Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Happy new year and a WIP of a different kind

Happy new year! I hope that this year is the best one yet! :-)

Have I ever told you that I am a crazy bird lady? Well, I am! :-) As I am writing this, I can look out my dining room window and see several birds in queue, waiting for an open space at one of the feeders. Now, that all of the leaves are gone, I can catch glimpses of other birds down at the end of our yard in the wooded area. We are blessed to have lived in some of the best birding areas in the world. The American Birding association moved their headquarters about 5 blocks down the road from us. When we lived in the country of Panama, we saw Toucans quite frequently! I love birds! :-)

I have bird tea things, a table cloth, pictures, figurines, stationery. ...etc. :-) You get the picture, I am sure. :-)

So, I had been thinking that every crazy bird lady needs a bird Christmas tree! Right? ! We had a smallish Christmas tree that we were not using and I already had quite a few bird ornaments and our family tree was getting really full, so it was meant to be! So, my stitching goal this year is to make as many new bird ornaments as possible. :-)
I am keeping it up through January, since it is more wintery and It makes me smile every time I see it. :-)

Without any more rambling, here are some pictures of my bird tree. :-)

Saturday, December 20, 2014

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 

Monday, January 28, 2013

Three Finishes



Hi!
 Welcome to my new followers! I am very glad that you are here! I have three finishes to show you today.
The first one is Joy from LHN. I did the stitching a couple of years ago and it was waiting it's turn to be made into something and I finally made a little hanging pillow.

I also finished LHN's Poinsettia House and stretched it and popped it into a frame that I use for my April Showers piece. I haven't decided if I will eventually have it permanently framed or not. I hung them up together in my family room. I think they turned out really cute. ;o)

My third piece is one that I finished the stitching on last year and finally got around to stretching it and putting it into a frame I had ordered online for it. It is currently on my mantel in my family room.
I have been stitching on several different pieces and will show you those next time. I have also been knitting and stamping so I will have a post about those too.

Today is the 200th anniversary of the publishing of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. So, I am going to go and watch the 1995 version of it and stitch and knit away. ;o)

~Heather

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Happy New Year and Exchanges

 Happy New Year!!! I hope today is a lovely start to 2013!! We are having a nice day, a little relaxing, a little cleaning, a little stitching and soon homemade Chinese food. YUM!

I recently participated in my very first exchange with the Stitched with Love Exchange group ran by the lovely Lainey! It was a wonderful experience and I am thankful for Lainey's hard work and my wonderful exchange partner Dawn. She really spoiled me and I LOVE everything that she gave me!! Thanks again Dawn!
 I had Lainey as the one I was to stitch for and this next picture is what I sent her. I stitched her the Let it Snow ornament (but made it into a pillow) from the 2010 JCS ornament issue. It is by CCN. I made a few changes and I even wrote them down, but do you think I could find that piece of paper?!!! Oh, well! ;o) Lainey said she loved everything and I am so glad!

I have quite a bit of Christmas stitching to show you and two new starts for next time.
Thank you for all of the lovely Christmas wishes! I hope that y'all have a very blessed 2013!!!

Love, Heather

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Merry Christmas!

I wanted to wish everyone a very merry Christmas!!! We are having a lovely day and I hope you are too!
This Christmas is our 25th Christmas together, so I made this LHN ornament for my hubby and I stitched a 25 in the heart. ;o) He loved it.

I hope to be back in the next couple of days and show all of my Christmas finishes and my new start. ;o)

Have a lovely day!

~Heather

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Stitching and Stamping

 Sorry for the cruddy photo, I don't know why this fabric wants to do this in the photos. :o( Anyway, here is my progress on Poinsettia House. Well , actually I have gotten a little farther than this photo. So, hopefully I will have it finished by the next time and I am ready to post. ;o)
 Here is my Gingerbread cookie ornament. I had to end up frogging that entire left border, as you can see from this photo I have it facing the wrong way. URGH! ;o)
 I actually did some stamping the other day. I had a birthday lunch to go to and my friend is a fellow lover of pink, so I had fun. ;o)

We are almost finished with the redecoration of our family room. I have spent most of today dusting, cleaning and putting books back on shelves. We hope to have it done by next weekend so that we can put up our Christmas tree!

In other non related news, our oldest turned 24 today!!! I am OLD! ;o) I actually had him when I was 18, so I guess I am not that old, but I do feel it today. ;o)

Welcome to all of my new followers! I hope to get to know you more soon! I hope y'all are having a lovely weekend!

Love, Heather

Monday, November 12, 2012

Quietly stitching...

 Hi! Welcome to my new followers!!! Well, I am home from our wonderful holiday, actually I have been home for 2 weeks but we got sick on the second to the last day of our holiday so I have been coughing up a lung over here! ;o) I haven't coughed in two whole days. Yeah!! ;o) I have been busy stitching on my very first exchange piece (I am participating in the Friendly Stitchers' Christmas exchange), so I can't show it to you yet. I finished it a few days ago, so I picked up my Poinsettia House and have been stitching on it for the last few days. I only got a small start on it last Christmas time. The fabric has more of a pink tone to it.
I have also started working on Gingerbread Cookie ornament from LHN. It is so cute! ;o) I am stitching him on a scrap of 30ct Parchment.

