Two posts in One

I've been up to so much lately...because my school is still out. Next week school starts back and I'm sure I'll have my nose buried in books again with no time to do anything else but study and eat. Today I have two posts in one, the first is about stitching and the second is about my organizing craze I've been going through.
In stitching news....I finished all but the pumpkin ( which I'm not going to stitch) on my 'mad scientist' stitchery. The name of this pattern is actually "Secret Lair" and it's by Bent Creek. I wanted to be able to hang it up year-round so instead of the pumpkin, I'm stitching a frog. (one of my favorite animals)


I've started a new pattern out of the magazine "Just Cross Stitch" Christmas issue 2011. I want to make some cross stitched ornaments for Christmas 2012. This one pictured below was so cute and small , I figured it would be a good one to tackle before school started and I could actually get it done.


I spent ALL last Thursday at my local quilt shop, Quilting Adventures. They hosted a sewing retreat. So from 10am-5pm we had uninterrupted sewing time! I got 3 of my Farmer's Wife blocks sewn. The top row, last 3 blocks to the right are the ones I made that day.

My organizing craziness: From my floss post the other day..... I am still winding up floss, but have probably only gotten 10 more done.

I wanted a way to display my children's good grade papers and art work, so I made the hubs hang some curtain rods for me. I've got some of my mini quilt swap quilts hang up right now, but the snow flake art was made by my son right before school closed for Holiday.

And this sweet picture was drawn by my son. He drew me a frog with a fly. I can't wait to hang the children's paper's up there so they can see how proud I am of them.

One of my New Year's resolutions is to get my recipes organized. I have recipes on all kinds of paper stuffed everywhere. I don't really use much of them because I don't know what I have or where I'd even find it to make it. So , I pulled them all out and I'm going to get these things straight.

I was searching on e-bay for a recipe box, but then went to one of my favorite shops ~ Through The Garden Gate and found this one. For $4.

I'm hoping to get maybe 2 written a week. I think that's a good goal. That will be do-able. This will lead me to make dinner more and us eating at the dinner table more together.

Organizing Floss

Or trying to. I decided to wind my floss on little floss cards to get more organized. So I could see which colors I have or how many of a color I have. Or just to be more organized. Well, I didn't know what I was getting into. I have way more floss then I thought I had.

I really thought I was down to one bag of floss and one box of already wound floss before I started this organizational task. I've been winding for 3 days now. Not the whole 3 days. :o) Just here and there for 3 days.

I've now filled one more box. So I have the box that was full to begin with and a newly filled box.... but wait there's more....

I opened a drawer in my bedroom and found another bag full of floss today! I haven't even finished winding the first bag of floss. I thought I was getting close to being done with winding floss, the bag on the right in the one I've been working on. The one on the left is the bag I found today. Oh holy moly, what have I started?! I will need to go buy another container or 2 to hold all this.

PS~ I haven't even started to put these cute little floss wound cards in order yet.

PSS~ I think I'll just go stitch some. :o)

Threads Running Wild

We had such a Merry Christmas, I hope you did too. Still a lot of things going on while school is out for Holiday. Here is prOgress on my 'Mad Scientist'.

Here is one of the gifts my husband gave me. This book has the cutest patterns in it.

Here is one pattern that caught my son's eye. He loves Ammonites. (The little pink guy with the yellow shell in the bottom left corner)

So he decided he wanted me to teach him how to cross-stitch. He didn't last long, he got very frustrated and only got 3 lines done. He asked if he could go play and work on it later. :o) I'm hoping he'll do more little by little. I'd love to frame it one day and hang it in his room.

In other news. LOL I am taking the 'Totally Useless Stitch-a-long' over at "It's Daffycat". Here is a picture of my jar (which may change later when I find a cuter one) empty. No ORT= Old Ratty Threads yet. I like saving up my old ratty threads for the birds anyway, they use them to make their nest in the Spring. So by next Spring (2013), I'll have all kinds of thread for them.

Another big change in the subject~ My daughter and her boyfriend's gift exchange..... they have been dating for 1 3/4 years. And they are both big gamers. She gave him this cute magnet.

