stash day #2...

Got another nice envelope in the mail today...

It had my order from 123 and I got the following charts...

back row: Ginger & Spice Welcome Home, Drawn Thread Little Noel and Give Thanks, Barbara Ann Designs  A Wicked Plant

front row: Cricket Collection Be Ye Thankful, Lynn's Prints (Diane Graebner designs) Dandelion Play, Cross Stitchin' Friends, Flying High, and Mouse Hunt

winter strikes again...

Most of our snow melted from the last snow storm we had about 10 days ago, and it seems that Mother Nature is enjoying the yoyo game she is playing with us.... today was chilly compared to our other days, with a high of -12 and a winter snowfall warning of 15-20cm of snow to fall over night...we'll see in the morning what the final verdict is on how many cm fell...

Its nothing out of the ordinary for our part of the woods so to speak, but the yoyo effect of warm,cold, warm, cold is playing havoc with me with headaches etc... However putting all that aside, you just have to marvel at the beauty the cold, snow and winter can bring!  Mother Nature sure can paint a pretty picture no matter what the season!

Here are a couple of pictures from around our neighbourhood...

till tomorrow... happy stitching!

stitchy stash...

Today was a good stash day!  I got my fabrics from Stephanie (click here to check out her website)

I got the following fabrics - all on 32ct jobelan and all 18x26
front row from left to right: snow drifts, blaze maple, falling leaves, secret
back row from left to right: abyss, haunting, warm sugar, and mulled cider

I love them all! I can hardly wait to pick projects for them!

I also went to Chapters as the new CS&N magazine is out, the one with the new Nora Corbett fairy... ohh she is so beautiful!

That's it for today, I'm off to stitch and play with my new stash!  I'm still waiting on 2 more pieces of fabric and a bunch of other goodies!

till next time ... happy stitching!

 

 

here we are...all caught up...

As you may have noticed I missed a few days for the nablopomo... it seems that blogger didn't want me to post every day, as it wasn't letting me post or do anything... Not sure what the problem was, if it was blogger or my computer... but it seems to be all fixed now, so I thought I would catch up and back date my missing posts....  Trust me it wasn't for lack of trying to post that I missed these last few days...

Anyways, on today's post... I thought that since it is so late (or early depending on how you look at it) I thought I would just share some of my favourite photos from our trip to San Fransico last month... and basically just let the pictures speak for themselves...

Till next time... happy stitching...

catch up post 3... for Nov 17

I managed to do a little stitching, and was able to finish up the part I wanted to for the last supper... I have been wanting to change projects but really wanted to get up to a certain part done first...

Here is where I stand as of tonight, as well as a not very good picture of the whole thing... it's fairly late and I just took the photos with my phone...

Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to get a good stitching session in as well, and I will either be starting a new project or pulling out Fairy Moon by Mirabilia...

I'll leave you to keep guessing which one I actually will do!

Till next time happy stitching!

catch up post 2... for Nov 16

It seems that now that Remembrance Day has past, it is open season for Christmas decorations etc, and our city is no execption... downtown looks like Christmas has exploded, and while it is very pretty, and I love to look at it, I find it a bit early... but that is my preference...

Anyways, you know that the holiday season is upon us when the the Art Market opens and all the local artians show their wares... we have been going each year now for the past 3 years, and I love to look at everything. We didn't buy anything this year, and we didn't take pictures of any of the stalls either, but we definitley saw a couple of things that we would like to get in the future.

Here are a couple of quick phone photos of some of the decorations downtown...

You can't see it very well, but, the street has icicle lights going across it every few feet, and the lights actually move, in that it makes it look like the icicles are dripping... very pretty...

All the office builiding are decked out in their holiday garbs... trees in the lobbys, or big ornament balls hanging from the light posts, or absolutely huge (but beautiful) wreaths hung on the tall wall inside, all very festive!

The next picture are the trees around our City Hall...they are not finished decorating, as I think they add more to the square around City Hall, and that wasn't out yet, just the trees all lit up... It reminded me of a mini version of Andrassy Ut in Budapest at Christmas time...

catch up post 1...for Nov 15

Omg! I think I have been living under a rock until now... I have never seen these beautiful cross stitch patterns/kits before!  I have heard of the designer, but never connected her with these beautiful flowers... I think I am in love!!  My only saving grace is that they only come in kit form and are fairly expensive, even with a sale price! But let me share so you can all drool with me...

Presenting some of my new found favourites by Thea Gouverneur:

1. Peach Carnation

2.  Peace

3. Orange Rose

4.  Pink Roses

Can you just imagine how beautiful they are all stitched up.... you can almost smell their fragrance... they are so beautiful!!!

going nowhere...

