Mayyyyynia?

Hi all! I'm back with my monthly update. I think monthly updates are working much better for me now. I tried to get it in around the 15th, but this month has been a bit crazy (aren't they all?)

Anyways, it's May[nia] and I decided to start 2 new projects! Go me! :)

First is Little House Needleworks' Gingerbread(wo)man. If you've been here for... 2 years, you'll know I made this for my husband in 2014 with plans to make one for myself as well. I'm finally getting around to starting mine! Here's my progress:

I think it's coming along nicely. I really only work on it when I don't feel like doing something that requires my Lowery. We're going back to Pittsburgh for a week soon so I'll probably bring that with me.

My first start (gingerbreadman was actually the second one, I just talked about it first) was my first MIRA! YAY!

It's Roses of Provence. I love love love the colors. My only complaint is there's a lot of color changes. I think I might learn to park for this lady... thoughts? Is she worth it? Should I keep up with my cross country stitching of her? I'm torn on it. (don't forget you can click the picture and zoom in) It's on a very light version of Rose Petals from Crafty Kitten (It was an opps I got on her facebook page several years ago).

I did find this cute little thread holder at Walmart:

It only holds her floss right now. Adorable! Do you see the 7 skeins of white for her dress?!?!

I worked a bit on my Plum Pudding:

Funny story (not really) when I took it out to work on it there was a GIANT SPIDER on it. Even though I keep it "safe" in a pillow case when I'm not working on it. SOOOOO I decided I needed a better storage thing for it, so I whipped this guy up:

It's lined in flannel (because that's all I had that was large enough). It fits my 17x17 qsnap which was the point. Hopefully no more spiders on my work. UGH. *shudders*

I barely worked on Passport:

I did added some stitches and backstitching to this freebie:

I think I might have shown this before, but it's my "current" WIPs basket. I have more that I don't consider to be UFOs but aren't "current" WIPs either.

Annnnd last but not least, y'all might remember the stitch along back in 2014 for the Frosted Pumpkin's Halloween Town? Well, I hated part 3 with the bakery so I just lost all interest. I finally recharted the bakery into a house and am making some progress:

I love the color changes (like my teal & purple houses). Do you see the cat I added?!?! I think I'm going to give him some eyes, maybe some whiskers too! I'm still figuring out the house... and there was a witch charted, but I kinda don't want to stitch her either, so it's still a work in progress ... charting as I go along!


OOOOOOOOh and I have an FFO! I know my friend doesn't read my blog so I feel like I can show this even though I haven't given it to her yet (excuse the glare at the framing shop):

I'm so pleased with how it turned out! And it was super reasonably priced. I'm kinda in love with it. I'll totally be taking more projects to this framing shop. I think they did an excellent job.

I bought some stash, butttttt what I bought is for my mom and I'm fairly sure she does read my blog, so I'm not going to spoil it! Goal is a September finish (her birthday is in Sept) but I want to finish one WIP (a decently sized one... like Halloween Town) before I work on that so it could get pushed to Christmas... not totally sure yet. I feel like I need to find some "manly" patterns and make something for my dad... any suggestions!?

How's everyone's May been? Productive I hope!

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Spring updates!

Hi all! Today is a gray and rainy day, but yesterday the sun was shining so I managed to take some decent pictures!

I guess I've been busy since my last update (the pictures tell me so) but I don't feel like I've had much stitching time. We've just been so busy! My husband is away for work this week, so last night I made dinner, did my nails, watched Mr Selfridge & stitched. Not all at the same time clearly, but I did get some more progress on Plum Pudding then you'll see below. Not a ton, but I finished another motif.

First up is The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery's Pumpkin Passport:

and slightly closer:

It's cute, but I get bored working on it. I did see someone on Facebook omit some of the busy-ness and I liked that a whole lot more, so I might do the same thing.

I can't remember how far I was on the Peacock last time, but I think I filled in a bit more of the flower since last time:

It's a Dimensions Gold kit, so there are tons of blended threads and fractional stitches. It's going to look amazing when it's done.

