Monday, February 25, 2013

SIGNS OF SPRING

The Goldfinches are showing more gold color.

I just liked this pic :)

This bird and I both think the trees are starting to bud.



~~ NEW BACKYARD VISITORS ~~
 Grackles
 I thought I had a backyard full of
angry looking Grackles.



 Actually, I had lots more of these:
 I believe these are 
European Starlings

It wasn't until I uploaded these pics to my computer
that I was able to see their beautiful colors and spots.


Like Grackles, they are considered a nuisance bird. 

I thought these birds were a beautiful
sight on one of our most bitterly cold winter days.


Edited:  I wrote this post a few days before we had our *snow storm* last Thursday.  The weather people said the jetstream changed course and took all the moisture with it and that's why we didn't get the 8-12 inches of snow originally predicted.

We have another snow storm forecasted for tomorrow.  Supposedly we're going to get 7-10 inches out of this one.  We really need the moisture, but I'd much rather have it in the form of rain.
 

A SPRING FLOSS GIVE-AWAY

Nancy over at Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe is having a Spring Floss Give-Away.  Head on over to her blog and tell her I sent you!

I love her beautiful dyed floss!

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

I Got Side-Tracked...

Sort of...

Kind of...

Definitely!

I haven't been working in my craft room and things are pretty much the same.  There's just too many more fun and interesting things to do.

This is what I've been working on:

 "Love"
Bride's Tree Ornaments
Brooke's Books Publishing
Just a few more stitches and the beading left.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I've been blog hopping
and found this blog:
  and since I have an interest in learning Hardanger,
I joined this SAL.
(cuz I really need one more SAL, lol)
 

January
28 ct white Lugana
Vintage threads from my MIL
 

February
28 ct white Lugana
Vintage threads from my MIL

I was SO nervous cutting those fabric threads!
Still need to finish the center part and do the beading. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I participated in the
Great Backyard Bird Count
which was February 15 through 18.

There were 8 species that visited my backyard 
plus one very special visitor

 Not sure what kind of owl this is, 
but it sat and posed for me! 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I wish I could say we're enjoying spring-like weather here, but we're not.  Today is very windy and very cold and the weather people are saying we're going to have a snow storm on Thursday.  They are saying that my area is right on that "line" between a little snow or a lot of snow and we could have as little as 2 inches or as much as 16 inches, depending on how the storm tracks.

Have a Great Week!

     

Thursday, February 14, 2013

A Valentine Finish

Season of Love
Design by
Little House Needleworks
Completed
February 14, 2013

Happy Valentine's Day!

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Fabric, Oh So Much Fabric!

But I'm not complaining.

For at least 5 years, Hubby paid for a Fabric of the Month subscription for me.  I chose the "variety" option and would receive five or six 9 x 13 cuts of various hand-dyed fabbies.  Silly me, all those years, I kept each monthly shipment together in it's baggie and added it to my treasure chest box of fabric.

Now, keep in mind that every time I wanted to start a project, I had to go through each little baggie until I found just the right piece for whatever I was stitching.  The first couple of years this wasn't such a big deal, but as my box got filled, it wasn't so fun to go through all those fabric pieces any more.

Finally, during my craft room organization, I've decided to tackle the box full of luscious fabbies.  I figure I've been putting it off for as long as I have because I wasn't sure how I was going to sort and store them.  Also on my mind was how I was going to know what each piece was. 

My first step was to unbag all those monthly shipments.  As I was unbagging them, I sorted them by fabric type -- Lugana, Jobelin, Jazzlyn, Jubilee, Cashel Linen, Belfast Linen, etc.  Originally, I was thinking about keeping each fabric type together, but that would mean I would still have to go through each type of fabric if i was looking for a certain color.

This dilemma stumped me and I lost all motivation and energy to continue.  So I shut the light off and left my messy room.  The great thing about my room is that I can just go downstairs and forget about it.  Actually, I never really forget about it :-)

Well, somewhere in the back of my mind, this dilemma was churning away.  For me, selecting a piece of fabric for any particular project starts by deciding which color I want to use.  So, I've finally decided that the fabric pieces should be sorted by color regardless of what type of fabric it is.

Step two was to sort each piece by color.  I decided that I am going to take each piece out of it's individual packaging and open the piece to lay flat.  Some of the pieces have tags stapled on the edge and I decided that's how I would attach the package label to each piece.

For now, I'm putting each color into it's own 2 gallon ziploc bag and laying those flat in the box.  At some point I may come up with a different storage space for the fabbies, but until then, this method will work.

Ready for a pic?


Reds, Oranges, Yellows, Greens, Blues,
Browns, Purples, Grays

Can you guess which color I have the most of?  I thought it would be the blues, but it's actually greens with the purples coming in second and blues are third.

I've run out of steam for today and I've only made it through the reds, oranges and purples.  I'll get back to my messy room another day!

I'm thankful that I have my very
own rainbow in my craft room!

Have a great week!

Friday, February 8, 2013

A COMMOTION IN THE BACK YARD

We heard the birds making a ruckus...

 Mom, what is that?

Oh Oh, Mom, something is going on!

Oh dear, Taco the Squirrel is not supposed to be 
on the table eating the bird seed.




Later that day...
Where did he go?

I can smell that he was here!

Shhhh, don't tell!

I found you!


Ha Ha, you can't get me.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

FEBRUARY GOALS

Can you believe it's February already?  I've noticed the days are a little longer, the sunshine moves through my office in a different way and our weather is CRAZY -- all signs (at least here in the Midwest) that spring is coming!

I'm trying something different.  I've never really set stitchy goals before and just went with whatever I felt like stitching, but I've started thinking about my stitchy goals for February.


Two things MUST get done:  
Get Soldier Memorial framed and sent to the soldier's family.
and
Finish a Model Stitching project.

-- snap -- 
just like that, I have the urge to stitch hearts, Valentine's or Love themed pieces.  

So here are the first two pieces:


   
Since I still want to stitch more snowmen, I will go through my patterns and find some more designs that have both snowmen and hearts or love.


What are your stitching goals?  

Who's stitching for Valentine's Day?


Mom Update:  We saw the oncologist last week.  I can't believe we've been going through cancer treatments for a year!  The oncologist said "Aren't you glad you only have 14 months of treatment left"?

All I could think was it has been one long year and to hear her say 14 more months of treatment just felt like a load of bricks being dropped on me.  

The hope is that at the end of the 14 months, the lymphoma will be in remission.  How long it stays in remission is uncertain.  What is certain is that any treatment needed after the 14 months will be more invasive.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.
  

A FINISH AND A PRIZE

Santa's House
Santa's Village Series
Country Cottage Needleworks
1/31/13
  

Four Skeins of GAST 
from Michelle
for correctly guessing the designer
of her WIP.

Thank you so much Michelle!