Look who I found :)

I finally found a cute little Gargoyle of my own. Dee has had one for quite some time that she uses to help model projects and I thought he was so cute that I've been in search of one. This little guy turned up at a flea market I was at and so I snatched him up. Haven't decided on a name yet, but I'm leaning towards Claude. What do you all think? Other name suggestions?

So, without further delay I've put him to work helping me show off my most recent finish (doesn't the look on his face make you think he's just feeling so put upon, LOL). Yup, another Pine Mountain pillow. When I get in a stitching slump these really help get me back on track, fun, quick, and the finishing is already done. I enjoyed doing July, and the one before Whoo Loves You, so much I grabbed another out of my stash to start. I have gotten a little bit of stitching started on this, but as is only about 20 stitches of the white I'll wait and post that later.

It's been a busy week, I had two days off and did some fun sightseeing. The first day we went to Chelsea and toured the Jiffy factory seeing how they make and package their mixes (and got some goodies to take home). I went with my parents and we also went to a Teddy Bear Factory and saw them made and learned some of the history of Teddy Bears, also went shopping at all the fun shops in town, had a lovely lunch, and then finished the day with a play at the Purple Rose. We saw Boeing Boeing, cute play. It's based on an old movie with Tony Curtis and Jerry Lewis. I hadn't seen the movie before so I got it out of the library and watched it this week too. The second day was spent wandering around Frankenmuth, lots of good food and fun shopping again. Then today we had a family reunion at a local park. Finally squeezed in seeing the new movie Despicable Me this week too. Busy week, now I need to catch up on all the boring things like laundry and grocery shopping that have been put off before the next week starts.

Couple of finishes

Yup, I've actually got a couple to post, although two are crochet and only one stitching. First up is my completed Whoo Loves You. I really enjoyed doing this little Pine Mountain kit, the colors and design were such fun. This was a Father's day gift to my dad. It seems so hard to find stitched designs for a guy that don't come off as two feminine, and I thought this one worked great. The pillow design he can prop up pretty much anywhere too.

My two crochet finishes were both cat mats, 20x28, for the animal shelter. The once color way you're probably pretty used to by now. That yarn I found on sale seems to last forever. The one in the deep blues was a different yarn that I found, Serenity by Deborah Norville. It is a chunky weight and made for a lovely super squishy cat mat. While the other mats provide pretty colors and some cushion, this one being so thick I think will be great for an older cat who needs a bit more padding to lay on to be comfortable.

As to a new project, I haven't pulled one out yet to start after all. Instead I've spent a bit of time on Trick or Treat Mice. This poor project comes out periodically to be worked on (so far it is a ten year project). I don't know why it is taking so long, I really like it and think the design is just as cute as when I first started it. But somehow...... oh well, I'm sure you all have one of those projects that just doesn't seem to get time even though you still like it. I do need to find another small one to start though, as mice really isn't that easy to pick up and just work on in the spare minute.

For all my friends in the States, hope you're having a safe and enjoyable holiday. Tomorrow I'll be meeting up with my brother and his family for a visit, which means some stitching time with my DSIL too. :)

Woof Top finish :)

Thankfully this weekend turned out to be pretty nice weather wise, even though they had originally forecasted rain off and on for most of it. Other than some rather heavy mist for a short period, it didn't rain but the overcast sky kept the temperature down. Nice for finally getting the yard mowed, errands ran, and for the picnic I went to today. Hope you all had an enjoyable weekend as well.

On the stitching front, I finally finished my Lizzie Kate Up On The Woof Top (sorry for the wrinkles, it hasn't been ironed yet obviously).
Other than the snow not showing up as much as I'd like, it shows up much less in real life than here, I'm really happy with how it turned out. I originally had a small white pompom for the hat, but then this fun larger red one caught my eye. I lucked out on the lights too. The small clay ones I had would have worked, but Kim had these fun sparkly ones that I think worked so much better. The only area I'm not totally happy with is the snow, the white kind of gets lost on the background so I may need to do something with that, either go over it again to make it puffier or add some glisten gloss to give it a bit more shimmer. I'll probably finish this off as a flatfold like my earlier Just Nan and am looking forward to being able to set it out at Christmas.

While not a lot of stitching has been occurring, I did get a nice start in on Whoo Loves You by Pine Mountain.
this is going fast, and I like the colors. The fabric isn't so nice to work on, but its a small piece so won't have to work with it very long. Then all I'll have to do is pop it in the tuck pillow and I'll have another finish (that's really finish finished). Got to love those tuck pillows.

