May ORT Report

My ORT jar for the last moon. I've been stitching like a fiend! So many of these ORTs were travel-saved...carefully preserved to place in the jar when I arrived back to my stitching desk. The weather has been perfect for outdoor stitching and when I get the chance I plant my rear!

As always, TUSALers leaving a comment here receive an extra entry in the giveaway at the end! Happy New Moon everyone!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

And The Winner Is...

Sorry for the delay announcing the winner of the business card giveaway. Life has been absolute hell these days. I'm trying to cope but not doing a good job of it. Forgive me if I am not around much for a while...

Big congratulations to Annette who blogs at California Stitcher! Thank you to everyone that entered.

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

Business Card Giveaway

I love business cards! I have started including one with my information on it in with exchanges, RAKs and giveaways. On mine, I have my name, mailing address, email address and blog address. Isn't that a great way to keep in contact with your online friends? I'm using homemade ones now but I'm really, really looking forward to receiving some professional ones from PrintRunner very soon ~ I hear they have awesomely fast turnaround time!

Did you know you can Print online with PrintRunner?  They print business cards that look professional and expensive at an affordable rate. PrintRunner is a full service, high quality printing company located in Chatsworth, California.

I was so excited to receive this offer from PrintRunner this week. They are providing a set of 250 business cards to give away to one of my readers AND a set to me for hosting! The offer as follows:

• Prize: Business Cards
• Business Card Size and Style Business Cards - 2x3.5 (Standard)
• Quantity:  250
• Colors:    4/4 Color Both Sides
• Paper:   14 pt. UV Coating on Front, 14 pt. UV Coating on both sides,
• Proof:    NONE
• Rounded Corners:   NO

The Fine Print ~ *Giveaway is open to US Residents only, ages 18 years old and above.

If you would like to enter this giveaway, leave a comment on this post. I will need your name and email address to send to PrintRunner (if you are the winner) so be sure I have a way of contacting you.

Hurry now ~ I've found my giveaways do best if they are quick (meaning = hardly anyone enters after the first couple of days lol) so I will choose the winner next Wednesday, May 17, 2012. The actual prize gets awarded on May 31, 2012. Be aware you can only win one giveaway prize from PrintRunner in a two-month period. You can also "like them" on Facebook like I did!

The Disclaimer ~ Thank you to PrintRunner for providing us this giveaway. I will receive a set of business cards for hosting this.

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

Try, Try Again

I meant to post again last week but I kept getting sidetracked. Then, I meant to post on Sunday for WIPocalypse full moon but sat my butt on the back porch and stitched instead. This really wouldn't be a problem but circumstances prevented me from WIPocalypse last month so it's about time I make a WIPocalypse post!

Now that my traveling patterns are all finished I've been concentrating on my Prairie Schooler 12 Days of Christmas ornaments. I finished 10 Lords-a-leaping! Isn't he handsome?

Wait! He looks kinda funny. Oh no...I forgot his eye and golden buttons!

There, that's better! Hmmmmm, still looks odd. Is something missing?

Holly berries! GEE ~ Is this one done yet? How long have I been at this hobby? I think I'd better check all the other ones I've already "finished" too...

I made a really good start on number 11 as well:

Traveling Pattern? You mean the Shepherd's Bush one? Oh, heck...I nearly forgot that as well! Sorry, sorry, sorry! That is heading out to Kathy of Kathy's Sit and Stitch. Congratulations Kathy! Those of you really, really wanting to stitch this please bookmark Kathy's blog and be watching for her finish!

I'm trying to arrange a treat for you. Yes, that was cryptic, wasn't it?

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

Tweet Heart

Well, you didn't think I'd get anywhere near Tulsa on a Saturday and not visit The Silver Needle, did you? Of course, almost the second I walked through the door a few Blackbird Designs things got stuck to my hands. I couldn't get rid of the stuff and I ended up having to pay for them! Can you imagine? Then after I got home this little project kept calling my name, begging to be stitched. Chalk this one up as the miracle project...one that Daffycat stitched AND finished with 24 hours, beginning to end. This never happens!

