Not Amused!

My stitching has been invaded by frogs! I am so not amused although the Muppet frogs are rather cute! Visions of great progress danced in my head on New Year's day and while there was a goodly amount, it was not what could have been if not for the frogs!

Chatelaine's Serengeti
Stitched on 32-count Summer Sky Jobelan with recommended fibers and beads

Thinking that, perhaps, a large project was too enticing to the green demons, I switched to a much smaller piece:

Little House Needleworks' Pine Tree Inn
Stitched on 28-count opalescent Desert Sky from Silkweaver with recommended DMC

The house is only about ten stitches wide, how difficult is that?!?!!  Well, those frogs moved right in and it took three tries to get everything lined up correctly!!  Although the invasion on this piece may have had a bit to do with the fact that my eyes were dilated from my optometrist appointment yesterday morning.  Yours truly has lost the battle with age and will be trying progressive lenses/bifocals for the first time.  For years I have been using reading glasses and glasses for distance while driving only but as I can't see to the end of the hall at work clearly (in my defense it is a city block long) it seemed time to stop doing the switch around thing and finally get one pair of glasses.  Given all the creepy crawly things I can see without my glasses at work, I'm not sure I *want* to see that clearly.

US Department of Agriculture's South Building in Washington
My office is sort of shown by the arrow, as it's in the basement  it's rather hard to point to.

Both of these pieces have been put away for a little while and Dimple Designs' Twilight of the Tsar is on the frame for this week.

May your stitching be frog-free!

And in with the New

I don't participate in any of the Crazy January challenges, but I do start a project on New Year's Day.  And this is my start for 2013:

Chatelaine's Serengti
Stitched on 32-count Summer Sky Jobelan with recommended fibers and beads

 It doesn't look like much right now, but someday it will be beautiful! Tune back in around 2015 to see it finished...

 

I didn't make very specific stitching goals for last year and will now make it a tradition - my stitching goal for 2013 is to keep up with my TUSAL, WIPocalypse, YOTA and IHSW postings. 

 

 Best wishes to everyone for a safe, healthy and prosperous new year.

Out with the Old

Well, it's not really that old as I started stitching it a couple of days ago and it has only been in my stash for a couple of years so it is a mere infant, but it is my final finish for 2012.

Little House Needlework's Joy
Stitched on 28-count opalescent White with DMC and Mill Hill beads

I also emptied out my ORT jar into the official 2012 ORTament:

That photo is about as artistic as my photos get...

One last cat photo this year - you know how sometimes the packaging is played with more than the actual gift? I do not remember what this paper was sent with but Trouble thinks it is the best toy she has ever had.  She runs through it, buries herself in it and just generally makes a huge mess but it keeps her from attacking her brother and sister so I really don't complain about it - the look of impending attack is aimed at her brother, Salem, whose head you can just barely see at the bottom of the photo.

I plan to spend the rest of the evening preparing my New Year's Day start. Very happy and healthy new year to you and your families.

WIPocalypse Recap and a finish

I cleared out my January through November WIPocalypse tabs as it was getting a bit cluttered up top there, but you can see my December report and my 2012 recap in the tabs above or you can click on the December or 2012 and it should take you straight there.

One more finish for this year:

The pattern is from Cross Stitch World's blog.  There are a lot of biscornu patterns in May 2012 posts.  It's stitched on Silkweaver's 28-count opalescent Desert Sky with DMC. 

I am not sure what will be going on the frame now.  I should stay with the rotation but it was nice to start and finish something in just a few days, so I may pull some smalls out of the stash and work on them.

Now I can show you

Now that all of the gifts have been opened I can show the stitching, finishing and crafting that I've done the last few weeks.

First is Lizzie*Kate's Christmas is Forever.  I bought it as a limited edition kit a number of years ago and finished it as a flat fold.

 

And once again, the photo is tipped on its side and I can't get it to rotate.

Next up is The Angels Sang from Little House Needleworks:

This is also finished as a flat-fold.

And finally I made these for DSon and the niblings thank you Jo for a wonderful new word:

Can't really tell from that photo?

Does this one help?

No?  It's a wallet made from:

Yep, duct tape!  Thought these would be a really cute and different way to give them their gifts.

Thank you all, once again, for all the thoughts and prayers for The Hubs. He is having more good days than bad now, although he did overdo a bit this weekend and is now paying for it. And I am doing my best not to say "I told you so". 

Things are looking up

Thank you all again for your wishes and prayers for The Hubs.  It has been a rocky week or two but things are looking up.  Not that they are moving quickly but they are moving in the right direction.

In addition to reading all of your wishes and comments, I had another huge bright spot in my week.   Nancy at the Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe is have an amazing series of give aways for the Christmas season and on the 11th day of December, I won floss!   The package arrived earlier this week and Oh MY was I ever blown over by her generosity!  This is what was in the package:





I have no idea why the photo is turned, but I can't seem to get it to turn but these are amazing skeins - no measly, scrawny bits of floss here, nope these are big, 20-yards-each skeins!  I have no idea what I'm going to stitch with them, but my mind is working on all sorts of possibilities.

In case you missed it, Heaven and Earth Designs has posted a freebie for Christmas.  It's a very cute Santa and mouse ornament.  It's only 150X150 stitches so compared to most of their designs it's small and looks like a great way to give their designs a try.

Still no stitching to show.  I have put a few stitches into a gift for the in-laws but not enough to show.  I am hoping that things will calm down enough this weekend to make some good progress.

Fortunately, while I haven't been able to concentrate on stitching, web surfing doesn't require a lot of thought process and sometimes you find little gems like this why can't I be around when something like this happens?:



What was I thinking?

I knew that I would be slammed with Christmas preparations and running after The Hubs, so I am not sure what made me think that signing up for the IHSW was a good idea.  While I finished all the cards, wrapping and baking, I did not put one stitch into anything.  I did pull the fabric and threads for a biscornu for the in-laws and should have that finished before next Christmas.  While I finished making the cards and got them all signed and into envelopes, I only mailed out about half of them - my address list is on my computer at work who thought that keeping the most current copy there was such a good idea??!!?!? and we had major connectivity issues all day long.  I think I'm just going to tell folks that I'm NOT late for 2012, I'm very early for 2013!

Thank you all again for the good wishes for The Hubs.  His recovery is, unfortunately, not going smoothly-  partially due to not following doctor's orders, and partially due to drug interactions/reactions which are causing some very strange behaviours yes I am an American English speaker, but that spelling somehow makes more sense to me, sort of like catalogue rather than catalog.  

As I mentioned in a previous post Melissa at Measi's Musings is hosting WIPocalypse 2013.  Sign ups are open here.  Just fun SAL.  She's added monthly themes for 2013.  I'm not sure how well I will be keeping up with the themes but I will give it a try.