Kawaii Winter Wonderland Sampler

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.I did! Christmas evening I snuggled into bed and finished stitching my Kawaii Winter Wonderland countdown. I want to show some of my favorite days /blocks ~ Day 4 ~ the mittens... Day 14 ~ the birdhouse and Cardinal... Day 16 ~ Rudolph... Day 19, 24 and 25 ~ the pickle, partridge / pear and the Christmas wreath... I'm not sure how I am going to finish this cute Christmas sampler yet. A frame? Make a pillow out of it? Make a wall hanging? I'm just not sure yet. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I wanted to also share a picture of my sweet baby chihuahuas curled up enjoying my new stove/heater. (one of my Christmas gifts) For Christmas I also got the DVD set of Downton Abbey Season 1 and 2.....so I'll be sitting by my new stove/heater , stitching and watching Downton Abbey today. Happy Stitching everyone!!

Some Christmas Stitching

A quick post of pictures to show some progress. I still need to finish day 13 and day 25...

Here is block 1 of Santa's Village. Still a little more to stitch before finishing it. It's been very fun to stitch.    Sorry I don't have a lot of time to blog lately. Christmas Holiday is always so busy but wonderful. Merry Christmas to all!!

3 In Progress

I started my Santa's Village BOM....

Here is the progress on my 'Winter Countdown'....


And a picture of the progress from a pattern in the 'CrossStitcher' magazine. I haven't posted a lot lately.With Christmas time here life has been really busy, but a nice busy. We've had lots of family time which I love. We've gone to get our tree, we went out to see the tacky lights all over town, we've gone to a play, " A Christmas Story".... It was adorable!

Traditions and Volkswagens

Hi and Happy Holidays! We had our picture with 'Rusty', our 1958 bus  for our Christmas card. It is our tradition is take Rusty every year to get our Christmas tree.

I didn't use either of these two pictures for the Christmas card, but I thought they were still good so I wanted to show them off and have them documented somewhere.

Our Rusty was actually sick this year and my husband thought he wouldn't be able to make the trip so we borrowed our friends 1956 beetle to fetch our tree. This beetle has my daughter's engine it right now so it was really like taking one of our own.


Waiting for the last week of the Kawii Winter Wonderland Countdown...I decided to stitch day 13's present teal blue.
I do love Holiday Traditions.... we have a lot, one being fetching our Christmas tree in Rusty. What are some of yours?

A Quick Photo

I wanted to show you the progress on my 'Kawii Winter Wonderland'.  On day 13 there is a present. It's a blue/teal color and I am thinking of changing the color, but I don't know what to yet.... that's why it's still blank. I still am loving these cute little blocks. They are just adorable.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I Love To Document My Life

               So I found this new hobby. It's called Project Life and it is right up my alley. It really isn't new and the whole idea behind it really isn't new to me either, it is just doing something I already did/do but in a different way. Project Life is like scrape-booking, but with less stress and stuff. I never got into scrape-booking because it was too expensive and took up too much time. Cutting out, taping, gluing, stickering, etc...   If I was going to cut something, I wanted it to be fabric. :o)     I am a 'document' girl though. I document everything! You'd probably be shocked. I have 3 blogs. I have a pregnancy book for each of my children, documenting every movement, thoughts I had, weight I gained, what each person thought they'd be, every dream I had while pregnant..... I have a baby book for each child filled to the max. The pages are coming out of their baby books they are so full. I have a school book for each child, documenting every grade, a school photo the first day of school (It's pretty cool to look at my senior's book, now that she is on her last year),  every teacher they've had, their friends in that grade, and on and on and on.  I have a camping journal, I have documented every campout we've gone on.... how many hours it took to get there and back, how much money it cost, who we camped with, what we ate, what the weather was like, and on and on and on.   I am a bit obsessed really. I am also a crazy picture taking girl..... so when I saw this Project Life, I was so excited.  Somewhere I could document my whole like.... every week, in one binder. I love this idea.   So I am going to try it. Lord, help my husband!!  

Stitching this week :  I'm working on a bird house....

