Where does the time go?

Soooooooooooo, a short 6 months later and here I am again. What?! How does that even happen. Time passes so quickly. Sheesh!!!

Instead of a New Year's resolution, I went with a focus word for this year once again. For 2019 I've decided that my focus is going to be 'DONE'. I have so many things in progress (crafting and everyday life) that I just want to get some of them done. Wish me luck!!

What even got me moving in that direction (craft wise) is a piece I had stitched years ago. It was a Christmas piece and over time had gotten loose in the hoop I had used to finish it. For years I had been telling myself that I needed to fix it. For years! I finally decided that enough was enough and I needed to just get that done.


So I did.

Here's the piece from before....

It was getting all loose and stretched out in the frame. Not to mention that over the years it had also gotten dirty.

I had glued that baby in place and, to be honest, I did one heck of a job doing it. I had a devil of a time getting that piece out. I didn't want to just cut it because I didn't have all that much room around it. In the end, I had to break that hoop into pieces to get the stitching out of there.

After all of that, it deserved a little time at the spa.

After a good soaking, drying, and pressing, I put it back together in a new finish.

I bought a package of cloth napkins and used them to make a pillow cover. I stitched the cross stitch piece near the edge and then covered my stitch line with some gold trim that I hand stitched on so that I could hide the stitching.

The napkins are sewn together on three sides. The white you can see is some ribbon used to tie the bottom closed after I put the pillow form inside. This is a great way to be able to store the pillow cover instead of having to store a hole bunch of fat pillows.

So, that's one thing done. Now on to many others...........or at least that's the plan.

French Bread

I've been meaning to post this for awhile, but life keeps demanding my attention.

Anyway, I've made this recipe a couple of times now, and it was delicious both times. I found it on pinterest, but you can get the recipe here.

This is how mine turned out:

It was really easy. The instructions are well written. And it's totally worth the effort.

Stitch Maynia......

Hey all!

Thanks so much for stopping by to see my Stitch Maynia posts. I know they came to a sudden halt, but I have experienced some technical difficulties.

My phone and computer have not been on speaking terms as of late.

They are currently in counseling and I think they're about to have things worked out.

Stay tuned..........

Stitch Maynia Day 3

So, we have here another project that I started last year but have not completed.

I'm starting to sense a pattern here ................ and I don't like it.

I have at least worked on this one between then and now, so that's a plus.

 

I have made some adjustments on the words to suit myself, which also meant I had to tweak the colors on the heart a little. But, it's all good now. I'm not thrilled with the fact that the 'd' doesn't show up so great, but it doesn't bother me enough to pull anything out and re-do it.

I made noticeable progress on it, so that makes me happy. I could have worked on it more when we got home last night, but I just wasn't feeling it. I really just wanted to go to sleep. lol

This is one of the pieces that is on my Year of WIPs list, which means my goal is to get it completed before the end of the year. That means that once Maynia has passed, this one will be coming out again......and it's got a LOT of white on white to be done. *sigh*

Stitch Maynia Day 2

I was pretty pleased with the amount of stitching I got done on day 1.

Day 2...........not so much.

This was also a piece started last year. It is actually a birth announcement. However, I'm just going to leave the 'birth announcement' part off because I love the bunny and that fat, white bird.

But, as you can see, I didn't get a whole lot done last year, I only managed a little spot on the bunny's chin.

 

 This go round I managed to at least get the nose stitched. Half of it I got to stitch twice, since I used the wrong shade of brown the first time. Hooray....... 

I did decide that since she's got kind of a big pumpkin head that I need to outline it and then carry this with me in the car where all I'd be doing is filling it in. Then maybe I can get a lot accomplished on my ride back and forth to work (especially since we get to leave the office these days while the sun is still out.) Of course, I haven't DONE any of that yet, just decided to. Ha!

Stitch Maynia Day 1

So Stitch Maynia started yesterday. If you don't know what it is, there is a Facebook group by the same name. On the first of May starts Stitch Maynia. There really are no rules. Everyone just focuses on their stitching in a way that suits them.

I will be participating for 18 days to coincide with the year. If I have not finished a project that was started on the same date from previous Maynia's I will work on it. If I have finished the previous one, I will start a new project.

So, for day 1, I worked on a little witch that I had started in 2017.

Here is a picture of the finished pattern. I'm not doing mine on a sweater........just some off white aida.

 

This is where I'm starting for this round of Maynia.

I actually had more time than usual to stitch yesterday, so I made some pretty decent progress.

All that green hair is exactly how I feel about my hair on humid days. Can anyone else relate?

Making pretty good progress (for me, anyway) makes me want to keep going on her. But there are so many other projects in front of her. Guess I'd better keep going on them.

OK, see you tomorrow for the next update.

Easter has come and gone

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter........and April Fool's Day.

My Mom got in on the April Fool's spirit. She used doughnut holes dipped in chocolate to make cake pops. Then she dipped some raw brussel sprouts in chocolate to look like cake pops. She put them all mixed together on one plate so it was luck of the draw when someone grabbed one to eat.

I'm not gonna lie.....it was pretty funny watching people's reactions when they got a brussel sprout.

It was a good Easter, too.

Here's some of our Easter-ness (That's a word, right?):

I made this cheese ball.

It's supposed to look like a chick.

If you close one eye, squint the other a lot, and concentrate, you can make out the chick.

The Easter Bunny still delivered baskets.

If you can see the llama in the llama basket, she is awesome. She's super soft and is wearing pink llama pajamas. If you'd like to order one of your own, I got mine from Polka Dot Pig Folk Art. She's got a lot of fantastic stuff.


I made these individual size apple pies using cupcake tins. I asked Abigail to use the left over crust to put decorations on each. She made Play Boy bunnies. Really?!

This is a final finish on a cross stitch piece I think I had shown previously. The pattern is from Bent Creek. It's the Easter Cracker. I stitched it up on a tan aida. I glued magnets to the back after I mounted it on a square board. The background is a piece of scrapbooking paper. The magnets on the back of the cross stitch piece are holding it in place. Then I made a simple bow from some burlap ribbon, which has a magnet glued to the back of it.  They are all sticking onto a black metal chalk board that I got at the dollar spot in Target.

I can change this out as often as I like...............if I can manage to get more pieces finished.

Anyway, it's an idea.