Merry Christmas!

I just wanted to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a blessed new year! I hope that your day is filled with everything you love.

With love,
Heather

Stitch from Stash update #12

It's just me and little man today, hubby and daughter are out Christmas shopping and then going to see the new Hobbit movie, so I thought that I would pop on here and give my final update for this year's stitch from stash.

I finally got around to making up some of my stitching pieces into ornaments and a pillow. I am so happy with how they all turned out. :-) I once ruined a piece completely while trying to make it up, so I have been a little hesitant. I decided to just put my big girl panties on and get it done!
:-) :-) :-) The funny thing is that I can sew fairly complicated items. I have made two period correct Regency gowns and undergarments. I am just one of those people who need step by step instructions. :-)
One of my goals for next year, is to try and learn different finishing techniques and being better at making up all of the pieces that I have waiting in my stitching bag.

I am so excited that I made it through the entire year of the stitch from stash challenge. I have already signed up for the next one. I am really going to try and spend as little as possible in the next challenge. I have so much amazing stash that I want to stitch.

So without any further ramblings here is my update. I had $71.42 carryover and adding this month's budget of $ 25 that gives me $ 96.42.
I spent $ 6 on etsy for an older pattern that I have been searching for and $28.20 at the Strawberry Sampler for 3 skeins of over dyed threads and 3 patterns. :-)
So, I ended up with a balance of $62.22. I think that is pretty good ! :-)
Well, lots of wrapping to do and a few knitted gifts left to finish. I will be back soon with a post on a different kind of WIP. :-)

Happy Stitching!
Love, Heather

 

Be Merry by LHN

 

The fabric that I used to finish Be Merry

 

 

The Christmas tree is taken from the Snowglobe ornament from The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery

 

 

The fabric that I used to finish the scissor fob.

 

 

Joy and Peace by LHN

 

 

The fabric that I used to finish Joy and Peace.

 

 

My mom stitched this years ago and decided it needed to be mine. I finally got around to making it up into a pillow. I love it!!

 

 

I love this bird fabric that I used to make the pillow. 

 

Button up Birdies #1 by  Victoria Sampler 

 

Noel ornament by Log Cabin Needleworks

I made this one for my Momma for Christmas 

Thankful!

Good morning! Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends. May your day be filled with lots of fun and happy memories! 

I have so much to be thankful for in my life! I have been purposely choosing to look for all of the blessings in my life and focusing on them instead of the things that make me worried and it has really changed me for the better and I am thankful for that!  :-) I am thankful for the friends that I have made through blogging!

I finished Give Thanks on Tuesday evening. Hubby ended up having to work late and daughter was in Baltimore volunteering at the Operation Christmas Child distribution center, so little man and I watched cheesy Christmas cartoons and I stitched. :-) I did a simple finish for it so I could enjoy it for a few days this year. I stitched it on 32 ct. PP Doubloon. I used the recommended threads except for I used 436 instead of 422. The pattern is by Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. It was such a fun stitch. :-)

Happy Stitching!

Love, Heather

Stitch from Stash update #11

Good afternoon! This is going to be a large post and I apologize for the size of it! :-) As you may have noticed, I have been a bit m.i.a. Well without boring you with my troubles, I have been having a really hard time with my back, so I went to a back doctor last week and it looks like I am going to have to have back surgery. :-( I need to get stronger and lose some weight first. I started physical therapy yesterday and I am hoping that I will eventually not be in constant pain.  Well, enough of that. :-)

 

I have been a little busy stitching the last couple of months, since I last posted some actual stitching photos. :-)

 

I am going to try and catch up where I left off. When I last posted,I was working on my August Poppies. I finished that and went on to autumn stitching. I only finished two little pieces. I kept getting distracted. :-) The lovely Sally, gifted me with two patterns and the threads to stitch them! I completed the first one which was . And the second one was Woodland Samplings by LHN. I have made just a tiny start on it.

