Some Wins and Wonderful News!

Hello my lovelies!!!

Thank you all for your lovely and hilarious comments on my last post.  The frog jerk did come and visit again and he's no longer a Prince.  I shouldn't have encouraged him.  I think he's gone now.  At least I'm hoping he is!!!

Oh boy do I have loads to share with you! First off, I have been uber busy.  The reason being is I have landed myself a full time job working as a Learning Assistance Teacher!! WHOOHOOO!!! Luckily, I know the kids and the program but it's a long commute and so my days are long due to hours spent on transit. This means I have very little time for blog reading, commenting, and the most important, stitching.  But that's okay! I know you will all understand and still be here! I am trying to pluck away on a couple of projects and am planning to stitch my giveaway item this weekend.  Or at least start it!

Before I get into the giveaway details I would love to share with you another accomplishment.  I finished War and Peace on May 24th!!! It took me 5 months to read on transit. It was a delightful read and I would highly recommend it to any of you who enjoy reading classics.  Now that I finished this Goliath of a book, I needed to read a MUCH lighter book so I pulled out a really great mystery by Jo Nesbot called "The Snowman."  I haven't put it down since I started it yesterday.  A fantastic mystery!!!

Some more wonderful news! I have been sooooo lucky and blessed as of late.  Truly blessed! I have been kindly gifted a wonderful biscornu pattern from the ever so generous Carolyn of ....just one more stitch!  I mentioned on one of her posts how much I admired Stacy Nash's Quaker biscornu and she offered my the pattern! I can't wait to stitch this one! Thank you so much Carolyn!!!!!

Recently I won Topcho's giveaway and on Friday received the package all the way from Bulgaria!! It was so neat to receive a package from there and I could even read some of the Russian on the packaging!! When I opened up the package, I was amazed at what the lovely Nina included in her giveaway.  Not only did she stitch the most darling needlebook, my first one!, she also included some lovely fabrics, pins, threads, aida, and wonderful rose products form Bulgaria.  She says that Bulgaria is famous for it's yogurt and roses and that she couldn't send some yogurt, so she sent me roses!! Thank you again Nina for your most lovely package!

Okay, maybe grab some tea or coffee.  This a wee bit long of a post! Sorry!!! No time to do this in chunks!

So just last night, I decided to quickly check my blog roll and noticed that I won another giveaway!!! WOW!!! This time from Emma of Evening Emma.  It's a lovely book of designs and some fabby and one of Nina's Threads! I'm quite excited to try out the famous threads of Nina!! Thank you Emma!!

More good stuff to share.  On Friday, one of my girlfriend's invited me out to a Member's Only opening of the Cone Sisters of Baltimore and their collection of the Master's.  Um, I don't think I can express in words how excited I was to know that my favourite artist (other than Klimt) was going to be in the exhibition!! HENRI MATISSE!!!!!! I had shivers going up my arms.  It was just perfect! I couldn't believe how lucky I was to be there and to be given some insider info from my girlfriend who volunteers at the art gallery and who has a Masters in Art Education.  We were giddy looking at Picasso, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Pissaro, Renoir and my Matisse! It was truly an amazing night and I plan to go again with my hubby!!!

Oof, I'm so hungry and need to make dinner but I must persevere!!


Poll Results!!!!!

The results of the poll are in and it's a majority for LHN's Bee Pinkeep!!! So that is what I will stitch for the winner! I will also include the lovely Bumblebee chart that I won from Rahenna.  I stitched it and loved it and hope to share that love for this darling design! I will also include some other sweet treats too and hopefully, will get a good picture of the giveaway items in the next couple of days or so. Here is the chart so you can have a visual. I was contemplating making this post the giveaway post but I fear it's just far too lengthy and full of other stuff that I will make a separate post.  Possibly on Thursday.  I just want to give you a little peak into what I have in store for you!!

Big hugs and congrats if you made it this far!

I'm full of love today and want to send you all some of that love!!!

IHSW and TITUS TUSAL

Okay, I'm making this a short one.  Don't forget to vote on my poll! If you want to take a look at the designs I want to stitch, read the post from friday :D

The Frog Prince visited AGAIN!! I'm telling ya!! He can get the heck outta here!!

