Crazy Challenge Day 11

Oooh!  We're counting down the final days of this challenge, tick-tock!  Also I'm running out of projects to pick from!

Gone Fishing by Jane Greenoff

Stitched on Mystery Fabric

Stitched with DMC

Tonight's new start was Jane Greenoff's Gone Fishing.  It was a little chart and thread kit a friend sent me years ago and had to meant to start it... years ago LOL!  So I'm using a random fabric for this piece, I couldn't tell you what it is just "mystery fabric" as I like to call it.  I think this is going to stitch up quickly as I got quite a bit done of this salmon with distracted stitching (this means I alternate between stitching, reading blogs and playing silly games!  Todd's an obsessed fisherman (like I don't understand obsession...not) so this little Salmon is for him.

I decided tonight to join in on the WIPocalypse fun over at Mesai's Blog!  Since the full moon was two days ago, I'll post my update tomorrow... of course a lot of my WIPocalypse list is going to look quite familiar!!!  Oh my all these SALs and Challenges what a fun year this is going to be!

Crazy Challenge Day 10

Another quick, fly-by post... late and time for bed!

JBW French Country Scaredy Cats

Stitched on 32ct Jungle Boogie Opalescent Fabric from Silkweavers

Stitched with DMC 310 and 4124

Today's new start was JBW's French Country Scaredy Cats.  The chart calls for either stitching the letters in dark orange with medium orange cats or, in all black.  Well I'm not a normal girl, so I went for this great dynamic combination!  The colours are a little dark in this picture it was either a dark picture or washed out colours.  It'll be better in a daylight shot... not just before midnight!  What a fun fabric (its sparklie!!!) with a fun colour... and well of course black cats, its like stitching lots of little Hutners!

Crazy Challenge Day 9

Just the briefest of entries for Day 9 Of the Crazy Challenge, we're nearing the end of this... only 6 more new starts to go!

It was  a full day today, first day back at work after the holidays and on top of that I was teaching at Taekwon-Do tonight.  So I had only an hour (if that) of stitchign time after I got home, had a shower a snack and a cup of tea.

Snow White from Little House Needleworks

Stitched on Navy Blue 28ct Lugana

Stitched with DMC B5200 (booyeah love this white it rocks!)

Today's start (and a poor one at that) was by Little House Needleworks... which I swore I would never own one of ther charts that it just wasn't my taste.  I do have a weakness for monochromatic designs if you haven't noticed and this one jumped into my hands and came home with me sometime last year.  So may I present to you Little House Needleworks Snow White.  Please excuse the very poor picutre, the colours aren't right and the white is blown out, but I'm too tired to go try to shoot it any better!




I want to say a HUGE THANK YOU to all the fantastic comments I've received in the past 24 hours!  Its been overwhelming!  Its a true sign of how much you all support me and the life of this blog!  I was surprised by how many of you clued into the fact that my blog was gone (for a short while thank goodness!) and that you persisted and came back when it turned out to be only temporary.  Its going to take me awhile but I will eventually visit you all back at your blogs and leave lovely comments (who dosen't love comments?)  The Stitching/Crafting Blogging Community is just an amazing group of people who to me aren't just names but faces, and personalities too!  I hope in the coming months and years I'll get to meet more of you in person, I have been lucky to meet some of you and treasure each in person meeting!  I also appreciate the time people have taken to meet me when I've been in their neck of the woods and made a day or a trip very special!

Crazy Challenge Day 8

Sadly I won't be able to dedicate as much time as I'd like to stitching.  Its time to get back to the real world, and things are going to be busy this month!  I'm sure I'll find the odd moment of sanity here and there through stitching.

Eat, Sleep, Stitch

c2010 Cherrywood Design Studios

Stitched on : 28ct African Daisy Joblean

Stitched with : DMC floss

When I finally did pick up my stitching on Sunday I felt more like finishing something instead of starting a new project (which I did, just in the evening).  Eat, Sleep, Stitch was just a few short hours away from Happy Dance status, so I decided to focus on that first.  I am proud to share with you my first finish of 2012!

As you can see, I was a little challenged in the measurement department when I started this... heck I didn't measure, I just started.  Pretty close to the edge eh?

Polar Friends - Day

Stitcher's Habit

Stitched on 32ct Ocean Fantasy Linen from Silkweavers

Later in the evening I stated my project for this Day 8 of the Crazy Challenge.  It was another small one, Polar Friends - Day, I started night earlier in the week.  This pair is a pleasure to stitch.

Yesterday afternoon, it was Zeus's turn to find a lovely patch in the sunshine.  Very pretty!