Actually now I'll need to go stash diving, always such a hardship, LOL, to see what I want my next project to be. I don't have any fixed idea of what I'd like to start next, so I'll just dig around and see what calls to me the loudest and be surprised. :)

Time Warp?

Ever feel like you've been in a time warp? You look back over the last month or so and wonder where the time went? It past, but you can't quite put your finger on what you did or where it went? That's the way I feel a lot of the time lately I swear, I just don't know where the time goes until suddenly I look at something (like in this case my last blog post) and go OMG has that much time really passed, it seems just the other day. Anyway, I'm back, and hopefully I'll stay a little more in touch with time now. Although, in the summer with so much to do going on now that the weather is getting nicer it is hard to stay home and find some quiet time.

Work is going great, still liking what I'm doing and the people I'm working with. Since it has now been almost four months since I started I think it's going to be a good fit. I'm so happy to have found something I enjoy and that is so close to home.

Wildlife in our area is still the usual squirrels, rabbits, birds and such, but recently a visitor started coming around on a regular basis that I hadn't seen for a while, does this little guy look familiar? Not sure if he's one of the young ones that came last year or not, but he thinks he needs to raid my bird feeders most evenings. Sometimes after finishing at the one he'll climb up to the top of the garage and sit there looking around, take a bath for a bit, and then leave. He does make himself quite at home, and as you can see he's fairly brave with letting me get close enough for a picture (although the flash did make his eyes go all glowing and weird, poor little guy I'll bet he didn't appreciate that).

This week I got a wonderful present from Felicity from an earlier drawing that she had that I was a very lucky winner of, look at these great goodies that came in my mailbox.
I think my favorite is the Eat Sleep Stitch one, I really must make more time for stitching. I seem to have been in a bit of a dry spell on stitching lately and it shows, I'm much more mellow when I stitch. I sat and stitched for a bit yesterday evening and I can't believe how much better I felt afterwards. Of course I was watching (and singing along to, as with the music you just can't help it) Mamma Mia, that is such a fun movie. Thank you so much Felicity for the lovely package.

While not done, I'm almost there on Up on the Woof Top, just a couple words and stringing the lights on the dog house to go. As you can see by the fact this little piece is still not done, I really have hit a dry spell on stitching.

One small new addition to my stash I got at camp earlier and missed posting with my other stash goodies was this cute little guy. I love Pine Mountain pillows, so fun and the finishing is soooo easy. I think this will be my next project as soon as Woof is done.

Finally I'll leave you with a picture of two of my tired out furbabies, not sure what they'd been up to, but they both just crashed and stayed that way long enough for me to actually get a picture for a change. Bug (cat) and Jaz quite often nap together, many times even closer than they are in this shot as Bug will put his little paws up around Jaz's muzzle and snuggle under her chin, who says cats and dogs don't get along, LOL.

We'll I'm off to visit blogs (after I go get the lawn mowed, it's turning into a jungle in our warmer rainy weather, ugh!). Thanks to all who are still visiting my blog with the sporadic way I've been posting, I really do appreciate you and your comments and enjoy keeping up with what you're doing.

Where have I been? CAMP :)

Yup, I've been absent a while, but I've been busy. The new job is going well, I'm enjoying what I'm doing and the people I'm working with, learning a lot and the days fly by. As to Zoo on facebook, yup still spend to much time playing it there, but I hit the final achievement level so should be slowing down now. Spring finally seems to be sticking around a bit, even seeing flowers, daffodils seem to be early bloomers, here and there. So, Jazmine and I have been doing a bit more walking. This weather is nice, cool enough for her and warm enough for me. Pretty soon I'll ask if she wants a walk and she'll act like I'm crazy to think she'd want to leave her spot by the air conditioner. Hot weather and Jazmine do not go together.

As to what else I've been up to, March means camp Stitch-a-Lot. My DSIL Kim and I go every year, with our first time there being in 1999, it's become quite the tradition. We started the weekend with a road trip to stop at Rocking Horse in Farmington. I love looking at all the gorgeous models they have up in their store, they're awesome. They also have some wonderful shop exclusives. This year I picked up this cute witches hat kit, as did Kim, so you may see it as an upcoming SAL for us.


Isn't it great? I love how it is finished off so it stands up, very fun to be able to put out at Halloween. I also got Checkered Halloween to do, the goofy cat face in the upper left corner is the button for it.

You'd never know I like Halloween would you, LOL. After shopping there for a while we grabbed some lunch and then off to Stitches n Things for some more shopping. Yup, more goodies jumped into my hands. First off, to prove I don't only do Halloween (although it does seem like it) I got this beautiful Christmas Quaker Bellpull pattern.