KICKS FROG

I stitched on Jane and I may have to frog out the top left flower because the diagonal green border that I still have to stitch, will be too close to the flower, which will make it look really OFF CENTER.  SIGH

Here she is all nicely ironed!!!

The upper left border flower is up one stitch :(

This is what I think of you Frog Prince.................Take that :P

And TAKE THIS!

Okay I feel better now!!!

Here's my Titus with my TUSAL threads.  Got loads in there this month from all the projects I've been doing.  Some of last month's threads are in there too.

He's such a good little model!! I tried taking out the threads and putting them on his head, but he starting eating them, so I stopped him and stuck them back in the jar.  He batted at the threads seconds after the second photo was taken. 

So although I stitched a lot Friday, I didn't stitch too much Saturday/Sunday since I had to be outside to enjoy the last bit of nice weather we had.  Now it's back to rain...blech! I visited my Nana on Sunday and she got some lovely orchids for Mother's Day.  I just had to take a photo.  That's St. Patrick in the background.  She is Irish!

I hope to get more stuff done this week.  I'm currently trying to get my Knotgarden fabric on my hand made scrolls, which are a bit wonky. Hopefully it'll work!!! I'll also check out everyone's TUSAL and IHSW posts soon!!!


Hugs from Titus and me!

IHSW, Jane and the Frog Prince

Hello everyone!

Welcome to my new followers!! I would like to start off by saying thank you for all your well wishes and comments on my last post.  The cold has left the building and I'm back in business!! I've been quite busy with work, cycling and my hubby's birthday which was yesterday.  I have been doing a lot of stitching in the evenings too, which has been wonderful!!
IHSW Plans 
I hope to work more on Jane, since she's been having most of my attention lately.  I think I just need to focus on her as much as I can so I can try and finish one BAP.  You see, I have a couple of other BAP's in the wings and I would love to start them, but feel that I need to finish one of the two I'm currently working on.  If I have too many BAP's on the go, I feel antsy for whatever reason.  Reading too many books at once also gives me that feeling.  Oh, and on the topic of books, I've read 95% of War and Peace!!!!! I've only been reading it on transit and can't wait to finish it in a couple of weeks!!

Right, IHSW.  So I'll be working on Jane, maybe TBF, my secret project and finishing a finish I started when I was sick but couldn't actually finish it.  You know what I mean!!! The finishing fairy almost left the building, but I've got her held back and seated drinking some tea.  I'm not letting her go quite yet! Then, the Frog Prince visited this morning.  He is quite pesky I tell you! All the stitching I did this morning I had to take out.  This has been the first time in a long time the Frog Prince has been a problem.  Don't worry though, I got him handled and he's gone now!!! Here's my Jane as of noon today.

And the flower that the Frog Prince messed around with!

I am really loving Jane's flower garden that has sprung up.  Each flower has been a lot of fun to stitch, even with the frogging!! I'm working on some birds around the flowers right now...kinda itching to get back to it!!

Now onto the Tea Bath Fairy.  In my last post I said I finished the handle.  What I meant to say is that I finished a full page that had the handle in it.  I worked on TBF for quite awhile.  I'm surprised it doesn't look like much progress.  But then again, it's an HAED! Sorry for the wrinkles but I don't want to iron it until it's finished and I can wash it. 

Before I get into some info about my giveaway, I want to share with you a little thank you gift I stitched up for Melissa at Words and Blooms.  She has been so generous to me, giving me all sorts of lovely linens and for awhile now, I have wanted to make her something special.  I stitched up a lovely freebie design from Threadwork Primitives. I stitched it on one of her linens, using GAST and Carrie's Creations threads. I am happy that she likes what I made for her and that it turned out rather well!! Her picture of the little pillow is much better than mine, so go take a look.  She has a lovely blog and often shares amazing photos of her incredible garden and her two cute kitties!  Hugs for you Melissa!!!

