stitchy kitty...

Just a quick post today, as I couldn't think of what to chat about...

My kitty was super cute sitting on the corner of the craft table, that I just had to take her picture... she is after all my stitchy kitty!  Okay I know its not exactly stitchy stash behind her but hubby's sewing machine but she's cute none the less!

Also for another stitching picture, here is my progress on the last supper... those darn fractionals are a pain in the you know where... I had to frog a bit today but not too much.  It is coming along slowly... soon all I will have left is the stuff on the table, skin and feet! Not to mention endless miles of backstitching!

Don't forget to enter the giveaway in my previous post! Let your friends know, the more the merrier!!  All you need to do is comment!

Till tomorrow... happy stitching!

a little bit of everything...

Well it seems I was having computer problems again, right after I posted on Friday.  Don't ask me what as the darn thing didn't want to work for me other than giving me a completely black screen with just the mouse movement visable, so I turned the thing off, and let it sit till my hubby came home yesterday.

Needless to say, he turned it on and all worked fine... and its still working... so I'm guessing this new computer doesn't like me yet....

Anyways, on to more happy things, like stitching!!! It was a busy weekend in the stitching cyber world!  Tusal, IHSW, not to mention our Sunday SAL with Barbi, and yesterday was the L*K SAL so I have lots to show!

First off here is my tusal for this month... much better showing than the last two months! I got lots of stitching done in the last couple of weeks!

Next up is part of my progress for the IHSW... on Friday and a little on Saturday I worked on Sabrina  (by Mirabilia) and I'm close to getting the stitching done.  As you can see I have a little of her hair left to do and then the flowers in her hair and on her dress, then its on to the ton of beads!

I also worked on Suzannah on Sunday for our SAL with Barbi as well as part of the IHSW, I didn't give her a head yet, but instead started working on that huge flower. Not sure how Barbi is doing but she was way ahead of me on this so I'm just playing catch up.

Then yesterday was our Monday SAL for L*K's 6 Fat Snowmen, and I made a little progress on that as well.

And last but not least a picture of my cutie pie kitty... Princess...

Till next time happy stitching!

a new addition and some stitching...

What a fantatsic Easter we had, lots of relaxing and spending time with family, and just overall enjoying the lovely weather we had all weekend.

I got lots of stitching done on Sabrina, though I forgot to take a picture of my progress, so I'll save that for tomorrow...however I didn't get much done on Suzannah... here is my measley progress on her...

I'll admit I ran out of thread twice on her... once with the 780 for her apron, so I went searching for it and couldn't find a single skein in the house. So I thought I would continue with her skirt and can you believe it I ran out of 3371 last week and didn't even realize it. the one lonely strand I had left was mixed up with my black so I thought I had lots... again I went off to search, and again I came up empty handed...so I just gave up on her...

Also I was quiet tired, and decided to go to bed early. I didn't sleep that much the night before becuase of a new addition to our family! We got another kitty!!! I find it strange that I wanted to get another one so quickly after Snow White/Cica Mica left us, I mean its only been 3 weeks (and I just miss her sooo much!), but I was the one pushing to go and look at the Humane society so off we went on Saturday!

Here is our newest family memeber - Princess

Excuse the mess on our bed, she was sunning herself in the middle of our unmade bed.

Don't you just love those kitty paws! She is 10 months old and a bundle of energy! Very quiet, definitely not a talker (yet) like our other kitty was. She sleeps with us, which is a change as our other kitty used to until about 4-5 years ago, so we're not quite used to having a kitty on the bed anymore! And for the last two nights she's been sleeping with me, inbetween my feet and legs, so needless to say I haven't been sleeping that much as I'm always afraid I'm going to kick her or something, as I tend to squirm quite a bit at night!

Anyways, that is it for now! Don't forget that today is the start of our Lizzie*Kate 6 Fat Men SAL! Get those needles threaded and going! Its our new Monday night SAL, start where ever you like and go from there! It's never too late to join so if you missed today, that 's okay, join in whenever you're ready, just click on the 6 Fat Men tab on the top of my blog for more information!

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's progress reports! I'll be posting mine tomorrow!

a girl, a leaf and some kitties... oh my!

Not much stitching going on, but I am making some progress albeit small...

