SAL Progress

I started a SAL with Susan and her mom:

The chart, all kitted up, was a gift from my friend Kelly who had a GTG at her house before Thanksgiving.  Thank you Kelly!  Here’s my weekend progress:

So, I got a decent start… I actually spent most of the weekend working on cross-stitch-which-must-not-be-posted…. well, not yet anyway. 😉  Stay tuned for future pics.

Other weekend activities… I met Susan at House of Stitches Saturday morning for a little shopping and lunch…. visited Hobby Lobby and Jo-Anns for some finishing supplies, hung out with my DBF, and generally had a pretty relaxing weekend.

My cat, Mia, was just begging to have her pic taken when she sported this cute pose this afternoon:

Believe it or not, she’s pretty tiny underneath all of that fluff.  The best part of this picture is the fact that there is NO SNOW in the background… Its been a long winter and I’m so ready for spring!  … and speaking of spring….

I got an e-mail yesterday that Celebration of Needlework is expecting to have their registration form up on Tuesday! I’ve already booked my flight and reserved a hotel room!  I can’t wait!

Mini Stitching Slump

I finished my SBEBB Autumn House exchange last weekend and got it off in the mail on Tuesday.  It’s going a long long way, and I’m hoping it arrives shortly!  It’s hard for me to be happy with a finish and not be able to post it!

Anyway, I haven’t picked up any stitching since.  My evenings after work have been all about sleep and not about stitching.  I’ve been cuddling up with the pink afghan my mom made for me when I was little and taking naps on the couch just about every evening.  I just know, though, that when I pull out Where Stitchers Gather again, I’ll be hooked… that is so fun to stitch!  I should go and get it out right away…

I’ve also been looking for a couple of OOP charts.  I’m seriously searching for Margaret Sherry’s “Crafty Cat” from the June 2003 edition of Cross Stitcher (UK).  I saw this on Sharon’s blog and it looks so much like my Mia kitty that I really want to stitch it!  (Scroll down on her page and check out her very organized stitching area!)  In my search, I also came across another Margaret Sherry design called “Cuddly Cats” on a blog that came up in my google search called Cross Stitch Crazy….  totally looks like my two kitties, but you’d rarely see them in this pose…  I’ve searched google and ebay with no luck….  Of course, its not like I’m lacking things to stitch right now, but those charts are just so cute! 

Anyway, I hope to be back soon with pics of my received Autumn House exchange and some decent progress on Where Stitchers Gather….

My Cat Has a Myspace Page

I adopted my cat, Mia, about a year ago. I got her from the South Bend Animal Shelter and she was very sick with a severe upper respiratory infection. Her little nose was so stopped up that she was breathing through her mouth, not eating or drinking much, and had ulcers around her poor little mouth. Although she was quite pitiful, she was still curious and playful, and very happy to be at my house rather than the cage with a psycho kitten that seemed furious that Mia had been picked up rather than him or herself. Here she is the day I brought her home, hangin on the couch:

If you look closely, you can see how dirty her nose was from all of the sneezing that she was doing. The vet got her all fixed up and she was nice and healthy within a couple of weeks.

So, one night, I was doing some stuff on my Myspace page, and I decided that Mia needed her own myspace page…  this was mostly prompted by the exceptionally cute picture I’d just pulled off the camera:

So cute! If you’re interested in viewing her page and looking at her human, cat, and dog friends, you can click for Mia’s Myspace Page.

I actually entered Mia into Kittenwar! using the picture above, and she hasn’t won that many battles… I think I should’ve put the first picture instead. In case you’re not familiar with Kittenwar!, it’s a site where they show random pairs of kitten pictures that people have submitted, and you vote on which kitten you like best. They keep stats on all of the kittens, then there are links to the kittens who have won the highest percentage of battles. LOL… I know it sounds silly, but if you’re into cats or kitten pictures, check it out!  You can visit Mia’s Stats Page if you are so inclined.

So, Mia is all grown up now, but she hasn’t lost her fluffiness.  She now has a buddy, named Tater, who is DBF’s cat, and was adopted from Petsmart.  Pardon the glowing eyes….

Tater is quite athletic. He’s a mighty hunter and can jump to the top of my 7′ bookshelf from either the floor, or from a chair located about 3′ away. If course, once he’s up there, he likes to knock enough stuff off the top so that he can lay down and survey the living room for predators and prey. He loves to play with the various cat toys around the house while Mia lays on the couch or a chair and watches him.

So enough about my cat for now. DBF and I went to see Forgetting Sarah Marshall last night.  LINK SPOILER ALERT: I’d suggest skipping the trailer on the website if you have any desire to see the movie… it gives too much of the funny parts away (I hate it when they do that).  Anyway, we really enjoyed the movie…  it was much funnier than I expected.  We rounded out the evening with coffee and browsing at Barnes and Noble.

Today I’ve actually spend most of the day stitching!  I feel like a slug for not doing something more active, but I’ve felt quite motivated by my progress on Victoria Sampler Heirloom Family Sampler.  I’d post a progress picture, but I expect it to be finished within a day or two and will post a finish then.  I’m pondering my stash and wondering what I might work on next.  I’ve still got Chatelaine’s Alpine Seasons that needs plenty of work, but I’m thinking of starting a small to moderately sized project instead.  I have a couple of charts by M Designs… I may start the newly purchased “Winter Getaway,” or I may do the “H” Celtic letter design.  I’ve got a pretty purple and blue silk overdye that I think would be perfect.