Design ~ Tweet Hearts, Exemplar #1

Designer ~ Alma Allen of Blackbird Designs

Fabric ~ 32 count tea-stained Belfast Linen

Fiber ~ DMC

A darling project. It is from the book For My Friend. I'm fond of mildly prim finishes like this ~ very forgiving of my inexpert sewing skills! This shaped bit of sewing was somewhat a challenge to me ~ I had a little trouble catching both fabrics in the seam. Not like a square pillow, is it? I neatly covered my doofy seams with a buttonhole stitch using # 12 Perle Cotton. The green plaid fabric shown was my backing and since a sweet pinpillow needed some pretty new pins, I made four to go with. I'm just tickled with it. Be aware...99% of the credit goes to Barb and Alma for the lovely detailed finishing instructions in their books. 

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

Yet Another Traveling Pattern

Boo ~ I completely forgot about posting for Theme-a-licious yesterday! I blame it on having finishes to show and not actually showing them! Our theme for April was to work on our biggest projects. You might remember, I got drawn for three Traveling Patterns at once so I re-arranged my goal to include the Amazonian task of finishing 3 TP designs before the end of April. I'm tickled pink to say I did it!

The first Traveling Pattern, Thankful.
The second Traveling Pattern, The Busy Needle.
And presenting the third Traveling Pattern, Tending the Blooms:

Design ~ Tending the Blooms

Designer ~ Shepherd's Bush

Fabric ~ 32 count Daffycat-Dyed Belfast Linen

Fiber ~ DMC

I screwed up the row of satin stitches somewhere. I never could figure out where or what I was doing wrong. So, I shrugged my shoulders and went on. Funnily enough, life didn't end.

When Gracie sent me the Traveling Pattern she included this little RAK of wonderful goodies. Sweet counting pins, silver charms, a fun bumblebee design and the coolest vine- shaped trimming ever. Thank you Grace! I love it all!

Oh hey, you know what this means? Yup, I have to send this design on it's way to the next stitcher! If you would like to be the next to stitch this design leave a comment on this post asking to be included. I will choose someone in the next few days ~ so hurry!

Next up for Theme-a-licious is:

May Memories

Remember when you took that class? Or decided to commemorate that event? And then abandoned your poor WIP? Take a stroll down memory lane by working on it again.

I'm at a loss. I really don't have any abandoned projects, unless you count Peacock Tapestry? It's not abandoned ~ just disliked ~ lol. I have to be really "in the mood" to stitch on that ~ so not gonna happen. Maybe I will work on my Prairie Schooler 12 Days ornaments and/or my Finery of Nature instead? Or maybe something else?  I guess I will surprise you...

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

Keeping Busy

We have been a little out-of-sorts lately so Dash and I went on a little outing. We just spent a night (Friday) away from home and did a little shopping, sight-seeing and such. It was nice to get away, if only for the night. We went to the movies and saw The Raven with John Cusack, on opening night no less. We NEVER go to movies on opening night. The movie was fun and Cusack is such a solid performer. He's easy on the eyes too, lol. This movie also features Brendan Coyle of Downton Abbey fame. 

A neat surprise was the family of Bluebirds outside our hotel room window! There were four chicks (just fledged) and the parents. They hung out on this Woodpecker-hole-riddled pine tree. The babies were learning to fly and mom & dad were busy bringing them bugs. Sorry for the lousy quality, these photos were taken with my iPhone, through the window, into the sun. 

The babies kept peeking at us. 

"Can they SEE us?" They wonder.

Daddy bird wasn't happy with our stares.

"Who are you LOOKING at?," He asks.

Daddy flew off to catch bugs and baby s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-s his wings. 

"This flying business is such HARD WORK!"

We went to a town near Tulsa called Jenks, as we'd heard they have lots of antique shops to visit. We hadn't realized it was also the weekend of their annual herb festival so they were crowded like you wouldn't believe ~ but we had loads of fun. I found lots of goodies:

Jars and jars and jars of buttons. A very pretty (and tiny) clear glass flower frog. Some neat old commercial thread spools. Two jars full of old, old wooden thread spools.

A cool Needlecrafts book. This thing is HUGE. Some old leaflets, including an early Prairie Schooler. Then I also found several lots of 1980-90's cross stitch magazines. When I've gone through them I will offer my duplicates up as a giveaway, k?

Eeek!