I managed to put a few stitches in last week and a few this week already so here is my progress:

Last week I pulled out the kitties to work on, and finished up the second kitty...

then on Sunday we had family over, but after they left, I did manage to put a few stitches into Elizabeth. I'm behind Barbi but I'm plugging along with our SAL...

and yesterday I finally managed to start my maple leaf...

christmas at our house.... (picture heavy)

For the most part, our decorations were the same as last year - the outside lights, the garland and lights on the stairs, as well as the wreath on the door, so I'm not posting pictures of those this time around.


This year, we had a full house again, in that the whole family was here for dinner on Christmas eve. There were 15 of us in total. Here are some pictures from that night...

My sister in law made a tree from the left over pearl garland on one of the tables... it was very pretty, but it didn't last long Christmas eve with little hands grabbing every where :O)

My nativity set up on the piano

One of the two tables, since we all didn't fit at one... you can see the second smaller one in the background...

Our tree, as well as our little Christmas angel who helped with gifts Christmas eve...

Our traditional family shot, though my oldest brother is hiding behind me - my dad, his three kids (me + my two brothers) and our spouses, 5 grandkids + one spouse, and 2 great grand kids.


Usually I add at least one ornament or somesort of Christmas decoration to our collection each year, and this year was no different. This year was the addition of Santa's reindeer... I bought them at Chapter's thinking they would go on the tree, but they turned out too big and heavy for the branches, so on the wall they went! And yes they are in order with Rudolph leading the pack!

Christmas morning, Santa had arrived and brought more gifts for the girls, and as you can see they were pretty excited! We also found our kitty snuggled in her spot surrounded by the tree and gifts waiting to see what Santa had brought her...

stitching and garden photo update...

My holidays have been great so far, I've been enjoying myself tremendously and even relaxing a bunch. I really could get used to this!

Anyways, I thought I would update with more pictures. Yesterday was our SAL day and even the best laid plans don't always work out.

We started out with a lovely late breakfast with friends, and it was great to sit down over a bagel and starbucks drinks and just chat and catch up. Then hubby and I were to head to the mountains and enjoy the rest of the day there, but something came up and in the end hubby ended up being busy and I ended up enjoying the day stitching... so I had much more stitching time that I originally thought, so I got some pretty good progress in on Molly.

Though I'm not sure if you can tell in this picture (unless ofcourse you click it to make it bigger) but she seems to have some creepy lizard looking eyes... I didn't really notice this until I stitched them... oh well, the over all look of the pattern is what I love, so I'll just have to get used to her eyes staring at me while I finish working on her. :O)

Last week I pulled out Quaker Samplings again, and continued along with that one. Here is my progress on it as well... As of Saturday I had all of what you see done except for the center of that large quaker motiff on the bottom, I had a wonderful stitching afternoon with another friend today, and I filled that in this afternoon.

Here is a close up of what I stitched today...

And more and more flowers are starting to bloom in the garden, especially more poppies right now, so I thought I would show those off, as well as my kitty who I haven't shown in quite sometime - it is difficult to photgraph an all black kitty, but she and the weather cooperated with me yesterday when I took her photo...

And last but not least I would like to show you our "new" neighbour! The reason for the " " marks is that, we used to have a set of hawks that lived in one of our trees but for the last few years they had moved away, and I'm happy to report that they are back, this time in our neighbour's yard.

Playing in the garden and stitching

We had a fantastic weekend, the weather was great - a little rain yesterday but nothing to ruin the day as a whole, and we got lots of stuff done!


I thought I would share some garden pictures, some things are starting to bloom, but we're behind everyone else in the city as dad's yard gets a lot of shade so it take a little longer for things to actually grow and do anything!
















The first garden shot, is from our "gazebo" in the bottom part of the garden looking up towards the house(where the shady part on the right side in the second picture), the second one is looking down to the garden from the middle deck/balcony and the third shot is one of our irises in bloom. This one has bloomed already becuase its the newest addition to the yard, the ones from previous years haven't bloomed at all yet and we're still waiting to see if they will or not.


I also got quite a bit of stitching in this last week, I've made great (at least I think its great) progress on my peonies, as well as we had our canvas and beadwork class on Saturday, made a little progress there, and I managed to also start a new little project that was good for stitching on the deck with.


Here are my pictures of the peonies and my newest project - LHN/Crescent Colours - Strawberries - I'm doing it over 1 on 25ct ivory lugana. I'm going to stitch the series on the same piece of fabric for now, but I'm not sure what exactly I would do with them... I wouldn't mind little pillows or mattress type pin cushions, but that involes finishing and as we all know I'm not the greatest at that! 'Scuse the quality of the pictures, I'm still trying to figure out how to use the macro setting on the new camera properly!