 

The second autumn finish was pumpkins by Heart and Hand. I changed it all up. :-) I wanted to add white pumpkins and make it a little more colorful. :-) I really enjoyed stitching this one.

My other two autumn starts are Give Thanks by Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery, which I hope to finish tonight or tomorrow. :-) The second one is the Harvest thread pack by LHN. I was doing really well, and then I discovered a major mistake, so it went into time out. :-)

 

I have been also working on some Christmas stitching. I finished Gingerbread Tree by LHN. I started that one back in January. I have also been working on Snowglobe by The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery and I have kitted up several more ornaments to stitch. :-)

 

I also finally finished the first of the Frosty Forest series. Hopefully I will be able to work on that more after I am finished with Christmas stitching. :-)

 

I have made myself a little stitching tin with my current ornaments and a tiny tin with my stitching necessities in it. I am loving it. I saw the idea on @heyporkchop instagram feed.  She is half of the dynamic duo of The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. :-)

 

I have also been doing a ton of birthday and Christmas knitting , which I will show after Christmas. :-)

 

Well, I think that catches me up. If you made it this far, you deserve a prize. :-)

Now onto the nitty gritty of the sfs update. I used my bonus buying fabric and threads for my kitted ornaments. And for this month's budget I have spent $14.94. $9.99 for this year's ornament issue and $4.95 for the Give Thanks pattern. :-)

 

So, I have $61.36 carryover and adding this month's budget of $ 25.00. That gives me $86.36 to start. I used $ 14.94 this month.  So for next month that will leave me with $71.42 carryover. :-)

 

I hope that everyone has a very blessed holiday season! To all of my American friends, I hope that you have a lovely Thanksgiving!

 

Happy stitching!
Love, Heather

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stitch from Stash update #9

Wow, I can't believe that we are at the end of September!  Once again, I am posting on the last day! I am a naughty Heather!  :-)

This is going to be a short and sweet post. We went to Longwood Gardens yesterday.  I have a bad back and I over did it with the walking. So, I am a hot mess to say the least!  :-(

I have been very busy stitching this month and have lots to share. I am hoping that I will feel up to pulling out the ironing board and getting things ready to photograph in a few days.

I was going to have a no spend month again, but we stopped at the Strawberry Sampler on the way to Longwood Gardens yesterday. I was good, even though I wanted to be very naughty!  :-) I ended up getting the Harvest thread pack and a skein of DMC.

So my total for the month is $ 13.39. $ 13 for the thread pack and .39 for the DMC.  I started with $49.75 carryover and adding this month's budget of $ 25 comes to $74.75. So, that gives me $61.36 to carryover. I hope my math is correct. :-)

Happy stitching!
Love, Heather

 

Stitch from Stash update #8

Good afternoon! I am just squeaking in for this month. To be honest, I lost track of time. :-)

Not a whole lot of stitching this month. I made a tiny bit of progress on my August Poppies and dug into my kitted up projects and made a small start on Pumpkin Patch Inn by Little House Needleworks. I love autumn and autumn stitching is my favorite. :-)

Not a lot going on around here. Just enjoying the last few days of summer, and our youngest celebrated his 10th birthday.

I did really well this month. I didn't buy anything. Yeah me!  I was very tempted, especially with the bonus, but I started going through my stash and that helped me to not spend anything. :-)

So, onto the details. I had $24.75 carryover and with this month's budget of $ 25.00. That gives me $49.75 to carryover. :-)

I hope to have more time to stitch this next month. :-)

Happy stitching!
Love, Heather

Stitch from Stash update #7

Good afternoon!  I hope you all are having a lovely Monday! We had huge thunderstorms roll through here in the middle of the night, so it's a little bit cooler today. 

Thanks for your lovely comments on my cottage post. I am in the process of responding to comments from my last couple of posts. 