So sorry about that! I had to include an "I live in freakin' Oklahoma" story for you. The other evening I went out to get the mail and there were hundreds of tiny spiders all over my mailbox and the planter it sits in. Oooo! Spiders kinda freak me out if there is the slightest chance they could get ON me. So I go get the bug spray and give the mailbox and the planter a good dousing. To my absolute HORROR seven (OMG 7!) huge Black Widow spiders come rushing out from between the bricks of the planter. I gave the planter another good dousing of insecticide and phoned Dash at work to tell him I'm packing up and moving to Antarctica where surely it's too cold for spiders. He convinced me to stay by promising to spray around the house inside and out. Incidentally, after he sprayed, I found another Black Widow dying on the front porch! Don't poke your hands into places you can see around my house. Just sayin'. I have found Black Widows here before but never so many at once.

Maybe I will stay here in Oklahoma. Our weather has been just lovely lately and I have spent many, many hours stitching on the back porch. Since it's usually too windy, too rainy, too cold or too hot for me to stitch outside this is quite the pleasant development. I have several things to show you but I'm going to just tease you for now! See you soon!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

A Weekend to Hermit

Ah, the one weekend each month to do nothing but stitch! It was International Hermit and Stitch Weekend and I made use of every second I could spare. Of course, one must do the laundry, dishes and take care of the gardens but for the most part, I stitched and stitched some more ~ Dash even cooked for me every meal! Yes, I know how lucky I am, girls...believe me.

So first up, I started my next Prairie Schooler "12 Days of Christmas" ornament 10 Lords a-Leaping and I made excellent progress:

Lynn, you aren't the only one with Zombie people! 

It was so hard to put this one down but I knew I had to start the next Traveling Pattern or I'd get behind. Wouldn't want anyone to think I was a flaker! Here is where I got to on that:

This is Tending the Blooms by Shepherd's Bush. I chose a very bright spring green linen I dyed a long time back. Wish you could see how pretty it is in person! However, since this is linen, it is terribly wrinkled and you can't see it in the picture but I'm weighting the edges down with my scissors and needle minder ~ lol!

I am so impressed with how much stitching I was able to do! There were some comments on my TUSAL post about how people wished they had as much time to stitch as I do. Really? Me? No way ~ I am still The Queen of Slow Stitching and don't anybody forget that! I work full time (and when I am not AT work I'm worrying about work) and I am the worlds worst about managing my time when I am home. I spend way too much time ogling blogs instead of stitching or even crashed in front of the TV because, poor me "I had a hard day." If we all actually put ourselves to it we could accomplish so much more than we do!

If you would like to join us for the next International Hermit and Stitch Weekend visit Joyce's blog for details. IHSW is the third full weekend of every month so the next one starts May 18th. Joyce usually has a sign up in advance so you can let everyone know you are "coming" that weekend.

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

TUSAL Quickie

Just a quick Totally Useless Stitch-A-Long post to show off my ORTs this New Moon. I did a lot more stitching than I thought. 

If you'd like to join us in this Totally Useless Endeavor click here and start saving your ORTs!

TUSALers leaving a comment on this post receive an extra entry in the giveaway!

***

"Do you want me to make you a pitcher of sangria?" asked Dash.  

I heard, "Are you going to make a pitcher of sangria?" 

"Yes," I said, "but I want to take a shower first."

So when I got out of the shower I made a pitcher of sangria and opened the fridge to see one already made.

Whoops!

I'm just a little tipsy. 

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox 

The Busy Needle

This was the second of the three Traveling Patterns I'm stitching. Whew ~ this means I've only got one more to go! This Traveling Pattern was started by Lynda of A Cozy Little Place for Stitching. A change up from the others ~ this one travels a set schedule ~ so now that my turn is over it has been sent on to the next in line.

Design ~ The Busy Needle

Designer ~ Little House Needleworks

Fabric ~ 32 count tea-stained Lugana

Fiber ~ DMC

Many thanks to Lynda for including me in the travels of this design. Thanks go to Shar as well, for loaning me her copy when I asked. Blog friends are the best!

Okay, one more traveling pattern to go. Stitch, girl, stitch!

Before I forget...I drew a winner for the Bird in Hand pillow ~ Deborah of Cranberry Samplings. Thank you all for playing along and I will try to have another giveaway soon!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox