A finish for Tailor

A bit over a week ago, I found out that my furbaby Tailor has hyperthyroidism, and today I'm taking her to the internist to discuss our options. After reading about the condition, I was pretty upset, and to top it off I got a nasty cold, so I haven't gotten much stitching done. When I did start to feel better, I decided to start Nora Corbett's "Red Kitten" as a way to take my mind off my worry; I imagined myself holding Tailor as I stitched it:

During part of the time, Tailor sat on the ottoman next to me, so I will always think of her when I see this piece. Here's a picture of my baby:

I also see her when I look at my finished "It's Mine" by A Mon Ami Pierre:

I've had three all-black cats, and probably have 50 charts of black cats in my stash!

Hope everyone is having a great stitchy week!

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!