pirate's Life for Me

10 days of work on the Bothy Cut Thru Pirate Ship. Just love working on this one. I think I'm going to take a week break. I'll pick it back up next Monday.

Our weather has been crazy. We hit the record snow for January. It was the snowiest January on record. Then Feb 1st we had record rainfall in one day. So that made slush and then it melt and froze. Then we got another 2 inches of snow. I don't know if we have grass in our yard any more I haven't seen it in so long. My poor dogs wants us to go buy some grass for them and put it on top of the snow haha.

Yesterday was Bowl day. First the Kitten Bowl on Hallmark. It was a lot cuter than I thought it was going to be. I'm a dog person so then the best Bowl was the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet. Loved it! I got sick of saying Aww and my hubby just kept shaking his head at me. Then I just had to see what is was all about...The Fish Bowl on Nat Geo. Oh my. It was horrible but I couldn't look away. I ended up setting my DVR to record it so I could fast forward through it to see what all happens. How crazy is that?!? It was of course the Super Bowl too. Peyton Manning used to be in the Colt's so I was rooting for him. It's the only day a year I watch football. After that game I'm glad I don't watch it any more. It was boring! I think both teams are supposed to play not just the Seahawks. Oh well I'm glad they won since I guess they hadn't won before. They deserve it. I was disappointed in the commercials this year too. I did get stitching done though haha.

Saturday we had something really weird happen. My dog named Clay...

passed totally out cold. He's been coughing a lot. I was hoping it would go away. Fred took him outside and he started barking at something. When he came in he passed out. Fred thought he was dead and screamed for me to come. When I got there he was breathing but he sure wasn't there. I picked him up and took him in the living room and it took him about 2 minutes to wake fully up. Poor guy had no idea what happened. So here in a little bit I'm taking him to the vet. I'm worried cause the information on the internet hints to heart problems. Clay is a puppy mill dog. He has a lot of problems. I don't want him to be in pain.

Well I hope everyone has a great week. We have another storm coming tomorrow. Supposed to be a big one. Maybe 6 to 8 inches of snow and wind again. I don't mind. Just plan on staying inside safe and warm.

Useless Post

It's a New Moon. Which means it's time for a Useless Post. TUSAL - Totally Useless Stitch ALong. Here is my pile of Orts since Jan 1st...

With the weather we have been having Jeremiah's lego snowman figured he should be in the picture. Lots of purple from my Dog WIP. Lots of other colors from the Pirate Ship in there too. Speaking of my Pirate Ship here is my progress after 6 days of stitching...

I've reached the right hand side of the page now. Other than that one little notch at the top left this page is fully stitched. I still just LOVE working on it though. Love the little fishy. I told the shark he wasn't allowed to look at him so hungry looking. I just love how the back stitching pops out the details.

In Love

I just LOVE being in love with a cross stitching piece. The needles just fly. When I'm laying in bed I think about stitching on the piece the next day. The Cut Thru Pirate Ship is like this right now. Here is where I got after 3 days of stitching on it...

I reached the top of the 3rd row of pages. There are 9 pages to this pattern. My little shark is still keeping me company. I'm not ready to put it down yet so I'll continue to work on it.

Here is what our weekend was like...

After we got home from being out the wind picked up. Boy it was amazing. A few points we couldn't see the road out in front of our house. Sunday Fred took Betty and went to Walmart. We were so low on groceries. Fred's big truck could make it down the driveway just fine. Now we are all set for the week and I'm so thankful we won't have to get Jeremiah out in this crazy cold! It's 3 right now feels like -15. Tomorrow is supposed to be even colder!! The high isn't even going to climb above zero! So cuddling under blankets sounds like a great way to hide from the outdoors to me. Betty wasn't able to make it to work today. Fred plowed our driveway yesterday and after the 50mph winds all night you can't even tell. Hope everyone has a great week!

Forced to Start

Tuesday in the mail I got my package I had been waiting (stalking the mailbox) for...

Wednesday Fred made me working copies at work. Thursday I kitted it up. I had everything on hand in my stash even. Then it sat there. It was pouting. Begging. Pleading. Whining. It wanted to be stitched so bad. But do I need another WIP (work in progress)? Shouldn't I finish something?

Friday I gave in. Of course I need another WIP! I'll finish something....later!!!

I had a blueberry hand dyed Jobelan in my stash. Love it! It's 28ct evenweave. I decided to start in the lower left. I got the grey and white blob done and just knew he wouldn't be happy until he was outlined and became...my little shark. Now he can keep me company while I stitch.

Today I actually left the house! Other than 2 emergency trips to Walmart for a few things and visiting my mom when she was in the hospital I haven't left the house.We do a hobby called geocaching. It's basically a high tech treasure hunting game. You use a handheld GPS device and find things hidden by others. When you find them you get a point. Nothing other than bragging rights and fun memories for the points. Anyway they also have gatherings called Meet N Eats. This morning they had a quick one at a local coffee shop. There was about 15 of us. It was fun to pop in and visit with a few friends and see other new people to the group too. We also found a geocache that was hidden right outside the window. Was funny laughing at everyone trying to find it in the freezing temps we are having...well until it was our turn to freeze haha. Then we popped into a few stores to get some goodies for the weekend meals. Grabbed Subway and hurried back home. Brr. We are having lots of wind and snow so blowing and drifting is horrible. It's a warm 28 though. Tuesday we aren't even going to go above 0 I heard. So I'm gladly going back to hermit life and hiding on my couch with my stitching. Hope everyone reading has a lovely weekend.