Two Hands are Better than One

Look at this gorgeous lady!!! I am so thrilled with all the work I have done so far! I really feel like I’m in the home stretch but I know it will be a while before it’s all complete. She now has two hands and I am just mesmerized by the movement in the skirt! Can’t you just feel the warm wind and smell the cherry blossoms just by looking at it! I’m so in love! Check out the second flower; I haven’t done the back stitching for it yet. Can you see the difference in the two? The one without the backstitching looks so two dimensional whereas the other one just pops!!! I love it! I love it! I LOVE IT!!!

Flower in Random Places and Hockey Pucks No More

Check out my progress with Elegance of the Orient! Just gorgeous in my opinion! LOL! The shawl is over half complete with the majority of its back stitching done and now I’m working my way down the skirt. The flower on the kimono looks absolutely amazing! There are only two flowers on this and I’m kind of wondering about the positioning of this one! LOL! It seems to be in a rather interesting spot! LOL! It’s been quite cold and snowy recently (it’s -30 outside with the wind chill and it’s so cold that the salt they put on the roads isn’t working! I didn’t even know that could happen!!!) And so a lot of my time is spent indoors with my many projects and I couldn’t be happier! I’m already looking through my stash and trying to decide what to do next! LOL!



I was at my Mom’s house yesterday and she was teaching me how to make bread. Everyone says how easy bread is but every time I make try it turns out like little hockey pucks! I made a loaf the other day and my husband asked when the football game was going to begin with the squirrels! Cheeky Bugger!!! Well, I am happy to report that with my Mom’s help I was able to make two quite tasty loaves! I now know what it’s meant to look like at all the different stages and so hopefully I can do it on my own. (What would we do without our Mommys!?) Hopefully soon I won’t be so domestically inept! LOL!

Sweaters, and Stitching, and Lists, OH MY!!!

At long last here is a picture of my lovely white sweater:



It’s she lovely!!! I just adore this sweater and it’s SOOOO warm! LOL! I think it will be my new tobogganing sweater! I wonder what I should knit next… I really need a pair of gloves or mittens and maybe a cute hat to match! I’ll have to go through the patterns that are saved on my computer and see what tickles my fancy next. FYI: I get all my patterns off the free database on the wool websites (Patons, Bernat, etc.)

And, here is an update for my Elegance of the Orient:



She’s coming along so nicely now. I’ve been working on the other side of the shawl and I can’t wait to work on the backstitching for it because it changes the whole look of the project. I really do love Dimensions products because of the detail they provide with the backstitching. I love my Lissandrea too but when I work on her I really miss the precision that my Elegance of the Orient has in its detail.

I just realized that I never did a list of New Year’s Resolutions with you. I usually make resolutions and I’ve usually gotten sick of them by about January 2nd. Do you make resolutions? Do you keep them? How do you do it?! Anyway, here is my list of resolutions for this beautiful year of 2009:

1)Finish all outstanding cross stitch projects
2)Finish outstanding projects around the house (i.e. Painting walls, moving furniture, hanging pictures, organizing kitchen and closets, etc.)
3)Work on reading through Harold Bloom’s western canon
4)Lose the 30 lbs of “Happy Fat” that I found when my hubby and I met a few years ago!
5)Earn $1 million dollars….LOL!


Wish me luck with that list!!!

Merry Christmas

I hope everyone had a great Christmas this year! I definitely did!!! My husband and I joined my parents at church to do something completely different this year. We helped to cook a meal for a group of people that would otherwise be alone that day. We had about 40 people there and it was so nice to meet all those new friends! Santa showed up with gifts for the kids! The kids were thrilled to bits because they thought Santa had missed their house in the morning...but little did they know that he was going to make a special visit at dinner time!!! I really had a great time this year and am looking forward to doing it again next year. The best part was that I didn't have to clean the house from top to bottom!!! LOL!

I didn't get my sweater done but I'm hoping it will be complete for New Year's day...it's lucky to wear something new that day! LOL!!!! Yep, I'm superstitious too!!!

It snowed like crazy up here last weekend. We got 40 cm in about 2 days! Here's a picture of it coming down from out the back of our house:



Needless to say, I hibernated last weekend and it was lovely!!! I picked up my Elegance of the Orient cross stitch and it was sooo nice to work on her again. I'm sure you know what I mean...it's like putting on comfy old shoes or something! Here's a pic of my progress:



I also got a lot of reading done while hibernating. I finished The Thirteenth Tale (soooooo good!!!!) and today I finished The Birth of Venus.



