October Recap and November Goals

My totally unrealistic goals for October were:

• Keep up with iStitch's mystery SAL Done
• Finish part 2 and start part 3 of With Thy Needle and Threads Birds of a Feather Mystery No
• Finish part 1 and 2 sides of part 2 of Hawaiian Garden No.  I did finish part 1 but only 1 side of part 2
• Finish Santa's beard and shirt Lizzie*Kate's Socks & Underwear Santa 2010 No, only finished the beard

Not too good, but there was progress so I'm pleased.

My just as unrealistic goals for November are:

• Finish iStitch's mystery SAL
• Finish part 2 and start part 3 of With Thy Needle and Threads Birds of a Feather Mystery
• Finish part 2 of Hawaiian Garden
• Finish Santa's shirt of Lizzie*Kate's Socks & Underwear Santa 2010

I have a couple of long weekends this month.  Veteran's Day will be a 4-day and Thanksgiving will be a 5-day I really like my new schedule and the fact that my compressed day off falls on Fridays of holiday weeks, so I'm hoping to have a lot of stitching time.  DMIL mentioned that DBIL and family may be down for Thanksgiving, but we're not sure (1)  if they are coming and (2) if they are, if they are coming here or going straight to DSIL's parent's both of her parents are doing poorly, so I wouldn't be surprised if we get the drive-by visit.

Can you say scatterbrained?

Even though I posted last weekend, it never dawned on me that it was the first of the month and I needed to do a recap and post my goals!  So a little late not that it will make a difference on what I post, here is my recap of my September goals:

• Keep up to date with iStitch's mystery SAL Done
• Finish part 1 and start part 2 of Birds of a Feather mystery sampler Done
• Five hours on Hawaiian Garden Done

That's the first time in ages that I've actually accomplished my monthly goals, of course the bar was set fairly low...

The October bar isn't set too much higher:

• Keep up with iStitch's mystery SAL
• Finish part 2 and start part 3 of With Thy Needle and Threads Birds of a Feather mystery
• Finish part 1 and 2 sides of part 2 of Hawaiian Garden
• Finish Santa's beard and shirt Lizzie*Kate's Socks & Underwear Santa 2010

I am counting on my new work schedule and the upcoming 4-day weekend to accomplish these.

Just Yakkity Yakking...

No pictures this post, just yakking. Suppose I should start with a recap of my August stitching. I know I cut way back on my goals from July, but I still didn't do too well.

My goals for August were:

• Finish part one of BoaF Almost
• Stitch on Chatelaine's Hawaiian Garden 5 nights Sort of

Not very good at all. I have a few leaves, some berries, the red flower and the center in the flower left to finish part 1 and I really should be able to get that done this weekend. I didn't stitch five separate nights on Hawaiian BUT I did spend more time on it than I would have if I'd worked on it five separate nights. Actually I think I'm going to give myself a "yes" on that one.

In addition to the posted goals I started and finished part one of iStitch's mystery SAL.

For September:

• Keep up to date with iStitch's mystery SAL
• Finish part 1 and start part 2 of Birds of a Feather mystery sampler
• Five hours on Hawaiian Garden

I may be able to get a lot of these done this weekend. It's Labor Day weekend and I normally have a long 3-day weekend, but after all the travel and craziness at work the last couple of months, I took today off also. I do have a few chores to do, trimming the grass around the house is at the top of the list, but none of them will take a huge amount of time, so plenty of time for stitching. And the other great thing is college football season starts this weekend, so lots of good stuff on the television the next few days.

I've started making plans for next year's stitching, oh I'm a great planner, just not so great on the execution sometimes. Anyway, Measi  over at Measi's Musings is hosting WIPocalypse 2012. It's a great SAL with very flexible rules. I was planning to work on WIPs next year, but it's a lot more fun with others. Only thing that I really have to remember to do it post my WIP progress on the new moon. As I'm doing that with the TUSAL, I think I can remember for the new one.

Hopefully I'll have a plethora (love that word but don't get a chance to use it much, sort of like aardvark - my favorite word but it doesn't come up in everyday conversation too often) of progress pics in my next post.

JULY?!?!?!

It's July, which means the year is half over! Where in the world is the time going? I know where the next two weeks are going - holiday!! For the first time in better than 10 years, I'm taking two weeks off in the summer! I'm going to a family reunion (my Dad's side) on the 9th in Michigan, but other than getting there, back and spending a few days with my parents and my sister and her family there is NOTHING on my to do list. I am soooo looking forward to the time off.