I also started a freebie by Durene Jones (you can find it here). I was in a spring mood, I was hoping to finish by Easter but that didn't happen.

It's super cute and Durene has so many cute free patterns. She releases new ones every Friday on her facebook. I'm stitching it over 2 on 28 ct fabric that I had in my stash. It's a pale blue.

Last but not least, Glendon Place's Plum Pudding:

My goal for this past weekend was to finish the dark purple petals in the center, which I did manage to do! It's on 28 ct antique white fabric with the called for dinky dye threads.

Now I'm going around in a circle and trying it that way. I think I should start in the middle of a pattern instead of the top left, it's more gratifying to me to see it take shape that way.

I ordered Feburary's Fabric of the Month from Crafty Kitten for my Cherries Jubilee pattern and it came this past week!!

I didn't do a floss toss (I forgot) but one of my favorite things about Crafty Kitten is that she'll do custom sizes. This is a 20 x 20" cashel linen. I think it'll look awesome.

I also received a RAK from a friend in CO (no blog though).

I love cats AND she noted that I could probably finish it in one evening which is perfect for my attention span! Oh how she knows me well. It even came with fabric and the trim!

How's everyone's spring starting? Getting lots of stitching or is it slowing down with the warmer weather?

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Threads and Halloween

I think this is going to be a shorter than average post (for me anyway). I got my threads in from Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe!

I cannot wait to try them out, as soon as I finish my current project (or this weekend...) I'm going to find a pattern to use some of them. The colors are so rich and the most wonderful thing about them is that they are in 20 yard skeins. There's a ton of every color. I think I'm going to need all of the colors that she makes.... Nancy also included two freebie skeins which was so nice and generous. I highly recommend her shop!

I also ordered a Halloween colored finishing pack from here:

I'm pretty excited about these! I have at least 3 things to use this on right now. I also think I'm going to get some of her other bundles. She included a bag of brown buttons for free too! She's such a sweet lady. :)

And here's my progress on the Happy Halloween by Silver Creek Samplers that I'm making:

I managed to finish the N last night. I haven't started adding in any of the colors yet, but I'm itching to put in the pumpkin jack o'lantern on top of the N though, so I might do that tonight.

I'm not sure what I'm going to go work on after this. I'm starting to get into the Christmas stitching mode, not Christmas decorating or anything. I made a list and I have 4 babies to make ornaments for and 2 sets of parents plus my cousin. AND I was planning to make a gingerbread ornament for myself like I made my husband... Anyone else stitch gifts for Christmas?

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Halloween Town Start

Hi everyone! I have started the Frosted Pumpkin's Mysterious Halloween Town and never realized how slow I'd feel after joining instagram (brendaxstitchhaven). So many people are such fast stitchers, and have so much time on their hands! I have a full time job and husband and we were unusually busy this weekend.

Here's where I'm at so far:





Reasons I'm not further along number one, we were looking after a friends cats (she has three):

Look at that face! You just have to hang out with them and pet them. :)

Two & three: We went to my husband's cousins' gradation party (where I took my stitching) and we went to a special event at our local movie theather. Busy busy.

And finally four: I goofed up the fence and I'm trying to decide if I care to fix it or not....

My co-worker's baby is due today and I finally decided I should start working on her baby sampler.




Now, question for all of you, which fabric should I use: Pewter, Natural or White? The little boys' bedroom is navy with orange and lime accents (hence my color choices).

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Mondays!

Hello all, I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. The marathon was here this weekend which put a damper on anything we would normally do. I try to avoid everything when it's going on. We hung out at home and I got some stitching done instead!

