Oops!

Well. Looks like I dropped the ball again. Just over a month since my last post. My dd and I got very sick at the end of March and it's taken me quite a while to get through it. She had a bit of an ear infection and I ended up having strep throat for the first time in my life. I also had some heavy duty pain in my ears and was having difficulty hearing. The dr said I had quite a bit of blockage in my ears due to everything else that was going on. Thankfully, it's all cleared up now and I can stop telling my husband to "turn it up" when we are watching tv. Lol 

I am still plugging away on sleeping princess. 

And there is a cat in my shower....

Too Cute

On the weekends, we like to take our mornings to unwind, sit on the couch and watch cartoons. My daughter LOVES Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. It's so great to see her get so excited and dance to the music while she watched the show. Another favorite on the weekends is Too Cute on Animal Planet. We love all the puppies and kittens! 

The weekend of valentines day we adopted two cats from our local spca. They are taking quite awhile to adjust, but each day they come around more and more. When they first came home, they bolted from the room whenever we walked in. They still don't let us walk right up to them, but they are much more relaxed when we come into their space, and they are seeking out our company a lot more than they used to. 

They are both very playful and will go nuts over a pipe cleaner! 

This is the younger of the two at just less than a year. She is much more into being around her people. This was just a couple weeks ago when she started joining me on the couch in the evenings I'm able to stay up late and stitch. She was very curious about my needle and thread. 

We had a snow day earlier this week. During nap time, I decided to break in my new pan and made mini donuts! So delicious! 

I also received this pretty in the mail!! I ordered from a shop on eBay and it was the only place I've seen it so I had to snatch it up! With a baby and buying a home, my stash budget is minimal, plus I have so much to stitch already I'm pretty happy just keeping my wish list updated for now! This I had to have though! 

I don't have a progress picture of sleeping princess, but I'm almost done stitching the skin! I've been stitching it over one and had a hiccup over the weekend. I stitched a lot of stitches in the wrong color and had to rip it out and restitch it. It was a faster fix than I thought it would be, but hopefully it won't be repeated! 

Growth

My latest stitching has shown some growth! 

My lunch buddy now has a hill to stand in. Even if he is missing his nose. 

And sleeping princess is getting some body parts. I've seen on Facebook in the mirabilia group, some wonderful ladies have stitched the skin over one and wanted to give it a try. I don't like how bulky a full stitch looked with two threads over one so I just did a half stitch and I'm pleased with it. I do little chunks at a time so I don't get sick of doing it. Skin itself is pretty boring to stitch. Skin over one?! Forget about it! So I do a few stitches over one and then do some color. And wow! Those x's look huge after you've done some over one stitching, lol! 

Over the weekend I purchased a 17x17 qsnaps frame at michaels. I'm excited to use it for my chatelaine and also for mirabilia projects. It's big enough that it will fit pretty much the entire stitch in one area so I will be able to even bead as I stitch so I won't have to wait until the end! 

Groovin'

I'm just grooving along on my two current pieces. I love being able to stitch during my lunch break, even if it's just a tiny bit. At home, I steal a few minutes here and there during nap times on the weekend or when the little one is busy playing by herself and doesn't notice what I'm doing. Lol. 

I've been thinking quite a bit about how much I would like to pick up working in my chatelaine piece again. I got a good start on it before baby came and it would be so nice to work on it again. I was mostly inhibited because I wanted to be able to stitch and also add the beads as a I go, but using q snaps can be a bit tricky and it's a large piece. I've decided to get one of the larger q snaps grams (17x17) and use it to stitch my chatelaine. It will give me a large area for stitching and beading. Plus, it will also be helpful for stitching the larger mirabilia pieces I also love. I'm excited!! 

Princess Progress

I was able to make more progress on the princess last night! I put the little one down to sleep and then rushed through my evening chores so I could sit on the couch and stitch and enjoy tv. Nashville was back last night, so exciting! And tonight, Greys Anatomy and Scandal!! Yay!! 

More Snow

My lunch time project has had some growth!

Last Saturday, I attended a lock in at In Stitches. It was a lot of fun and nice to enjoy some time with my friend, Danielle and the other ladies. I also won a door prize!! I won the chart and threads for Plum Street Samplers new sampler reproduction Elizabeth Sarah Oliver. The threads look very different than the picture so I'm excited to see how it stitches up! We received a $10 gift certificate for attending the event so I used it to buy fabric for the sampler, so it's all kitted and ready to go! 