Lots of stitching stuff this post...

First on the list, my recap of June. My goals were:

• to finish two more rows on both Santaberry Pudding and Just Nan's Christmas Elegance
• finish part one of With thy Needle & Thread's Birds of a Feather Mystery Sampler.

Hmmm, well I finished stitching Santaberry Pudding and mailed it off to Jill for framing, did nothing on Christmas Elegance and did not finish part one of BoaF. I'm not sure the finish balances the other two, but I'm not really stressing over it.

Next, goals for July:

• Finish part one of BoaF
• Stitch two rows on Christmas Elegance
• Finish Lizzie*Kate's Socks and Underwear - Santa 2010
• Finish-finish the last four Secret Needle Night projects
• Finish parts 3 and 4 of Tree of Stitches

Big goals, but I've got lots of time this month famous last words!

Next up, a FINISH!!

Holiday Joys
Homespun Elegance
27 count linen
DMC floss

Other than a counting error that was fudged into okayness, and leaving off the year and my initials, this is as charted.

Next is a start. Lizzie*Kate's Socks and Underwear - Santa 2010 I'm doing one for DS, DNephew and DNiece. I'm deciding between flat-folds and cubes for the final finishing.

Socks and Underwear - Santa 2010
Lizzie*Kate
New Khaki Lugana with DMC

Last but not least, my progress on With Thy Needle & Thread's Birds of a Feather mystery sampler.

Karen at Wasatch Needlecraft is having a 4th of July sale. The pattern for this:

was listed on the sale page and when I clicked to see it, she had the option to buy the fabric and threads at a reduced price (reduced more for the pattern), so being the weak person that I am when it comes to stitching temptation, I bought the "kit".

Phew! I'm worn out just from typing! I'll probably post progress pics throughout the week, but no long-winded major up date for a while, but of course, it is me and one can never tell.

June 1st

Lots of little things to talk about today.

Thanks everyone for the kind comments on my Egyptian Garden finish. The picture, as usual, doesn't do it justice. The blues are very vibrant and it just sparkles with all the beads and metallics. I'm not sure how this is going to be framed. I've been sending my finished pieces to Jill Rensel for the last couple of years for framing (yes, it is very scary dropping my stitching in the mail, but her work makes it worth it). She sends an email with two or three combinations, I choose and she does her magic. It's always fun to open the package (I have never had anything packaged as well as the items she sends) and see the finishing touches she put on the mats. She is also very reasonably priced, much more so than even the big chain stores.

On the temperature, the little thermometer part is located somewhere on our deck (I don't remember where the Hubs mounted it) and that area is a bit of a heat trap, so the actual temperature was probably closer to 97 - still a ridiculous number for this time of year. And the humidity was right around 68%, so walking outside was rather like walking into a warm, wet wash cloth.

As it's the first of the month, it's time to recap and plan. My goals for May were to finish Egyptian Garden and comment more on your blogs. I did both!  As a matter of fact, I was commenting on someones blog almost every day until Blogger had it's little tantrum.

For June? I'd like to finish two more rows on both Santaberry Pudding and Just Nan's Christmas Elegance and finish part one of With thy Needle & Thread's Birds of a Feather Mystery Sampler. That's a hefty bit of stitching, especially as I'll be travelling for a week with work, but I do have five more days on my holiday so these may be more easily doable than I think.

Speaking of Santaberry Pudding. Here's a photo of my progress:

This is stitched over-2 on 16-count Alabaster Heatherfield with #5 Perle cotton. I'm having a bit of trouble getting the back stitching to play nice, but all in all, I'm enjoying this piece. I'm hoping to finish off the line of stars and the next line of verse today.

And finally, it's a new moon, so here's my TUSAL photo:

Mostly Egyptian Garden, but there are a few bits from Santaberry Pudding in there. Not that they're easy to see, but the fabric in the background is R&R Reproductions Espresso and Flax Fields which are for BBD's Gathering Basket and Wild Lilies.

Happy May Day!

No, we don't do anything special for May Day, but I remember as a girl making baskets from paper strips and picking dandelions from the yard and "sneaking" them to my mother - mostly by leaving them on the porch, ringing the bell and "hiding" where she couldn't see me - like she couldn't see my sister or me when we hid under the covers on their bed 8-)

I did another stash buy yesterday. I adore The Nutmeg Company's little houses and am totally blown away by this one scroll down to "It can be complex...", I have these four - scroll down to  "Sweet Gingerbread Houses" and this one from the "Weekend Cottages" collection, so after a quick peek/update of the finances, I ordered the other three.  If this order is anything like my previous ones, I should have them in about a week -yes, I get orders from the UK faster than I get them from the US store I order from and in the case of these, much cheaper even with the exchange.