 I wanted to thank everyone for their kind comments from my last post!! Y'all are the greatest!! ;o) We had some cold (well, cold for Arizona) weather here over the weekend. We had a fire in our fireplace! That was exciting! ;o) I am also getting new flooring in my family room, that is very exciting! We had a flood a few months ago and all of the repair work is finally finished, so now the redecorating has started. We went with a Hickory laminate. I will be sure and show some pictures when it is finished.

I hope y'all are having a wonderful week!

Love, Heather

Saturday, January 14, 2012

A stitching update

Hi!!! Sorry I kind of just fell off the blogosphere for a while! ;o) My mom came for Thanksgiving and brought a lovely cold with her. ;o) So we spent most of December recovering from that and then all that comes with Christmas. Then I found out I am having abdominal surgery again on Monday at 7. It will be my 4th abdominal surgery in 18 months so I have been having me a pity party! ;o) But, I have snapped out of it and I wanted to get on here and update before I take another break to recover from surgery! In my last post I showed my Peppermint Lane before framing. Here she is in all her beautiful glory~ ;o)


Peppermint Lane by Country Cottage Needleworks

This is where she lived during December and the first part of January! ;o) I started on the January Cottage by CCN but I didn't get very far before I started on February last night! ;o) This is what I got finished. I hope to finish February and then finish January before March comes!;o)

Here are two more Christmas ornaments that I stitched in early December. They didn't get finished. Sigh! Well I am determined once I recover to make them up. I am also hoping this year to stitch an ornament a month. We will see how that goes. ;o)


January 5th was our 24th anniversary, so to celebrate we headed to Phoenix for the weekend with our family. We had a great time and I got to visit Attic Needlework in Mesa for the first time!! It was so lovely. The ladies were so helpful and friendly!! I could have spent all day there and I will some day in the future! ;o) These next two pictures are what I came home with. I was trying to be good, so I didn't get to much! ;o) I was so excited to find a frame for my CCN Cottages of the Month!



Well I started on the February cottage last night, I almost have all of the pink on the house done. Hopefully once I am not too drugged I will be able to finish it quickly! ;o)

Happy stitching,
~Heather

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Peppermint Lane

Well construction at Peppermint Lane is complete and just in time for Christmas! Now I just need to pack up and move into one of those cute little cottages! ;o) I am such a sucker for anything with a cottage or a house, especially if pink is involved. I am so glad that I met my deadline to get this finished so we could turn it into tomorrow while I am picking up my mom. I finished most of the stitching last night with watching BBC's North and South (not the American one about the Civil war). LOVE that movie!

I am going to start LHN's Winter Band Sampler here in a little bit and work on some more ornaments. I have two that are almost finished.

I probably won't be on much for the next two weeks, since my mom will be sleeping in our office/craft room but I wanted to wish all of my American friends a blessed Thanksgiving. We all have so much for which to be thankful! One of the things I am thankful for, is the friends I have made through my blog! ;o)


Peppermint Lane: stitched on 28ct. Autumn Fields with called for threads.

Don't you just love my pink polka dot ironing board cover! ;o) My husband says it lowers his testosterone every time he looks at it! ;o)

~Heather

Monday, November 14, 2011

1st Christmas card for the year...

Hi! I thought I would pop on here and post my first Christmas card for the year. One down on 59 to go!! ;o)

Betsy Veldman's card was my inspiration. I used PTI's Bells and Boughs, and their musical background.

I REALLY have to get busy and start cranking out some Christmas cards! Welcome to all of my new followers!!! I am blessed to have you stop by my little corner of the blogosphere! ;o)

Love, Heather

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Pumkins 4 Sale Framed and some progress


Hi!! I hope y'all are having a lovely November day! I picked up my Pumpkins 4 Sale from the framers. I really like how it turned out. It is sitting in a frame easel on my entry way table in my sitting room. I am done with Autumn stitching for this year. I had thought I might try to stitch a few smalls, but I am ready to move on the Christmas stitching.

I have been working on ornaments so I haven't made to much progress on my Peppermint Lane, but there is some progress. I am hoping to having this finished by the 16th to take it to the framers in Tucson when we go there for a doctor's appointment. If not then, by the 21st when I go to pick up my Mom at the airport. ;o)



Peppermint Lane progress picture.
I finished my Merry Christmas ornament on Saturday. I am going to use the rickrack as part of the trim. I dislike *finishing* ornaments so it will probably be awhile before I show the finished product! ;o)

Thanks for visiting my blog and for your lovely comments!!

~Heather

Monday, October 31, 2011

Pumpkins 4 Sale and a few new projects....

Little House Needleworks Pumpkins 4 Sale


Country Cottage Needleworks~ Peppermint Lane

Country Cottage Needleworks Merry Christmas Ornament




Hi! I hope y'all are having a lovely day! It is a beautiful day here in Southern AZ. It is supposed to be 84 degrees and sunny! ;o)

I finished LHN's Pumpkins 4 Sale a couple of weeks ago and it is at the framers. I hope to get a call that it is finished sometime this week or early next week. I have started CCN's Peppermint Lane and CCN's christmas ornament from this year's Just Cross~Stitch ornament issue.

I joined the 2011 Christmas Ornament Challenge. I am going to start LHN's Joy and Peace tomorrow for it. I just need to cut my fabric sometime today. I will be sure to post pictures.

I am really going to try and be a better blogger. ;o) I have been stamping a little so I hope to have a post about that up in a few days.

~Heather