This is Kawii Winter Wonderland in progress.

Progress Tuesday

Progress on Kawii Winter Wonderland's countdown.  I've made a few changes, like not adding the cute faces to everything. I will add them to some things... like the mug. My son insisted I put the cute face on the mug. And I made my mug green instead of red. I didn't think there was enough green going on.


I've be trying to stitch one square a day, but most days I don't get it done. These little squares have been so fun to stitch though.  

Thank you Jennifer, for showing me how to put me photos on my blog by a host. I am still trying to get used to this so only one picture for today.

Happy Stitching!!  ~

The Floss Box

I have been admiring the work over at 'The Floss Box' for years.  Her stitching is amazing! She does crewel work ( and may other embroidery styles) , which I would love to learn one day.  Emily, the girl behind 'The Floss Box' is having a Fall Blog Tour and was kind enough to include me in it. Sew~ Amy is the stop for week 3. Go check out her blog, you too will be amazed by her work.  

Also Emily has a pattern on her site called 'Sandy Cross Stitch design'. The money from purchasing this pattern will go to Hurricane Sandy relief.  The pattern is adorable and she will be offering it in as an embroidery pattern too, not just a cross stitch pattern.
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I was going to post super cute photos for the Sandy Cross Stitch pattern so you could see for yourself, but my blog won't let me post any more photos.  It is saying "You are currently using 100% of your 1 GB quota for photos".   ~~~ I am not sure what to do about this. I am a picture girl and if I can't post anymore photos... I 'll be crushed.   I don't know anything about computers, I am more of a stitching girl. LOL   I don't even know what the GB means. Do I have to start a whole new blog? Or delete some of the photos on my blog?  If you have any computer knowledge and know these answers, could you let me know?  Thank you so much!  I'm a little confused at the moment. 

A Finish, A Start and Two Sign Ups.

Do you remember my last post about me trying to make a pattern for my husband's boss?  I finished it. I think it turned out pretty cute.

Here is their logo...

Here is me trying to make a cross stitch pattern....

And here is the "finished" ornament with their logo stitched on it.  

Now for my "Start"... I signed up for the Kawii Winter Wonderland countdown over at The Frosted Pumpkin. 

This week was the start of the countdown. Here is what I have stitched so far (below).  I feel like my fabric is a bit too light but I am going to press on and keep stitching. 

As for "Sign Ups".... call me crazy, but I've signed up for two things this past week. One being the Santa's Village stitch along. Country Cottage Needleworks is coming out with a cute Santa scene BOM. And Vonna  from The Twisted Stitcher has organized a SAL. I haven't bought any of my supplies for the Santa's Village yet, the pattern isn't even out yet. But the first one is coming this November... yeah. 

As for my second "Sign Up".... I signed up to be in the Scrappy Mug Rug Swap over at Flickr. I have been in this swap before and I use the mug rug I received then every day. It sets on my night stand by my bed. I rest my wine glass there at night and my coffee mug there in the morning.  

We Are Good and I Won

First off let me say We are Good! Sandy has pretty much passed us now. We didn't loss power, Thank God! I stitched by the fire during the storm.  My heart goes out to the folks more North of us.

During the storm I stitched up a Christmas ornament which will be a gift... so I hide the names. :o)   I still need to hand stitch the side seam. 

Making the ornament above gave me the idea to make my husband's boss an ornament for Christmas also.  He works for Mobility Supercenter. (their logo is pictured below). They always have a tree up for Christmas and I thought it would be cute for them to have an ornament with their logo on it to hang on the tree this year... and many years to come. 

Trying to make the pattern on graph paper......  is there a better way to do this? I'd love to know!  

I haven't started stitching it up yet.... when I do I will be sure to take some photos. 

And guess what.... I won twice last week!!  Crazy, I know.  I wasn't even trying.  I was just visiting blogs that I love. Over at 'Sew Much 2 Luv', Karen had a "Sew & Stitch Along". There were flickr groups for each week and you posted what you were stitching of the Holidays in the group for the week. I won week #2.  And this is what I won.... 