I wasn't expecting this book to be as carnal as it was but I suppose in hindsight I should have realized that with a title like The Birth of Venus it would end up that way. However, I love historical fiction and this was a great read.

She's Alive!!!!

I have made great progress on my Elegance of the Orient piece!!! She has a head and a hand now! LOL! The head and hair took ages to complete! There is SO much detail in her hair. I had to make a slight alteration to the pattern. The blue lazy daisies were meant to be double lazy daisies but every time I tried to make them work they looked ridiculous. I made three attempts and unpicked each of them. The double lazy daisies would either look like fat lines (I was also using three strands of floss) or they would untwist themselves in the hole?! In the end I decided on single lazy daisies and I think they look lovely too! Here's a picture of my progress:



Also, I organized all of the floss for my Lissandrea project. I was terrified that the little sleeves on the skeins would fall off before I got to the project and then I would not know what color they were. So I made my own little do-dads to put them on and away I went! I reached a small snag though. My fabric is too small! I bought 15x18 22 ct. fabric. The pattern, according to every fabric calculator I can find, is meant to be 12x16 on that fabric ... but it's NOT. I knew it would be a little tight only having an inch on either side but I thought it could still work. However, after counting it out (a few times) the pattern is actually 12x17 on that fabric and so it is just not going to work! I can't have a 1/2 inch at the top and bottom!!! So today's task is to go and get the right fabric so I can start her! Also, I think I am going to go from 22 ct. to 18 ct. I tried out my first 10x10 block of the pattern to see what it would look like and my crosses look too mashed together and uneven because I'm using two strands and the weave is too tight. I think I will prefer it on 18 ct. This one is a learning curve for me! LOL!

At Veronica's Stitching Vault she does a "floss toss" where she lays all the colors on the fabric to see how it all works together. I had never heard of this before and think it's marvelous! I attempted to do my own floss toss but there were too many skeins to fit and so I did it on my carpet instead! :) This is every color (except one) that I will need for my project. I only bought one skein of each even though the pattern calls for more in some cases but I'll get those as they become necessary. Can you tell why the woman behind me at the store had a conniption fit waiting for all those to be individually rung through!!!



Finally I shall leave you with some pictures from my garden:



This is a lily my Mom got for me and it has just bloomed for the first time!



This is a hydrangea that was a gift from my neighbours when I opened my store. I put it into the ground last year looking very dead and crossed my fingers that it would come back. It's very happy this year and growing like a weed! When it was given to me it was blue and now it's pink...that's an interesting trick! I understand it has something to do with the acidity in the soil. I hope it stays pink because when it was blue it didn't really work in my garden but now it does perfectly!



And last but not least, is this little one. I think it is lovely but have NO idea what it is! My Mom got it for me and I am very grateful but seriously...what is it? If anyone knows please send me a note.

I can't believe the amount of people who commented on my last post! You all are lovely and your own blogs are all filled with such beautiful work! Thanks for making me smile with all of your kind words!

Nearly Headless Nikki

As promised, here is a picture of my progress! I am so proud of this one and am loving stitching it! Please take note of all the back stitching in gold metallic thread along the shawl (grumble). Also, of the lazy daisies that you can barely see on the shawl but that took FOREVER to complete (They are good practice because in her hair the pattern calls for double lazy daisies...never done those before...) Next, please notice the magenta cording along the cuffs and collar instead of generic back stitching. I love the way the cording makes the piece more three dimensional! And finally, PLEASE take note of the corded belt! That was a labour of love!!! The directions seemed simple enough: make the cording without a needle, loop the pieces to create a knot,and tack it all to the piece in the desired place. No problem! Sounds easy enough! Next, wrap one strand of magenta around the ends of the cording and draw it through the fabric so that you can tack it to the back and finish it off. Aahhh, here is the problem!!! This is 18ct. fabric that has already been stitched and so 10 strands of corded thread does NOT easily draw through the fabric to be tacked! GRUMBLE!!! I broke three needles and bent another two trying to do this and at one point I thought I was going to break a hole on the fabric! It really was a labour of love. My husband giggled at me trying to make it work and I scowled back at him! LOL! But it's done and I think it was worth it because it looks GORGEOUS!!!!