Finally on Saturday our replacement treadmill was delivered, and Todd put it together on Sunday morning.  I took it for its inaugural run that evening.  I have to say after a month of not running, plus having a remnant of my cold boy, my cardio, endurance, and speed were all GONE!  How frustrating.  It took me quite a bit of effort to put in about 15 minutes, and I had to do it in a run/walk.  Prior to this whole circus I was running for on average 20 minutes on the treadmill at 5.7... today 5.4 was challenging.  Oh boy... I've got a lot to get back.  There's work to do before my first race in May (Ottawa Race Weekend 10K).

I use the Nike+ GPS app when I run and I got this neat little re-cap of my running year.  I'm quite happy with these results!  I guess I should aim for 500 KM this year?????

It Was Almost Curtains For This Blog!!!

I've been having a lazy day today and the stitching mojo hasn't been there I've spent a few hours online reading a bunch of your blogs!  My personal philosophy is leave me a comment... and I'll give you a return visit!  Except for my very best friends who also blog, they get regular visits.  There are just so many blogs out there and not enough of me to get around!

Anyhow I was leaving a comment on a blog, when blogger suddenly asked me to re-enter my password.  I thought that was odd.  Suddenly it was telling me my account had been disabled.  WTF?

I managed to get in with requesting a verification code, and my heart jumped into my throat!  My blog... all my blogs were GONE!  The only thing listed in my dashboard was the group blog I'm in and I didn't start that.

I checked my URL, I was told the blog was not there.  WTF???  WTF???  This September would be my 9th blogiversary, that's 9 years of my stitching, my life, sharing with you GONE.  I was panicked and upset!

I scrambled around Blogger trying to find an e-mail address to contact them or a form I could fill in, nothing existed.  I was getting ready to post in their hope forum, brought up my blog URL again so I would have the exact message to add to my post.


Suddenly it was BACK!

If I had to, I would of fought to get my content back.  Worst case scenario I would of started over, I wouldn't walk away from the blogging community, this wonderful community of stitching, crafting, etc. bloggers!

Thank you so much for being my readers and keeping me going!

I think I've pushed my online luck enough today I'm going to finally go stitch (at 2 in the afternoon!)

Crazy Challenge Day 7 or The Day I Conquered The Frogs!

First of all I'd like to retract a previous statement I may have made, that griding was a waste of perfectly good stitching time.  Well in my opinion it always was, I mean if you count and count carefully, double check yourself against your other stitches technically you don't need to grid.  Boy did the outlines on the Ink Circles Seasonal Mandalas taught me otherwise!  I had frogs so many times that I finally gave in and pull out the thread I bought for griding years ago (and never used) and started griding.  Honestly that griding saved my life, saved my sanity!  The last two seasons went off without a hitch once I had my grids in place.

So here we are!  All four seasons, outlined!!!  Once this Crazy Challenge is done and I've finished Enchantment of Winter (which has had no love for a week now!) this will be my next focus piece starting with Winter.

Last night when I wrapped up my outline, it wasn't quite bedtime yet so I whipped out Eat, Sleep, Stitch and gave it a little more love, got a few more letters done.  I think I may take the time to wrap this one up today before I start my day 8 project.

Yesterday, late in the afternoon I went into the kitchen, and looked out into my backyard.  The weather had been a mixed bag, a little bit of rain, overcast, moments of sunshine, etc.  It seemed almost magical when I looked outside and saw the sunshine touching only the willow tree and nothing else.

On March 20, 2010 the PhotoHunt theme was "three"

Three stitching ladies with three new stitching bags... we all match and if you look closely we're in alphabetical order!

Photo Hunt & Crazy Challenge Day 6

First up, its PhotoHunt day (for real) and today's theme is "Bling".  It was a bit tricky to find the right shot, in the end this is what stood out the most.

This image isn't "bling-y" itself, but this mosaic certainly depicts bling.  This is one of the mosaics on the floor of the Cathedral at St. Anne-de-Beaupre just outside of Quebec City.  Why it was there, and exactly what it represents I'm not sure.  However, a treasure chest full of gold and money certainly is bling.

Ink Circles Seasonal Mandalas - Winter, Spring, Summer

40ct Linen

Summer

Yesterday for day six of the Crazy Challenge I started Summer on my Ink Circles Seasonal Mandalas, with the fabric already gridded and ready to go!  What a different that made, I didn't make one mistake or counting error!  I'll definitely be continuing the griding on for my last season, Autumn.

 JBW French Country Bear for Chelsey

 Me & Chelsey this September

JBW French Country Bear for Logan

Logan with "SantaBlaskie" in December

Not only did I stitch yesterday, but I did some framing.  I finally picked up a couple of ready-made frames at Michael's earlier this week.  Yesterday I took the time to stretch and pop these pieces into their new frames and they look great!