I was soooooo close…

…to registering for the upcoming Victoria Sampler Retreat.  Earlier in the week the retreat design was released and it is sooooo beautiful that I told myself that I could afford it, and it would be so much fun, and loved the thought of being taught how to do a beautiful finishing job like this… and I’ve been to Victoria before and loved the city…  DBF was enabling me… and Susan texted me the phrase “Just Do It….”

I just had a couple of questions to ask the VS people first, and in the time it took to get my answers, I came to my senses. I just cannot justify the cost of the retreat, the flight, and the meals for only two days of class instruction, no matter how much I adore it… at least not with the uncertainty that the current economic situation…

Check out the beauty that tempted me!

Swoon… sigh…  My only consolation is that it will eventually be released as a leaflet or cyberclass… 

My thought for the weekend… thank GOD for the Superbowl…  hours of uninterrupted stitching time and finally… the end of football until next season!  Hooray!

Latest Alpine Seasons Progress Pic

I just love love love how this is looking.  Since the last progress pic, I’ve finished mountains and trees and started on the outer borders of the upper left hand corner
:ed

on the outer border today and am surprised at how fast it is stitching up.  I guess long straight lines are a welcome break after a big chunk of confetti stitching!  🙂  My goal is to finish this up in 2009, and despite the progress I’ve made so far this year, the end seems a LONG way off.   I keep looking at Jill’s finished Alpine Seasons for inspiration…

I’m enjoying it, and am, for the first time ever, focusing on the process and not being so goal oriented.  Big change for me as far as stitching goes.

This weekend, DBF and I went to Front Porch Music in Valparaiso to see Peter Mayer.  We went with a friend of mine fromwork and had a great time.  Seeing this guy was one of my first dates with DBF and this is the third year and a row that we’ve made the  hour long trip to see him.  He’s a talented song writer and guitar player, and is just charming and interesting to listen to.  I always feel so happy, light, and peaceful when I leave his shows.  Anyhow…  take a look at his web page and see if he’ll be near you any time soon…  a guaranteed great time for $15.  He’s got plenty of footage on you tube, too, for anone interested in hearing him.

I hope everybody had a great weekend…

January Ornament

Here is Brittercup‘s Britty Christmas Kitty!

 
I think I’ll be finishing this on a round ornament form. It was a fun, quick stitch, and small enough that I braved opalescent fabric to sparkle up the ornament.

Now that January is finished, I’ll be thinking about which ornament will be for February and working on my Alpine Seasons…. I anticipate finishing up a major section this weekend and will probably post a pic on Sunday.

I’m completely obsessed with the Twilight series of books by Stephenie Meyer…. I picked up the first one and started reading it out of curiosity a couple of weeks ago when I was at Barnes and Noble….. well, tonight I went and bought the last two books. It’s fun, easy reading and the characters have endeared themselves to me – I think my favorite character is Jacob. 🙂

Have a great weekend!

Celebration of Needlework Class Descriptions

OK, so they haven’t published a brochure or schedule  yet, but they ARE posting class descriptions, and even some pictures!  I’ve been studying the classes, thinking about taking at least one, but I cannot make travel plans or anything until I know when classes are going to be.

I am SO EXCITED!!!  Woo hoo!  Who else is going?

I’m working feverishly on both my January ornament and Alpine Seasons.  I only have a few stitches left in each and will be posting updates this weekend.

Eat Pray Love Recipient…

Only one person was interested in Eat Pray Love, so Danielle…. please go to the About Me page and you can e-mail me your address from there.

I have zero stitching progress to share snce my last post… its just been a busy week.

On a stitchy note though, I’ve found a new designer I like – I initially noticed Blue Ribbons Designs because I was drawn to her ornaments in my recent search for 12 ornament patterns. I went to her page, downloaded two more freebie ornaments and started perusing her different designs. So cute!  I’m also watching Vonna’s progress on Peppermint Twist, a Blue Ribbons Design pattern.

The snow is disgusting… it just keeps coming!  I felt especially loved by a couple of coworkers who cleaned off my car Friday…  It made my whole day to walk out of work and find my car ready to get in and drive.  🙂  I’ll have to find a way to pay back the favor… 

I’m off to maybe stitch for an hour before bed time!

