A small finish

I finished the Mill Hill Love Halloween ornament that I was working on, and it turned out very nicely (even if the picture is a bit blurry!):

It makes a nice addition to my little Halloween tree. :)

There is still a lot of weeding to do in the yard, but I also have to get this model done; I've made some good progress on it over the past couple of days, so hopefully the momentum will carry forward.

I still have two models turned in that haven't been released, yet, but here's a picture of one that's out now, called "The Garden Flowers":

A bit of fun back story on this one: originally, the black squares all around the edge just had four Algerian Eyelets inside. This left a single square in the middle, and of course, being a fan of bling (and symmetry), I thought it would be nice to have a bead there. So I mentioned it to Karen, and she agreed, so that is my small contribution to this design! ;)

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

More garage sale treasures

Okay, I confess, I went back to the garage sale I mentioned in my previous post, but really, I HAD to go back! No, really, I did; one of the kitted projects that I bought turned out to be already completely stitched, with the stitcher's initials and the date on it. So I took it back to the woman's daughters, and they were so happy to have it back, as they kept all of their mom's finished work (this one slipped through) to distribute among the family as treasured keepsakes.

So, since I was already there, I decided to go through the individual patterns that I hadn't taken the time to look through the previous day. Perhaps as a small cosmic reward for my good deed, I found a pattern that I have coveted for quite some time, Michael Jolly's "Little Women":

It is in perfect condition; I have seen this go for $30-$40 on eBay, and I was rewarded for waiting by finally getting it for $1!

I also found five Judith Kirby Victorians for $1 each, including one of her Halloween houses:

Just had to share a bit more of my treasured finds; hope everyone has a terrific stitchy week!

Too tired to stitch?!

As previously mentioned, I have been spending a few hours each day trying to get our landscaping back into shape after a couple of years of neglect. It's funny, because for the first few years after we moved in, all of the plants were so little that I could get all the work done in a day; not so after 10+ years of growth!

A few days ago, I finally finished trimming back most of the plants, except for several on the west side of the house. Here is the reason I have to wait to trim those:

I don't want to scare mommy (to-be?) away!

So, I then spent two days scraping moss from between the bricks on our patio, and then filling in the cracks with paver joint sand; between the scraping and the sweeping I ended up with some blisters, so now I am taking a few days off before I tackle the weeding that needs to be done all around the landscaping beds.

I am a bit embarrassed to admit that I haven't picked up the model for over a week, now. I'm just so tired by the end of the day, I can't concentrate on such a big piece. I have spent a little time on a Mill Hill ornament, which I'll take a picture of once it's finished.

However, I do have a bit of stitchy news: yesterday I went to a garage sale held by the daughters of a stitcher, and it was like a true treasure hunt! I won't list everything I found, but I did want to share a picture of a very pretty Santa kit that I bought:

But my most prized acquisition was this wooden DMC floss cabinet, fairly filled with Anchor floss, all for $25:

I am currently trying to stop myself from going back over there today, as I did enough damage to my wallet yesterday! ;D

I'll leave you with a sweet picture of my little Callie O'Malley, catching a bit of morning sun:

Hope everyone has a great stitchy weekend!

Another goody from the Mirabilia Minion retreat

During the retreat, Nora allowed us a glimpse into her designing process while she created a pattern for the attendees. She couldn't quite finish it up by the end of the weekend, so the chart wasn't mailed out until the end of last week. I received it this past Monday, and just HAD to stitch it right away to see how it would look--not having a chart picture was kind of neat, as I could see it come to life bit by bit. Here is the finished piece:

It's a beautiful reminder of a terrific weekend!

I've been a bit bad, as I should be working on the model, but between spending hours every day trying to get my landscaping back in shape and then working on this design, I haven't touched it this week. Yesterday I must have spent a little too much time outside in the yard, as I actually ended up with sunburn on my arms; looks really good with my white, glove-protected hands!

Hope everyone has a great stitchy weekend!

Awesome Mirabilia Minions retreat!

The Mira Minions retreat in Greenville, SC was a huge success, due mainly to Leslie LaFleur's hard work getting it all set up. It is hard to believe that this was her first attempt at organizing a retreat, especially one with 50+ people attending, because it went flawlessly; Leslie, you rock!