You know she had knee surgery a few months ago and just recently got off of her crushes. He gave her this cute shirt. LOL

She also made him this cute X-Box game controller. Her and her girlfriend made up a pattern and stitched it up. What a creative and great idea. I am so proud of her.

Hopefully I can post prOgress pictures of the Ammonites soon. Everyone have a wonderful New Year and be safe on New Year's Eve.

Lots going on in December

December is usually so busy, but fun. I have finished my shopping and most of the wrapping so I get to sit back and enjoy the season. I've been watching lots of Christmas movies and listening to my Pandora Christmas station. Baking goodies and making things with my son. I've stitched a tiny bit , here is the progress on my Mad Scientist.

I've only done a few stitches on the sewing machine. I made a cap for the robotics team with some cute appliques on it and appliqued a logo on my sister-in-laws apron. ( She is a hair dresser) We've gone to a few Christmas parties. Ate lots of food and went to see the lights.

The picture above is my daughter and my husband. Aren't they so cute! My son pictured below finished his "Build and Grow" train.

Lowe's puts on a "Build and Grow" twice a month through out the year. The kids get to build things for free while you shop. :o) We've been taking Jonah for a while now and he has gotten much better. When we first went he couldn't drive the nail in by himself, that was probably 2 years ago. Now he reads the directions and can build things all by himself. We just watch him now.

We've made bird seed feeder this week with a few of the neighbor kids. I saw this cute blog on how to make them. I asked my husband to pick up birdseed while he was at Lowe's the other day and he bought the kind with big sunflower seeds in them. So they aren't as cute as the ones on this blog, but they turned out. And I bet the birds will eat them anyway.

It is camouflaged, but here is a heart shaped one hanging in the tree.

This one is a creature who's head fell off. LOL

Off to do some more fun things today. I think we're going to go paint pottery and bake some more cookies. The owl cookies in this blog post by Tiny Acron. I love her blog. And I love when my children are out of school. <3

Christmas Comes but Once a Year.

Larry, our Elf on the Shelf is running away with Ms. Goodman's Christmas gift.

My little guy said he wanted to give his teacher an apple for Christmas, so I made her a 'cash & carry' with apples on it. And embroidered her name at the top. (Thank you Mary Terry for helping me pick out the fabric) A very easy pattern.

And here is Larry with the school nurses' Christmas gift. A 'First Aid' bag.

I love this time of year! We go to Bass Pro every year to visit Santa Clause. My son loves the huge fish tank they have there.

My Indiana Jonah, teehee hee. I love this hat on him.

Sitting on Santa's lap.... he tells Santa he wants things from the real Titanic ship, the one that went down in 1912. And he'll tell you all about it. LOL My husband and I keep telling him that those things are only in museums.

Merry Christmas! Time to wrap some gifts and wrap up one more class for the semester.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

I've got my two Christmas quilts hung. One is really our advent calendar. I love this time of year! I've been watching all kinds of Christmas movies in between school work. We've gone to look at lights on the houses. I've had the Christmas music playing all day long, we've made cookies and wrapped gifts. And tomorrow night we'll probably head out to Bass Pro to see Santa himself. :o)

I have been able to do a little bit of stitching while my daughter is in physical therapy. This is my mad scientist coming to life.

Out side our door this morning on the way to P.T. was this little guy. Actually, he was a big guy and he didn't care that I got so close to him. (Pileated Woodpecker)

All he cared about was getting that insect out of the tree. He was just a beautiful site to see.

Next, I need to brag about my husband again. I know I do that a lot, but he is just an awesome and talented man. I saw a wine holder that I wanted, showed it to him and he made it for me.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful time this year too!

Tradition!

We picked up our Christmas tree in our bus, 'Rusty'. A tradition we do every Christmas season. It was much warmer outside this year then last year. We didn't have to ride with a propane heater in the bus to keep warm, just a quilt to sit on because the leather seats were cold. We go to the same little tree lot every year too and every year the old man running the lot tells us about the VWs he had owned in the passed. We get that a lot. :o) Hope every one is having a wonderful December, I sure am!