July has been a very full month. My daughter had a lovely birthday, thank you for your kind birthday wishes for her. :-) We went to the beach for her birthday and to the Dogfish Head brewery for dinner. It was amazing! :-)

Not too long before we left the beach, hubby was body surfing and got taken off guard and slammed by the waves and ended up breaking his wrist and dislocating his elbow. :-(
Being the good daddy that he is, he didn't want it to interfere with her day, so he downplayed it and didn't go to urgent care until that night when we got home. :-)

Since moving to Delaware,I have truly fallen in love with the seashore! :-) If we lived closer to the beach,I am pretty sure that I would be there every day! :-)

When I was choosing my next project after finishing my August cottage, I decided to pick out a beach themed one. So, I started August's Poppy by Cottage Garden Samplings. I first saw it on Beth's blog and fell in love with it. It has been a fun stitch so far.

I was recently at the Strawberry Sampler and found an adorable beach themed stitching pouch, so I decided it needed to come home with me and hold my summer projects. :-)

Well, I had better get to my update. Today is Beatrix Potter's birthday so we are having a Beatrix Potter themed tea tonight, so I had better get busy. :-)

This month, I used all of my carryover. I spent $66.15 on a couple of patterns, a magazine, some DMC, some over dyed threads and my new pouch. I had $ 65.90 carryover and $25 for July, so that leaves me with 24.75 to carryover. 

Happy stitching!
Love, Heather

Cottages of the month are complete!

Warning: This will be a photo heavy post. :-) I finally finished all of the cottages. I am so happy!  I love them and look forward to displaying them each month. :-) I have had most of them done for awhile. I was only missing July, August and October. I finished August a few days ago and decided to put my big girl panties on and make them up. :-) I don't like the stretching process. :-)
I will save the rest of my chatter for my stitch from stash update, which I should have done soon. :-)

Without further ado.....

Stitch from Stash update #6

Hi! Just popping in here to post my update for this month. It has been such a lovely month!:-) We have been crazy busy with company, traveling and spending as much time as possible outside that I haven't been able to stitch very much. I am almost finished with my August cottage. Hopefully this week. 

We are busy getting ready for a backyard barbecue birthday bash tomorrow for my daughter. She is going to be 22 in a few days and we were moving on her birthday last year and so we are giving her a nice party this year. :-) Her birthday seems to be the time when things go wrong. Poor dear!  :-) Her 8th birthday,  her daddy was deployed to the Middle East, her 10th birthday was spent in the waiting room of the ER while her older brother was having an anaphylaxis attack from having accidentally gotten peanuts at her pool party. Shortly after her 12th birthday she was so excited about her baby brother being born that she was running in a parking lot and was ran over. Thankfully it was just her foot and leg. And then on her 18th birthday,  I had just been released from the icu after a brush with death. :-) I think she deserves a good party and birthday this year. :-)

We just recently returned from 4 days in Boston. We had to go for a work conference. It was amazing and we can't wait to go back for a long visit! 

Well onto the budget part. This month Mel surprised us with an extra $50 dollars to spend. I decided to take advantage of this offer. :-)

I ended up getting August by Cottage Garden Samplings and the necessary threads and fabric. Two Jane Austen patterns from The Primitive Hare and a beach themed pattern from my LNS. So my total for the month is $ 62.48. That means I used all of my $25 budget and $37.48 from the bonus $50. So next month I will have my carryover of $65.90 from the previous months and my July allowance. I hope I have that right!  :-)

Well back to cleaning and preparing for tomorrow. I will leave you with some pictures from our month. :-)

Happy stitching!
Love, Heather

 

My progress for the month

 

 

Atlantic Ocean at Cape Henolopen State Park

 

 

Laughing Gulls, a new bird for me.

 

 

My sweet husband and two of our children on Father's day.

 

 

Boston Public Gardens

 

 

Make way for Ducklings statues. One of our favourite books.

 

 

 Boston clam chowder, this is in the clam chowder hall of fame. I didn't know such a thing existed. :o) It was fantastic chowder! YUM!!!

 

 

A beautiful pond in Connecticut! 

 

 My souvenir from Boston. :o)

 

 

A view of Connecticut as we were driving. We fell in love with Connecticut and hope to go back soon!