Here are some group shots (I'm in the black T-shirt in the front row):

In the second picture, Nora Corbett is seated in the chair. After we took that one, we cracked her up by treating her as all devoted minions should, by bowing before her:

As you can probably tell, this was really an amazing group of fun women, and it went by way too quickly!

Here's a pic of the goody bag contents (the 6" Qsnaps and cover were my door prize):

Leslie, as well as being the event organizer, also has her own hand-dyed fabric business, Under the Sea Fabrics, and below are three of her gorgeous fabrics that I came home with (as well as two of her Swarovski crystal needle minders, which aren't in the picture):

Meeting Nora was absolutely amazing, and finding out that she's funny and down-to-earth was even better. She also brought some of her paintings to sell, and I was lucky enough to nab the one shown below (which is the WORST picture of me, EVER!!):

And she signed one of my stitching journals, on one of my favorite Mirabilias that I've stitched, Caring Wings:

Nora also spent part of the retreat designing a chart for the attendees, which is now finished and will be mailed out to us in the next week, or so; I can't wait to get it!

I am a bit ashamed to admit that I did very little actual stitching at the retreat, as it was just so much fun talking to others who share my obsession for stitching and Mirabilia designs. I did spend a little time with both Charlotte and Silver Moon Tea:

Leslie has already set the date for next year's retreat, which will be April 18-20, 2014, location to be determined at a later date. I enjoyed this one so much, that I definitely want to attend the next one, and will be looking forward to it all year!

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Sad day

Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while will remember that my mom's four cats came to live with me after my mom became ill. Cricket stayed for about five months, until my mom was able to get an apartment; Mai Ling and Keishu stayed for about 15 months, until Mom was able to move back into her house; and Sabrina is still here, because she had just been taken in by my mom about a week before she got sick, and never had time to get used to living at Mom's house.

Yesterday, Mai Ling crossed the Rainbow Bridge. She was a beautiful girl, with gorgeous, sapphire-blue eyes and a purr as loud as any I've ever heard, and she will be missed. She and her "sister", Keishu, were constant companions in my craft room while they lived here; here is a picture of them in the chair behind my stitching chair (Mai Ling is on the left):

It is so hard to lose beloved pets, but the love they bring during their lives is so worth it. It was almost like Sabrina wanted to make me feel better while I was crying yesterday, and she started rolling around on the floor, looking exceptionally cute:

And it helped, because who could not smile at that big ball of fluff?

On the stitchy front, I have another update on Blue Jeans and Daisies:

I have added an extension onto my Qsnaps, and am getting closer to being done with part 1.

And for some happy news, I will be heading out to the Mira Minion Retreat this Friday! Guess I'd better start figuring out what project I'm going to bring. Stay tuned for a full report sometime next week!

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Mira Minions retreat is getting close!

Since the retreat is now less than two weeks away, I decided that I'd better get my name tag finished off into an actual tag. While my finishing skills do leave a lot of room for improvement, I'm actually pretty happy with the result:

Here's the back:

And here's what I'll be wearing to the retreat:

Hmm, I wonder if anyone can tell that I'm excited? ;D

I'm still plugging away on the model, and I have no update on Blue Jeans & Daisies because my off-time this week was spent on the name tag finishing. However, I do have one nice stitchy picture to share:

I ordered these two charts from the A Mon Ami Pierre website on April 4th, and received them today--and they came all the way from France! Jackye also included a very pretty freebie chart; I would definitely recommend dealing with her directly, instead of going through US distributors. Even with postage from France, I paid less than I would have if I had ordered through ABC Stitch Therapy, who carries her designs.

In non-stitchy news, another sign of spring here in NE Wisconsin is that there must be a cardinal nest very near to our house. For the past week, or so, a female cardinal has been attacking her reflection in our living room and bedroom windows. When I Googled this behavior, it said that she is protecting her nest, and that this might go on for some time (probably until she knocks herself silly one too many times!).

Our cats, of course, are really enjoying the show, as evidenced by these pictures of Gracie:

Hope everyone is having a great stitchy week!