However, after that, it was back to Halloween. First I saw the frame, then I went searching for the design that Kay's Frames had meant to go in it and found Boo Bird.


I love both Boo Bird and the other design Joy Bird, so I'll probably do both. The purple fabric I saw as I was getting ready to check out. While the design was shown on a natural fabric color, I think it will be a lot of fun to do on the purple. After we finished up at the shop we headed to the hotel. Fun goodie bags as always, large tote with all kinds of surprises inside. There were a couple Silver Lining patterns, which I think are beautiful but a bit intimidating with all the color changes, as well as this fun Sue Hillis design

This I can see me doing. Deb also had Amy Bruecken there as a teacher and her trunk show, and this fun EEK pattern was one I couldn't resist.

Finally on the free table, where people lay out designs they no longer want, I found this cutie

So, do you think I have Christmas and Halloween covered now, LOL. As to stitching, yes that did get done too. I got quite a bit done on my SAL with Kim, and Up on the Woof Top is coming right along, although he really does need a head.

I'm not really happy with how the snow is showing up, although otherwise I really like the fabric I picked. To make the snow show a bit more I think I'll go back over it with a strand of glissen gloss to give it some sparkle.

One other item I worked on at camp was some needlepunch. I started this when my eyes were getting a bit to tired to count.


Well that's all for now, I'll try not to be gone so long till my next post. Now I'm off to try and catch up on what all you've been doing. Hope you're all having a wonderful holiday weekend.

Lots going on

For being the middle of winter I sure have been busy lately. Normally winter seems to go slower than other months, especially mid-winter around February when I'm getting pretty tired of snow and cold, but lately time is flying by. The last couple of days have been fairly warm (around 38 but still much better than it was) and sunny, so they look pretty out and the snow from the last storm has started to melt pretty good. The streets and sidewalks are nice and clear again, much nicer for taking Jaz for a walk when we are not slip sliding around. I'm glad I was able to get out and about and enjoy it as I saw where they are predicting another storm to come through tonight and tomorrow, forecast is 2-8 inches, yuck!!!

On the accomplishment front I have my taxes done and ready to go. One of the schedules I have to file hasn't gotten the IRS final approval yet, so the actual filing is on hold till they give the ok on the one form, but at least it's done. My DD's are done now too, not to bad for mid February.

On the stitching front I haven't gotten to much accomplished. Here's where I was on my new SAL with Kim as of last weekend. I've gotten a bit more done since this, but I haven't got an updated picture and the difference isn't a whole lot. I'm doing this on 18 ct Light Fiddler's Cloth with a combination of DMC and WDW. I love the color Midnight that I'm using right now, but then it is a blue so that's kind of predictable. :)

Keeping up with the snow and doing taxes wasn't enough to fill up all my time so that I didn't get more stitching done, so what else have I been up to? Well to a lessor extent I'm still playing Zoo on Facebook which my DD got me hooked on, but my largest time commitment is my new job. Yup, all your good wishes and positive thoughts came through for me. I made it through the three interviews and I started work on the first of this month. So far I'm really liking it, the people are really nice and the work is interesting. I'm also extremely lucky on how close to me it is, only about a 10 min. drive, which is wonderful in the winter weather.

That's all for now, hopefully I'll have more stitching done for an up date on my next post.

A finished finish

Yup, my SAL of Just Nan's Be Scary with my DSIL is now complete including the finishing. We had a lovely day yesterday doing a FAL (finishing along) and we both got our Be Scary pieces finished up. I ended up using some different fabric for the flatfold than I originally planned. I'd totally forgot I had this fabric in my stash, but once I saw it I thought the coloring and pattern size were a much better fit than my previous choice. I'd never done a flatfold before, so Kim walked me through each step and we had a blast. So here's my finish in all its glory.

We also decided on what our next SAL will be. We'll both be doing a piece by Lizzie Kate, but not the same design, just similar in size. Kim will be doing Jolly Men Bearing Gifts (I think that's the right name) and I'm going to do Up on the Woof Top, some fun light hearted pieces.

Hmmm, I see a pattern here, we finished a Halloween piece up a couple months past Halloween, and now we're doing a Christmas piece after Christmas. Oh well, instead of feeling that we are behind in the holidays I'll look at them both as being well ahead of the game for the next one. :)

We'll I'm off to get the rest of my stuff for the tax preparer ready, as I'm supposed to drop it off tomorrow. Don't you just love this time of year, LOL.