I had a good stitching session tonight, or so I thought... I felt like I stitched most the of the evening, but if you look at what I did, it feels like I made no progress whatsoever!  I was still working on the last supper, and all I managed to add was two hands... silly fractional stitches and colour changes...but the effect is worth it in the end...

Also as I was surfing the net, I found a picture of this freebie... I know its a Val's Stuff design, but I can't seem to find the actual freebie anywhere... does anyone have this or know how to contact the designer??? Are they still designing?? I couldn't even find a website for them... Anyways, any help would be greatly appreciated... that snowman is just too cute not to want to stitch him!

Also don't forget, this weekend coming up is the ihsw, so get ready to hermit and sign up!  You can click on the picture on my sidebar for more information!  I'm actually going to sign up for it this weekend, its been a few months now that I have been able to, so let's hope my best laid plans stay that way and I get to stitch lots!

a winner... and the ort report...

Today is the day, that I announce a winner for my giveaway.  10 people commented (a couple of doubles in there) so I entered 1-10 in the random number generator, and the the winner is.... drum roll please....
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number 1~ our first commentor... Blue Star Stitcher! Congratulations!!!!  I will email you for your mailing information!

Thank you to everyone who participated!  Please keep watching as I will be having both another giveaway in the near future, as well as I'm going to be starting a traveling pattern.

Now on to the ORT report!  Tusal time!  Here is my jar for this new moon! I have to say I'm quite proud of it, as it is quite full!

As you can see, my ort jar also has a new critter that took up residence!  I found him at a flower shop and he was just too cute to leave there! Hopefully by both being nice to him by giving him a loving home, as well as letting him guard my orts, he will be too busy to mess with my stitching!

Till next time... happy stitching!

drive by post...

Just a quick drive by post tonight, as it's late and tomorrow is a work day! It is going to be tough going back to work after a nice long weekend.

Anyways, I did a little stitching, and thought I would show a progress picture of how the last supper is coming along...

I'm getting to the point where all the fun bits are going to be done, and all I will have left is lots and lots of skin, and of course all the stuff on the table... not mention what looks like miles and miles of back stitch!  but the good thing even with all of that, is it is getting closer and closer to being finished!  As it stands it is my longest standing WIP  - it has to be at least 12-13 years old...I don't even remember when I started it, it was definitely long before I started blogging, and sadly I don't have any record of it. But that is okay... I will definitely have a record of it being done! As strange as it sounds, even with all the fractional stitches I'm quiet enjoying working on it right now, so even though I planned to switch projects tomorrow, I think I may keep plugging along with this and see how far I get before I feel like switching.

Also today, we went and did a little shopping... we went to Ikea and bought a new storage type dresser thingy for my stash by my stitching spot. Till now we just had a wood and glass coffee table next to me, and I had all my stuff piled up on top of it as well as under it and below it.... now I have this lovely new dresser thing with 6 drawers and plenty of space to put everything away! looks much neater and defintley cleaner!

There is a view from straight on, as well as one from a bit above so you can see the drawers... they are difficult to see since it's black. I know the drawers are not that deep, but I still managed to fit what I need in it, and have room for more. It is perfect for what I need it for.

Till next time... happy stitching!

blooms

Both of our Christmas cactus' (cactai) are starting to bloom!  They usually start around now, and will bloom until well into the new year!

I'll share more pictures once the blooms are open.

Also don't forget you still have time to enter into my giveaway from my post of Nov. 5 (click here) all you need to do is comment and you will be entered. It closes at midnight my time on Monday Nov 12.

winter wonderland

We have already had our first big snowfall, a nice storm on October 23, but then a chinook came this past Monday, and we had +14 weather so it was all melted and gone... till yesterday...

We got a nice dumping of snow, and it is still continuing to fall... our city has turned into a winter wonderland... here are a couple of pictures from our house...the tape measure is in inches...

And of course our kitty had to get in on the action... she jumped outside for just barely a minute, when she realized it was cold she quickly came back in, but not before she left her mark in the snow!

stitchy stash...

Hello....my name is Kati and I'm a stashaholic... yes I buy stash, sometimes lots of it... I could probably open my own store if I wanted that is how much I have. I'm definitely S.A.B.L.E a couple of times over, but it doesn't seem to stop me...even though it should...

Some people like to shop for shoes, clothing, purses, or whatever... I like to buy stash... it makes me happy, almost as much as actually stitching does... While some people may think I go overboard with my purchases, I look at it as an investment... and as the saying goes its cheaper than therapy!  Its funny I don't really like to shop for anything else, but I love to stash shop! Call me crazy... I know I am!

I am waiting for several purchases to come in, one is a fabric order from Stephanie (Hand Dyed Fabrics by Stephanie: click here to go to her website) as well as some charts from 123... However I just put in an order at Anita's Little Stitches...

