Meeting my Challenge...One Thread at a Time!

No pictures to share yet, but I just wanted to share my Crazy 2011 Stitching Challenge progress, as the 15 day time frame draws near. I am so happy to have heard about the challenge, having the goal of starting or working on 15 different projects during the first 15 days of 2011 has gotten me back in stitching mode full-blast. I have pulled out some much-neglected projects, and devoted time to them, which has been just like putting in the first stitch. I have started a couple of new projects by designers whose charts I have collected, but never stitched. Several of the projects are so much fun to work on, that I really hate putting them away. An added bonus, I have the 2011 Blackbird Designs journal that I got for my birthday last year, have saved it all these months. Every day, I have written in it what I have worked on. What a treasure that will be to look back on!
I have rediscovered a little stitching habit I used to use back when I first started cross-stitching, and that is to cut a length of floss roughly the length from fingertips to elbow. I sit and work until that legth of thread is used up, for me, usually 30-minutes to an hour, depending on the project. It's amazing how much progress I can make in that time...even if I can only squeeze in "1 thread" a day, it's progress! And, it's more than doing nothing!
I'll get some pictures in here this weekend, when I have a little more time.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you, if you happen to read this! I am a day behind with my New Year's rituals, having spent January 1 in the throes of menopause HELL! That is kind of a "lost" day as far as I'm concerned, and today is the start of my new year. I finally got around to composing my Crazy January 2011 Stitching Challenge list, and it's posted to the left. I need to get someone to teach me how to draw lines through the items as I complete them...crossing them off my list, in other words.
I hope we all have a year full of stitching finishes!

A Lazy Monday Morning

I have just been plain lazy today, and have enjoyed every minute of it! Not something I have the luxury of doing very often. Such a pleasant time for contemplating, planning, reading blogs and checking up on needlework friends. We spent a fairly quiet Christmas...thankfully, all 3 kids were home for a couple of days. As in recent years, since we've been staying at home for Christmas, rather than going to Roanoke to spend the day with our families, we've opted to enjoy a spread of "finger" foods, rather than a Christmas meal. I am pretty sure I spend more time cooking the "finger" foods than I would cooking a large meal. And, we still have SO many leftovers...if only they would keep for a week until time for bowl game watching! Here was my menu:

Ham biscuits

Crockpot meatballs

Pineapple Cheese Ball w/ crackers

Bleu Cheese/Pecan cheese ball w/ crackers

Hot Virginia Dip w/ crackers

Vegetable tray

Assorted cheese cubes

Crab Ball w/ crackers

Chex mix

Assorted cookies

Eggnog

Oh, and then there was the Christmas morning breakfast:

Breakfast Casserole (hash browns, eggs, cheddar cheese, and Bacon)

Biscuits

Sausage Gravy

No surprise here, Weight Watchers starts back next Tuesday-after the Orange Bowl on Monday night, tee-hee!

Lastly, for this post, I have to mention how excited I am to have found a new online discussion board for sampler lovers.. I visited this morning, saw lots of familiar cross stitch friends there. Especially excited to have read about the Crazy January Challenge 2011...start a new project every day for the first 15 days of the month, with good intentions of finishing those projects in 2011. Just the incentive I need to get my stitching groove back! I need to spend some time tomorrow going through my stash and deciding which 15 projects to start. I will post my list when I have made my mind up. All for now, must go to work.

Making a Comeback

I see I haven't posted since last May-9 months, wow! Our old desktop computer just couldn't withstand all the new-fangled things like blogs and Facebook, and my camera had died, so I gave up for a while. I bought a new laptop in November, and a new camera last summer, so I'm going to give this another shot.

We've had a tremendous snowstorm this weekend, Meredith came home from Tech for the weekend, she couldn't bear the thought of being cooped up in the sorority house for the weekend. She came home Thursday before the storm began, and will be heading back tomorrow. Thus, she is in my photos of the snow.

New Books

Gotta love Borders Books, and their Rewards club. I get coupons every week, for anywhere from 25-40% off of one item. I also got a birthday coupon that expired yesterday, so I made a trip to Borders Friday, and used the birthday coupon on this WONDERFUL little book:



And, back again yesterday to use this week's coupon on this book, to read for a group discussion with a yahoo group I belong to. I've read the first book in this series, and usually will only read series books in chronological order, so I'm walking on the wild side and jumping ahead to the 9th in the series with this one.

Happy Mother's Day!

Just a quick post to wish all of you a wonderful Mother's Day. I started celebrating Friday...first off, I only worked until 1:00, and am now on VACATION until Tuesday the 19th. I had over 200 hours of leave to use, and so much to do at home, so I am taking some time off to catch up with housework, hopefully finish stripping wallpaper in the kid's bathroom, get my tomato garden planted, start on new curtains for the family room, you get the picture...not to mention, large blocks of stitching time. And, soon after I arrived home Friday, the FedEx guy showed up with a ProFlower box. My husband sent me 2 dozen of the most amazing roses, all different beautiful colors, pinks, oranges, whites, yellows, corals, with a box of beautiful chocolates. The roses have all opened beautifully. I started my day off with an hour of stitching before getting out of bed, I got a lot done on my new Stacy Nash club kit from Country Sampler. I'm going to watch Mildred Pierce from 11:00-1:00 on TCM. Then, this afternoon, I am going to get my tomatoes planted. I think the family (with the exception of Meredith, who is in the midst of finals) is taking me to Red, Hot and Blue for dinner.
Hope you all have a wonderful day!

New Look

I don't have a lot to talk about, I've been work, work, workin' too much. I have a day off tomorrow, and hope to get plenty of stiching, reading and relaxing done. I have spent some time this evening fooling around with the looks of my blog, and I must say, I am quite pleased.
My husband's 95 year old grandmother died Thursday, her funeral was today. It is so sad, but she had been going downhill for a few months, she is no longer suffering, which is a blessing.
I did receive a wee bit of stash last week, my birthday order from Colonial Crafts arrived Tuesday, and my Stacy Nash kit from Country Sampler arrived the next day. I managed to sneak in some starting stitches on the Stacy Nash chart last night. I can't wait to see it finished, I'm excited about using all of Stacy's aging techniques to make it looked well-used and worn. Tomorrow I will take pictures to post.
I found out Friday that my LNS, Scarlet Thread, is planning to close in June. This distresses me so. My other LNS, We Keep You in Stitches, closed a few months ago. It's hard when you run out of a thread, and can't just hop in your car and run to the shop to pick up another skein. I love the online shops, but there is nothing like having a real bricks and mortar shop to go to, not only to have the opportunity to hold the merchandise in your hands, but for the comaraderie of the other stitchers.
Rachel is home for the summer. She was craving vegetable soup last night, it was such a rainy, bone-chilling day. I made her a list, and she went to the store, then asked if she could try her hand at making the soup. She made a gigantic pot of it, and it turned out really well, we ate it again tonight. Best part, no cooking for me! She's pretty proud of herself, she's been going around saying "just call me Rachel Ray".
Meredith came home for the weekend for the Apple Blossom Festival, then went back to Blacksburg yesterday. Her boyfriend had his mini-camp with the Green Bay Packers over the weekend, unfortunately (or fortunately), he didn't get picked for the team, so he goes to the New York Giants mini-camp this week.
Enough of my rambling, hope to post some pictures tomorrow, finally. I'm off to work on Shores of Hawk Run Hollow, watch a movie, and put my feet up.