I'm enjoying the over 1 on the 25ct much better than on the 28ct that I'm using for the Hungarian SAL, but live and learn! I'm not planning on redoing the whole SAL just to change the fabric! Over 1 on 28ct isn't bad, but I now prefer 25ct for it.

I haven't answered a SBQ in a while, so here is last Wednesday's question

Q: How many needles do you use during a project? Have you ever loadedup a
needle for every color? Do you use a new needle for everyproject or recycle your favorite needle?

A: I normally only ever use one needle per project, and they are my favourite needle - I know it sounds snobby, but I won't use anyother needle if I can help it. I get them whenever I go to Hungary. They are these fantastic needles that I think maybe used in huck embroidery but I'm not sure. They have a small ball on the end and I would say are a bit longer than a regular sized 28 needle, but not by much. All I know is that they are fantastic, and I've even managed to get several of my stitching friends hooked on them!

I also use the one needle until it tarnishes - though I've noticed that
with these needles, it takes a lot longer for them to actually tarnish, so I
definitely get more use out of them.

And last but not least, I just have to post a kitty picture, she is doing so much better since her surgery, and her fur has basically all grown back on her tummy, paw and neck where it was shaved. It just now has to grow in length, but that isn't as noticeable as the all white tummy was! She still doesn't have a collar, so she is still in stealth mode in the house, but we will be getting her a new one soon (her old one broke anyways, just after the surgery)

Kitty and Stitching Update

I haven't posted any progress pictures for awhile so here we go!

E and I signed up for a canvas and beading class at our LNS and here is my progress so far - we need to get all the borders for each square done first and then next class (next month) we will start working on the specialty stitches inside the boxes, doing one box at a time...

Here are my peonies, I worked on them a bit this past week, and I'm just loving the way they are turning out!

Here is my progress on the wedding piece, on the home stretch with filling in her dress! Sorry for the quality of the picture, but you can see my progress better on this one than the more focused one...

And last but not least, my kitty and her white tummy! You can't see the whole shaved area but you get the idea. Her incision is healing nicely and hopefully on Wednesday we will be able to go and get her stitches removed...

On the reading challenge, I'm doing fairly well I think, I'm on book 4 from my list and its only the 3rd month! I really enjoyed both Bare Bones, and The Last Wife of Henery VIII. I'm only a small ways into Abundance, but so far so good. I just haven't had time to read the last few nights, though hopefully that will recitify itself in the next few days!

Kitty update, SBQ and more...

Quick update on our kitty - the surgery went well on Friday, though I have to admit I was pretty worried all day, thank goodness work was busy so it kept my mind of things... and also helped to make the time go by faster! She is doing very well, eating etc, still hiding out during the day, but in general, she is being more herself than before. She now has a funky hair cut, but in time all her fur will grow back. She looks pretty silly though, and when she flops down and shows off her tummy it still is somewhat shocking as to how big an area they shaved clean! Plus with an all black kitty your just not used to seeing so much white! But as I said she is doing well, and hopefully her recovery will continue smoothly. Though I have to admit, it is getting more and more difficult to give her her antibiotics! Thank goodness only a few more days to go with those!

Quick stitching update for this week, I finished the stitching part of another gift, it was a quick stitch, much faster than I originally thought, so I was pleasantly surprised. Now to just finish it into what it is supposed to be (I know with the other ones, so I can finally get them to their recipeients and post picutures!) Since I finished it so quick, I pulled out the wedding piece for the remainder of the week, and got a little more done on that one, I'll post a progress picture...either later today or tomorrow forsure. I've also started working on my peonies again - yesterday, as I took my stitching with me to where we were last night - both projects - the wedding and the peonies, but I left the thread for the wedding at home, so I swapped out the wedding for the peonies in my qsnaps and started working on that one... that one will be my focus piece for this week coming up. (yes I know its only Sunday and I normally swap out on Monday's - but this week is an exception!)

I haven't answered one of the SBQ in a while so thought I'd have a go:
Fabric Counts:
Q:What is the smallest count fabric you have ever used? Did you stitch over one? Conversely, what is the largest count fabric you have ever used?
A: The smallest I've ever used to date is 32ct and will more than likely not go smaller than that - just too small for the eyes, and yes I have stitched over one on it, though it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be - my preference is still 28ct and I've done over one on that as well. The largest count I've used is 11ct.