Here is what I got...

Letters for Santa
With Thy Needle and Thread

 

and two pairs of scissors...  I'm not sure what it is about them, but they just called to me!

Premax scissors from Italy
Limited edition candy cane scissors

 

And...

Premax scissors from Italy
Red soft touch

I have plenty of scissors and some very nice ones, but these two just called my name as asked me to add them to my scissor stash!  I'm looking forward to them arriving...those candy cane ones are just too cute and the red ones... oh my!

Speaking of stash... I haven't looked at Chatelaine designs in a long time... as nothing had been catching my eye... that is until now...

I didn't sign up for them (yet - we will see if I do) but I really like these two...

Polar Mandela

Hydrangea Autumn Mandela

The Polar Mandela started last month in October, while the Hydrangea one is starting this month... so plenty of time to sign up for them... They are posted on Chatelaine's yuku board - click here for more information, and lots of other beautiful online classes... (you will probably have to register for yuku to go and see them, but its free and its worth it)

Till next time...happy stitching!

chocolate...

 

Okay so who doesn't like chocolate??? I looooove chocolate... especially dark chocolate, and it seems that I have also converted my husband... he used to always eat only milk chocolate, but now its only dark!  And if it has nuts in then even better!

We have some pretty darn good chocolatiers here in our fair city, my favourite being Chokolat in Inglewood but it can be pricey...

However, while on our trip in San Fransico, we went to Ghiradelli's... and all I can say is OMG what great chocolate! And it's no wonder, as it is the US subsidary of Lindt chocolate from Switzerland!

Now don't look at me like I've just crawled from under a rock... I've had Ghiradelli chocolate squares before, just not very often... no clue where to get it in our city (truthfully I've never had the need to look before now)...  the one time I did have them, co-workers and I bought them from the Nut Man, who comes to the hospital every few weeks, but he hasn't had them really since...

Anyways, while in San Fran, we stocked up a little on some, and oh my the flavours!  All sorts of yummy goodness in dark chocolate... our favourites by far are the dark chocolate peppermint bark, which is a limited edition flavour - I guess only around for Christmas... then the dark chocolate truffle and the dark chocolate orange... there were other good ones too that I brought home, just these 3 flavours stood out.

Now by bringing this chocolate home, it seems I've created a monster, in that my dad just fell in love with them! Needless to say once he found the chocolate stash and tasted them, the chocolate didn't last long!

I tried to order them online straight from Ghiradelli.com but the shipping costs to Canada were outrageous, so I'm looking for where I can get them here... if anyone knows please let me know!

Dad was joking that I should order him a case (that is 430 individual squares) of the dark chocolate truffle ones for Christmas... hmmm maybe I should!

And in case you thought that this post would be completely without stitching... guess again!

Here is a cute little freebie from Our Pioneer Homestead - black cat inn: click here

Also don't forget to enter my giveaway from my Nov. 5 post! All you need to do is leave a comment on that post to be entered to win.

till next time... happy stitching! Just remember to be careful not to get chocolate on your stitching!

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!

giveaway time...

It's time for a giveaway... its been so long, almost a full year since I've had one!

So what is the prize... it is Little House Needleworks - Home of a Needleworker, pictured below.

All you need to do is comment on this post and your name will be entered to win. I will keep it open until midnight my time on Monday November 12, and then I will pull a name and post the winner on Tuesday the 13th.

I will mail worldwide, so please enter and tell your friends as well!

Good luck!

stitchy weekend...

 

Just a quickie post to show off my stitchy progress from this weekend... I think I did pretty good, even with all the silly fractional stitches that I so dislike!

Hope everyone else had a wonderful weekend!

needles...

A few posts ago, I was asking about your favourite needles, beading and stitching, and promised a photo of my stitching needle.  I found and bought these while living in Hungary, and each time I go back I stock up on them. Since finding them, I have been exclusively been using these needles for my stitching, and won't go back to using anything else - so that is now more than 10 years. I just love them. I also know I got a few stitching friends hooked on them too!

If you click on the picture to make it bigger, you will see that at the point of the needle there is a tiny little ball.

 

It's November, and that means all over the blogging world that its nablopomo - or national blog posting month, where you post to your blog every day for the month.  I did it for the first time last year and managed to post every day. I will try again this year, but unofficially as I know I may not make it, and it also takes the pressure off of having to find somthing to post every day. It is fun to try though!

 

Also since I've been on a freebie posting streak, let's continue today... but let's move to a more Christmassy theme as Christmas is almost here!  These last few weeks of the year will just fly by before we know it!

 

 

Just click on the picture and it should take you to the pattern.  If not, then just click here.