Baby Birds and Old Friends

I'm going to start by showing you pictures of our new baby birds! They are adorable and I'm so glad that they are FINALLY starting to look like real birds and less like furry caterpillars!!! Hopefully in a few days they will start venturing out of the nest. I hear that's a very cute stage. While they're learning to fly they look a little drunk because they can't quite aim correctly to land on a perch and so they miss and fall a lot...kind of like kids learning to walk: it takes some practice!!!



Above are Aurora and Finnegan's babies. I'm not sure how old they are because I didn't keep track of their birthdays but they are a few days older than Barbie and Merlin's babies. (below)



So I need a little help from everyone...You can't tell the gender of the bird until they have their first molt in a couple months. So I need some help on unisex names for these little ones. My ideas so far are Petry (from The Land Before Time...remember..."Petry fly?" "No Petry fall..." so cute!), and maybe Omega and Delta, but I'm not too keen on the last two so I need some help! I've got seven babies and only ONE name!

Wow, that was a tangent...back to stitching!

I wrote to the kind people at Dimensions and asked them for the remaining floss that I need to complete my Oriental Fan project but I haven't received anything yet. So that one's on the back burner for a while. HOWEVER, I have started back with The Elegance of the Orient!!! I love this pattern and was jumping up and down when I got it back out again! It was like visiting with an old friend! This one's a little more difficult because it's on 18 ct. instead of the 14 ct. that the previous was on....my eyes are feeling the difference! LOL! Well, here's my progress so far.

Rainy Day Musings and Fights with the Cat

It's a rainy day here and I LOVE IT!!! I think the universe sends you dreadful weather to force you to have a lazy day! I walked over to the grocery store to grab some bits for dinner. I had to walk because I lent my car to my Dad. His is on the way out of this world and I work from home and don't really need mine. So, he's borrowing it indefinitely. I'm actually really enjoying walking everywhere!

When I came back I realized that I had forgotten to put my cross stitch away. My cat was asleep on it!!! He woke up and continued to clean the dirt off his paws! I've been spot cleaning paw marks out of it for the last hour. It's my own fault for leaving it on the couch! Lesson learned though!!!

I realized that I never posted pictures of what my projects will eventually look like. You can basically tell what Oriental Fan will look like but here is what Elegance of the Orient will look like when completed:



I also mentioned a few posts ago about the pattern that I got in the mail. It is a Mystic Stitch design and she is called Lissandrea:



I think she is absolutely stunning! I have NO idea where I'm going to put her when she's done because she really doesn't fit in with the rest of the house but I'll deal with that one later!

Dimensions Came Through!!!

I am so thrilled! This week Dimensions sent me a replacement copy of the Elegance of the Orient pattern that was thrown out while I was in hospital. I am so excited to start working on this project again. But that's not all my good news! I also received a new pattern for a project called Lissandrea. I have been ogling over this piece for ages and now that I have it I can't wait to get started on it.

Now, this is where I have to exercise a bit of self restraint. In the past, I have tried to work on more than one project at a time. This doesn't work very well for me. I find I start confusing symbols in my head and stitching with the wrong colors! (Very frustrating!) Either that or I am simple spreading myself too thin and I don't see much improvement on any of my projects and then I get discouraged.

So, for the time being I will just have to be a good girl and do one thing at a time. I will finish my Oriental Fan, then move on to Elegance of the Orient, and then do Lissandrea. This way I can get very excited about the next project that is coming up and that excitement will be the inertia I need to work hard on the project at hand! I hope...

Elegance of the Orient

April 27, 2008

This is called Elengance of the Orient. It is the second (Jewels of the Orient being the first) of a series of three that I am trying to complete for my home. This is also the first time that I have used stretch bars for my work and am really enjoying it. My stitches are normally pretty even and so the Aida doesn't get too warped but the stretch bars really make it stupid-proof!

I went in to the hospital on April 29, 2008 for heart surgery and I brought this to work on. While I was asleep someone threw out my pattern because they thought it was GARBAGE!!! I am so crestfallen over this! I have contacted Dimensions (the company who make the kit) and have asked for a new pattern because I don't really want to purchase a whole new kit. I am waiting to hear back from them but neadless to say this project has been put on hold indefinately...