Lotsa White Stuff

It started snowing on Friday afternoon, snowed all day Saturday, and snowed lightly on and off today….  here’s the patio status:

Due to cold miserable weather, I spent a lot of time indoors and interestingly enough the only thing in my needle was NPI 991bb (white)…. here’s the white added to Alpine Seasons:

Unfortunately for me and others who live in my area, there’s another winter storm warning in effect for early next week – with potential for white out conditions. Temperature are predicted to plummet below zero… I predict more thermostat wars with the guy I share an office with…. fortunately I have a space heater under my desk…

My reading has suffered horribly over the last year… I finally just finished a book that I started in SEPTEMBER. I normally read a little before bed, which makes progress through books slow. Anyway, I just finished reading Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. It was good, and funny enough that I LOLed while reading… it was given to me by a friend and now I’m ready to pass it on…. Sooo, if you’re interested in receiving my copy, leave a comment and I’ll do a drawing on Wednesday (Jan 14).

This weekend I picked up a copy of Twilight by Stephenie Meyer…. I wasn’t really interested in this series until I heard that two of my closest friends have read the series and liked them… I was looking for something not-too-challenging to read, that would suck me in, and this seems to be fitting the bill so far. 🙂

I hope all of you are getting lots of stitching done… as it says on the lovely pincusion next to my stitching spot, “Count Your Blessings Cross Your Stitches.”

2009 Chistmas Ornaments

In my last post, Melissa asked which ornaments I had planned for 2009….  here’s the list so far, in no particular order.  These are all from Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament Magazines:

• Brittercup – Britty Christmas Kitty (JCS 2005)
• Just Nan – A Little Joy (JCS 2002)
• The Prairie Schooler – Snowy Night (JCS 2008)
• Erica Michaels Designs – Noel Pinkeep (2008)
• Blue Ribbon Designs – Glad Tidings (JCS 2008)
• Rosie & Co – Stars in the Pines (JCS 2003)
• Patricia Ann Designs – Noel (JCS 2005)
• Brittercup Designs – Poinsettia (JCS 2007)
• Little House Needleworks – Snow Bunnies (JCS 2007)
• Country Cottage Needlworks – Winters Eve (JCS 2006)
• Mill Hill Tiny Treasured Diamonds – Poinsettia

That’s  total of 10 11 (edited to add Mill Hill Ornament), and I had kind of thought about doing one per month… If I actually finish these in October, I’ll find a couple more to do at the end of  the year…  My goal includes stitching these, but not necessarily finishing them right away, unless I feel like it. :-p  Since these are all for my tree or for exchanging, I’ll have to plan an ornamentification weekend sometime in  November. 

I think Britty Christmas Kitty will be first….

Alpine Seasons Progress and Some Goals

I’ve been stitching exclusively on Chatelaine’s Alpine Seasons since last week and am having fun with it.  I’ve been working my way through the mountains and trees in the upper left hand corner and here’s how it looks so far:

I have a goal of finishing up this section before I work on anything else….  At that point I’ll decide if I want to work on more borders in another quadrant or move onto another piece.  I really only have one other WIP right now, so I think something new is in order when I’m ready to move on.

A couple of days ago, I went through all of my old Just Cross Stitch Ornament issues and picked out some ornaments I’d like to do this year.  At Christmas, I wished I had more stitched ornaments on my tree, so have toyed with the idea of doing an ornament a month in 2009.  I came up with 7 and made up a list of supplies I’d need and headed off to House of Stitches on Saturday morning and had a very sucessful trip!  I found everything I needed, got a piece of fabric for Chatelaine’s Alhambra, some pretty gingham linen (called for in one of the ornaments), two JCS ornament issues that I didn’t have, and Mill Hill diamond ornament.  When I got to the checkout, I ended up spending less than I’d estimated, AND received these great “customer appreciation” gifts.  The ruler is magnetic.  They are so cute:

Last night I ran across Victoria Sampler’s January/February newsletter and saw that Thea has released the most BEAUTIFUL, HUGE sampler, called Heirloom Stitching Sampler… It’s her 100th publication and this sampler is a full 31″ long!!  It has almost 40 different specialty stitches!  I absolutely love it and just know that I’ll have to stitch it at some point.

In the meantime, I’m trying to be patient while I wait for details for the Nashua Celebration of Needlework!

Thanks for visiting and thank you for all of the comments that you leave… I love reading them