There is also a similar blog question going around the Hungarian stitching blogs I read so I'll answer that one as well, - please excuse the Hungarian for now, and no laughing or commenting on my gramatical errors!

Ityamom blogjárol:
Kérdés:Van-e olyan hímzéssel kapcsolatos dolog, amit annyira nem szeretsz, hogy inkább neki sem kezdesz a munkának, amihez kapcsolódik?
Válász: Igen vannak.
-Olyannak például mint a HAED vagy White Willow Stitching féle minták -amik számitogéppel vannak csinalva - nélymelyik tetszik, de a nagyszaguk miatt meg a "confetti stitching" - azaz ahol itt ott egy szem egy szinben elszortan az egesz mintaban, inkább ki hagyom őket
-Olyan mintát sem szeretek, amiben van sok 3/4 meg 1/4 oltesek, sem túl sok francia csomo (egyet-kettőt elviselek, de nagyon sokat már nem.) Most is gondba vagyok, mert az Utolso Vacsorám is pont ilyen minta - túl sok benne a 3/4 meg 1/4 öltés - lehet hogy azert nem vettem elő már egy jó pár éve?
-Az Évi-vel is egyet ertek a szalaghimzel de nekem inkabb azert mert nem nagyon teszik, vannak minták ahol naygon is szépen mutat, de annyira nem teszetek meg hogy ki is probajám'
-És muszalj hogy tetszen a minta - már volt olyan alkalom ahol masnak himeztem (Ők választotak ki a mintát) és olyan nehezen ment az egesz, mintha valami kinzás lett vona mire befejeztem!!!

Stash, kitties and good thoughts

Well its the long weekend here and thank goodness! Its been another busy weekend, and today is basically the only day we have to just relax, or so we thought... but I'll get back to that...

E and I signed up for a canvas work class, and on Saturday we went to pick up the materials. While we were there, we each managed to do a little extra stash shopping from the Nashville releases that were there, but I was a good girl, I didn't buy all that much - pattern wise, money wise is another thing altogether! Boy this class is going to be so expensive! Okay I knew it wouldn't be cheap, but I was not thinking it would be as expensive as it actually is! It will be beautiful in the end, and worth it, but plopping down that huge amount all at once was a bit daunting! But it's done, and paid for, and now to just wait to start! I have to wait till two threads come in before I can actually start the border for it... hopefully they will arrive soon and then I can get a head start on it.

One thing I/we were thing though, is that they should put an approximate price for the materials when they advertise the class. Most people will still do it, but then they won't get such a sticker shock at the till. I know I would have still done the class had I known ahead how much it would have been, but then at least I would have been better prepared for it.

Anyways, no big deal! From the nashville releases, I got Quaker Cat and Mouse by the Workbasket, a new one from Elizabeth's Designs - which I won't show a picture of becuase it will be a gift for a special someone who reads my blog, the Awesome Apple Seed Needlebook by Jeanette Douglas, and Ladybug House by Lilybet Designs (still need the buttons for that one). So that is all of my new stash! I know I said I wasn't going to get anything till my 50 project challenge was done, but I cheated a little and got a little stash to mark/celebrate passing the halfway mark of my challenge! (at least that is my story and I'm sticking to it!)

Back to our supposedly relaxing day... my kitty hasn't been herself for the last little while, but we didn't really think anything of it, as she is getting up there in years - she is 9 going on 10 this year, and she was eating/drinking/using the litterbox all regularly so it was all okay. So we thought... Since at least Friday she hasn't used the litter box at all that we could tell, she has been hardly eating and is very lethargic and almost seems like she is in pain when she moves... She surprised us on Sunday morning by using (barely) the litter box and eating up a storm, but things this morning were back to what they were like on Saturday... so we packed her up and off we went to the emergency hospital this morning to check her out... after spending the entire morning there, we found out that she has 5 huge (and I mean huge) bladder stones that will require surgery to remove them! They also found out that one of her kidney's is larger than the other one, and it has some spots on it that could either be calcification or more stones in the making! My poor kitty! Since she was stable, the hospital let her come home, and tomorrow its off to her regular vet for blood work, and pre op assesment and maybe even surgery as soon as tomorrow!

So I'd like to ask for some good healing thoughts for my kitty that everything goes smoothly with her surgery and once she is rid of these then it will be the last of it and she will be back to her normal self...