L*K's 'Gather a Harvest' pattern, Bent Creek's 'A Pumpkin Flower Sampler' pattern, Trail Creek Farm's ' Fall' pattern, 4 My Boy's 'Autumn Splendor' pattern and a pack of 18 count cross stitch fabric.   I received my package yesterday during the hurricane. It made my day!

Then Over at 'Crafty Sheep', Alexis had an '&Stitches e-zine Giveaway'. I received a copy of 'Scandinavia' ,Issue #4 from &Stitches.... Nicole & Carina. It has wonderful projects in it by some pretty talented people.

  I LOVE all of these ladies blogs.  

Pumpkin Patch

 Family Time ~ Today we took our children and a few wonderful friends (who I also consider my children) to the Ashland Berry Farm. aka: pumpkin patch. We drove our bus there full of children. They loved riding in the bus. They picked out there pumpkins very unique to them.  We brought them all home and they had a carving party including pizza and baking the pumpkin seeds.   I love moments like these!  Notice the beautiful    clouds in the background... they are from Hurricane Sandy who is slowly approaching. I do believe we are ready for her.

Getting Ready For The Countdown

I've picked my floss out for the Kawaii Winter Christmas Countdown! If you haven't heard of this cute mystery club.... click HERE. 

The only thing I'm missing is DMC 5282 ~Metallic Gold and my fabric. 

It calls for a 14 count ~sort of oatmeal color. I want to stitch mine on something a little smaller and can't find this color in a smaller count anywhere. So if anyone could help me out that would be FABULOUS. The countdown starts on November 1st, so I'd love to have my fabric by then.  #fingerscrossed

My little guy and I brought the outside in the other day. I love our Fall leaves hanging on the mantel. 

A few years ago I started the free(they aren't free anymore) BOM over at Bunny Hill Designs called 'Snowbound'.  I only made 4 blocks. These blocks have been setting around for awhile... knowing I wasn't going to make the other ones, I decided to turn it into a table runner instead. 

All the blocks are adorable. The whole quilt is adorable. 

Really... All of her patterns are adorable. 

Holly Jolly Monday

Two ornaments stitched and ready to be finished, but I am too chicken to finish them right now. I'm scared I am going to mess them up.

A R2D2 ...... he is 1 1/2 inches.  I stitched him over one.

What's in my hoop? A start on my Thanksgiving table-runner.

I got a few of the things we're thankful for stitched last night. 

This weekend I also cleaned up / out my sewing room. What a job!  I went in there to move two pieces of furniture but ended up rearranging and cleaning the whole room.  Now that it's done , I am so happy. 

Happy Monday to you and I hope you have a wonderful stitchy week!!  

What's in my Hoop

I started stitching 'Lantern Santa' from my 'Just cross stitch' Christmas issue from 2011. He is on page 61 and the pattern is by Sue Hillis.  I've decided not to buy the 2012 issue because there are so many ornaments I still want to stitch in this issue (2011).  So many patterns .... so little time to stitch. hahaha

I made a quilt block for a friend this week... I'm not sure if she reads my blog so I'm not going to say anything about who it is for.  It's a surprise!

And my daughter had her Convocation for the class of 2013 yesterday. I cried through out the whole thing.  Especially when they played 'Promp Circumstance'  as the students entered and exited the auditorium. 

I still can't believe this is her last year of high school, that she is a senior! 

George Lassos the Moon

I finished 'George Lassos the Moon' and I LOVE how it turned out.It was super fun to stitch.  The pattern is by "The Sampler Girl".  She has some really cute patterns on her web site... here.

Remember I had started the pattern awhile ago stitching over 2, but it was just looking too big for me.

So I decided to start over stitching over just one. (on 28 ct)

I just can't even tell you how much I love the whole Christmas season. And 'It's a Wonderful Life' is one of my favorite Christmas movies. 

I found the perfect frame for it at the thrift store!! The frame reminds me of 'Downton Abby'.

I do believe I am going to put it up on the mantel now even though it's pumpkin/Halloween season. I just love it too much to hide it until Christmas Holiday!