I've also made more progress on Sleeping Princess, but haven't been able to snap an updated photo. I do love her though! I'm so happy that in getting back into my stitching. 

Snowman

A shepherds bush snowman! 

I take this guy to work with me everyday and work on him during my lunch break. I've learned that even if it's not much, even if I can just fit those 30 minutes of stitching in, my day is good. I still see progress! 

New Babies

Today was a holiday for me. I got to enjoy a nice, relaxing day at home. I was able to spend a good chunk of time stitching on Sleeping Princess. I also finished watching the first season of Game of Thrones. I really like it!! 

Since we've moved into our new house, dh and I have been talking about getting our first family pet. This past weekend, petsmart had a big adoption event. The one near us had cats from the local SPCA. Dh picked out a cat that he really like but I told him we couldn't get her. He had said we could only get one cat, this kitty was part of a bonded pair. I couldn't bear to separate them. My softie dh said, "okay, let's just get both". Just like that, and now we have two little fur babies at home with us! They've only been home for a couple days, so we haven't seen much of them yet. They mostly explore the house at night after we go to bed for the night. 

Hidden Treasure!!

Not a lot of people know this, but since November we have been in the process of buying our first home. It's pretty much been a nightmare dealing with the mortgage company and dealing with all the paperwork. Luckily, the house is perfect for us. It's a flip, so it's been completely renovated from the bottom up and has GORGEOUS new kitchen appliances. Plus, air conditioning. I just don't know how I will handle it in July when I am not dying from the heat. Never in my life have I lived in a house with ac. I'm feeling quite fancy about it. 

So, we have started packing up our tiny rental and while cleaning off the television stand, I found a treasure! Swooshed allll the way in the back of the bottom shelf was a bag from the lns in ocean city, Salty Yarns (love that place)! In the back was a lot from The Sweetheart Tree. I know I had to have purchased it back around summer of 2007. It was a day trip dh and I had taken to the beach with friends when we were dating. Well, they wanted to go to the beach, I wanted to go to salty yarns! Lol. 

I had started this piece and then put it in the bag. I swear I have spent the last six years looking for it! Every time we've rearranged the house and when we had to toss things to make room for the baby, I was keeping an eye out for this bag!! When I found it, I had made a pretty good start. The only thing that wasn't done were finishing stitching the leaves and the back stitching for the vines. The last two days at work during my lunch break I've worked on it. Today, I finished up the back stitching and am now ready to do the hardinger heart in the middle. Since I've never done hardinger, that's probably why I didn't finish it six years ago. Lol. 

Winter Blah!

So winter has hit us hard in the midatlantic. I almost said maryland, but then remember I now live in PENNSYLVANIA!! My husband and purchased our first home and we moved in the last weekend of January. Even though it's only a few minutes from our old rental, it's still a bit of an adjustment to a new state. 

Needless to say, the last few months have been very stressful waiting for everything to go through and getting to settlement. Also, moving with a toddler in tow. What was I thinking?! But, our new house is beautiful and so much room!! We have really loved being out from under the shadow of a landlord. And new appliances. Like a dishwasher. And a washer and dryer. And in the summer, air conditioning. Sweet, blissful air conditioning. 

So, I haven't had much time to stitch from all the moving and such. But, this past weekend I was able to work on sleeping princess for a bit and also started bringing a project with me to work. I stitch during my lunch break and I feel like it's really helped me to be a little less stressed. I wish I could just sit all day and work on it, but if 30 minutes is all I can fit into a day, I'll take it!! 

A Long Time...

Since my last post. A lot is going here in our little house. My little girl is growing so fast. She started walking just before thanksgiving at only ten months old! She's so fast!  Lol. 

She really enjoyed her first holiday season and was showered with love over Christmas. 

I haven't had much time to stitch. I've made slow progress of the brd mystery sampler and also started Mirabilis sleeping princess. 

A new yarn shop opened near my office downtown so I stopped in a few days before Christmas and saw a really pretty cowl on display. I treated myself to some yarn and am only ten rows from finishing it! I'm not the most accomplished knitter, so it's pretty exciting! 

Hopefully, I will get the chance to post more often and show some pictures.