I also got a package from Threads cross stitch store in Lancaster PA. I had visited back in September when my husbands' good friend got married out there and loved it so I "liked" them on Facebook. Well, as it turns out the owner of the store is moving to Maine and couldn't keep the store anymore (I guess no one wanted to buy it, and it was a side hobby of hers) so they were having a closing sale. 40% off everything (except DMC floss). I called and sent and email with a big list of things I would like and they were nice enough to kook around and make suggestions for other things if they didn't have something. I ended up getting 18 skeins of floss (Weeks, Crescent Colors & Gentle Arts), 5 patterns (3 LHN, 1 Drawn Thread, 1 baby pattern) and a huge piece of Belfast fabric for the Drawn Thread pattern for $57. Yes, this totally kills the budget.... again. I NEVER THOUGHT I HAD A PROBLEM... until now. But in my defense I only just started stitching again (I started at 10, but through college and beyond I didn't have time) and didn't have any stash as of June 2013. I'm making up for lost time! I didn't take a picture of the fabric, so here's a picture of my kitty with a bottle cap on her head!

I finished the monogram for my cousin!! I'm going to go get a frame & mat tonight!! I'm so glad I've finished, I started it back in January and it kept getting put off. At least it's done now! I realize I should have blurred more, but oh well. At least with the date hidden it will be slightly harder to figure out. ;)

And I decided I needed to make something for my mom for Mothers' Day. I was looking through Cross Stitch Collections past issues and I saw this in issue 220 and thought it would be great and at only 40x40 it should stitch up quickly. My parents own a house that was built in 1880, so while this isn't from that era, it is vaguely art nouveau, which my mom likes. I started around 2pm and here's where it was before I made dinner and then again before bed (around 10:30):

Everything was from stash too, you can't tell in these terrible quality pictures, but the fabric is actually a really pale pink, it's called Baby Lotion I think.  It was originally done in shades of purple, which is my favorite color, but I didn't want my mom to think I actually made it for myself and then just gave it to her because I had nothing better... Not that she would actually think that, but maybe! My mom's favorite color is red, so this kinda goes along with it. And their dining room and library are both shades of maroon so these could go well in either room if she wanted. I know she displays my December Faerie all year long so I am pretty sure she'll display this one too.

I had promised her a geisha years ago, which I still have yet to finish, it's like 3/4 done too!! It's on Aida though and it's a kit, both of which I hate. Maybe for her birthday, in September, in 2015. ;)

I'm hoping to get it finished today before I head out to get a frame for the monogram and pick up one for this too. =)

Hope everyone else was just as productive as I was this weekend! I'll take pictures of both pieces framed too!

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Stitch from ... New Things!

It has been a pretty rough year for my husband and I. My husbands' grandmother passed away in January, then his friend learned that he has an inoperable brain tumor and my husband's good friends' mother passed away two weeks ago, then my kitty that I have had since I was in 8th grade passed away just a few days later:

I know she's happier now, and no longer suffering, but that doesn't easy the heartache. I hope she and the kitty we got at the same time:

 

Are cuddling together on the other side of the rainbow bridge. It's always really hard to loose a furbaby and while the pain will ease, they will always have a special place in my heart. My parents still have one furbaby and so do I, and they are helping us through the sadness!

Mine: 

 

And my parents cat (who never stands still, who we got when I was about 16):

 

It's been pretty rough. We are all ready for the upswing to start.


On a more positive note, I got my IRS refund, regular paycheck and a bonus at work all within 4 days of each other so I splurged a bit:

I bought:

• Kitty's Gift & Kitty's Stocking kits by Mill Hill
• Damask Square by Ink Circles (to go on that purple fabric I got in February)
• Royal Orchid & Royal Capri Mill Hill kits
• 3 Floss(es?) - Weeks/DMC/Classic Colorworks
• LHN Gingerbread Cookie pattern (for April's ornament!) 

Needless to say the Stitching from Stash budget was blown wide open and I don't even regret it. Maybe I won't buy anything in April & May... Maybe... :)

How are you sticking to your budget? Better than me I hope!

Also totally unrelated I switched my tumblr and blog web addresses. Tumblr is at blog.xstitxhhaven.com & my blogspot account is at www.xstitchhaven.com. I started the Tumblr first but blogger has the better writing platform. Tumblr is mostly quick pictures, but I have more followers there. :)

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