I suppose I should post my April recap. My goal for April was to stitch and despite a slow down the end of the month, there was progress on one piece and one piece only - Egyptian Garden. Here are my before and after photos (April 2nd on the left and April 30th on the right):

That thread I thought I was going to run out of? I have this much left.

The black case is my Gingher snip, it's about 4" long.

My goals for May? I am going out on a limb with finish Egyptian Garden. I'd like to start stitching on the train home again, but I'm not going to make that a goal, more an "if it happens...", as I'll feel compelled and then it won't be relaxing, which is what I need on the way home. My non-stitching goal is to comment more on the blogs I read.

And completely unrelated to stitching, isn't this the cutest lunch tote?

It's from Igloo and is totally insulated and has a zipper top, the tag said it would hold a six-pack, I'm not sure of that but there's plenty of room for my breakfast, lunch and various snacks I take to work. I have been using a Vera Bradly lunch tote for the last few years, but I'm trying to eat more fruit and veggies and it's tough to get more than one apple into my VB bag along with my yogurt, oatmeal, etc., so when I saw this at the grocery store the other day, I grabbed it.

Another month...

Funny, I was thinking the other day that March was certainly a long month, now it feels like it went by way too fast. Stitching wise it was definitely too short. I started out like a bat out of Hades, but really slowed down.  My March goals were:

EGYPTIAN GARDEN-Finish outer border Done
-Cat block Done
-Columns Done
-Ibis and  papyrus section almost... But I did do the thin border above the columns and start the last faraway palm border, so maybe it evens out.
CHRISTMAS ELEGANCE
-Stitch band 3 No
HOLY NIGHT
-Stitch band 2 No again
JOY TO THIS HOUSE
-Finish and another No

*sigh* Not a very good month. I am, as I've mentioned repeatedly, having a terrible time working past my block on Egyptian Garden and that's creating havoc with all my other stitching. With that thought in mind, my goals for April are:

STITCH!!!

That's easy enough. And hopefully those weren't famous last words.

While I haven't done much, I do have some progress to show.  First, Egyptian Garden:

Even though I should clean house today (my parents are coming to visit this week) I think I'm going to work on this and see what I can get done.  And there, I'll have met my goal for April!!!

Next is:

I've now got more than the center crease to worry about getting out. I roll this up when I'm not stitching as I don't want to permanently set the crease, but it lives in my work bag and gets crushed, so I'm setting additional creases. The blank spots in the lower windows will be candles - the kit came with the cutest little star charms for the flames. There will also be a wreath on the door. The Hubs is having some health issues, so I may get a bit done on these as I'm waiting in doctor's offices. Yes, I go with him, not because he needs help, but because he doesn't remember what the doctor's tell him. He was over-medicating himself a while back because he forgot the part where the doctor said to stop taking one of his medicines and take another instead. I might understand if he were 81, but he's only 41!

And last, but not least:

Not a great picture, but it wants to roll up so I had to take the picture in the rolling process.

One more piece of fabric in the mail this week. The Mourning Dove for Sarah Elliott's Home Port came in. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I felt sort of "eh" when I saw the fabric. There's a slight grey cast to it, but my mind apparently thought Mourning Dove should look totally different than it does.

February Recap and March Goals

Here were my February goals (they were posted over on my Yuku blog but I'll move them over here now):

EGYPT GARDEN-Stitch lower right pyramid, cat and block, and outer border (all but about 30 eyelets)
 WINE A BIT-Stitch Nope, didn't touch it
HOLY NIGHT-Stitch one row See above comment
AUTUMN AT HAWK RUN HOLLOW
-Work on inside of top scroll Ditto
CHRISTMAS ELEGANCE
-Finish band 2SANTABERRY PUDDING
-Finish band 1 and start band 2 EIGHTSOME REEL-Finish two rounds This one has been retired from my commute rotation for now and replaced with Homespun Elegance's Joy to this House or somthing like that.

Suppose I should be a bit more realistic with March's goals:

EGYPTIAN GARDEN
-Finish outer border Done
-Cat block Done
-Columns Done
-Ibis and  papyrus section
CHRISTMAS ELEGANCE
-Stitch band 3
HOLY NIGHT
-Stitch band 2
JOY TO THIS HOUSE
-Finish