Poll and Giveaway Details

On the side under followers, I have entered a poll for all of you to do!! A couple of posts ago, I mentioned that I wanted to do a 200 follower giveaway and stitch a Gift of Stitching design.  So, I had an idea! Why not have all of you decide which design I get to stitch first for the giveaway?! Sounds like fun?!!! Please choose one and I will close the poll in the next week or so.  I've chosen some small designs that won't take me long to do or finish.  Here are the designs and some pics/links of what they look like:

1.  Lizzie Kate's Plant Love  courtesy of The Stitching Gift website
2. LHN's Bee Pinkeep courtesy of The World's Largest Collection of Smalls (and it would just be the center   design which is also in the GOFT magazine.
3. Prairie Schooler's Summer courtesy of The World's L. C. of S.
4. Blackwork with Nancy Pederson.

So go ahead and take a look at these lovely little designs and help me choose!!!

One more thing.  I have received the Knotgarden kit.


YAHOOO!!!


However, I still need to make my scroll rods before I think of starting it.  I'm on the fence about it though. Having three major projects, I dunno.  But the silks! And the bling!! They are calling me!! Maybe I can put TBF outta rotation for awhile and start Knotgarden. We'll see!!

Oooooh!! Look at that!!!!

Titus says good bye and don't even dare think about stealing his toys!!!!

Hugs and I will try and catch up with all my blog reading/commenting this weekend!!!

Anne

Yiotas Cross Stitch Kit Review

Hello my lovelies!!

I hope I find you all well and happily stitching! I have been a wee bit sick this week while it's been glorious outside.  Isn't that always the case?! At least today I feel a bit better and am just sneezing a little bit now.

Onto the review! About two weeks ago, I was asked by Yiota, from Yiotas X Stitch, to review one of her cross stitch kits.  I happily agreed and went to check out the 100's of kits that her site offers.  I went straight to the Fine Art category to see if she had any Matisse or Klimt kits, two of my favourite artists. I didn't see any Matisse, but I was happy to see quite the assortment of Klimt kits!!! Yay!!! I sent her a selection of pieces that I would be happy to review and luckily, Hygeia was the Klimt needing to be reviewed!!! Did I tell you I was obsessed with Klimt? Well if not, I'm telling you now!!! Hygeia was the only surviving piece from Klimt's artwork Medicine that was destroyed in a fire and for whatever reason, this painting has enchanted me since I was 14 years old.

After selecting my kit and emailing Yiota, she quickly popped it into the mail and I got the kit in a little less than two weeks later.  This is really quick seeing as it traveled all the way from Great Britain to Canada!! The package came yesterday with a "Do Not Bend" stamp, so the postman actually rang my bell and handed it to me saying "I can't bend this!" I thought that was cute!! Thanks Mr. Postman for not bending it!! I carried the package to my apartment and carefully opened it.

Beautifully printed design on high quality paper

The kit's picture, chart and instructions are printed on high quality paper.  The chart is easy to follow with symbols clearly marked out and different from each other.  This is a very important feature for me.  I also liked that the chart was on two pieces of paper which makes it easy to display.  The instructions give some helpful tips about how to start and how to read the chart. 

The kit came with an evenweave option, which I chose instead of aida.  The evenweave is 28 count and very soft.  There is a needle stuck safely into the fabric.  There's nothing worse than having a needle loose in a kit!! The floss given in the kit are Madeira threads, which I have never used before.  I love the fact that the threads come already wound on bobbins!! So great for the cross stitcher who wants to start the project right away!! The bobbins have the thread numbers printed in bold numbers and very clear to see. The kit does offer the option to convert the Madeira threads to DMC if you so choose to.

Lovely Madeira Threads on clearly marked bobbins

Easy to read chart and instructions

All in all, it's a lovely kit.  I can't find fault with the kit.  I would highly recommend Yiota's cross stitch kit website for people looking for reliable and fast service, high quality charts, threads ready to use, and a fabulous selection of designs!!!

I wanted to start Hygeia yesterday, but was under strict instructions from my hubby to lie down and NOT stitch.  He said I needed to rest and that stitching wasn't resting.  What does he know?! So I obeyed him for most of the day, then pulled out Tea Bath Fairy to work on a bit.  I finished the tea pot handle!! That part took a really long time to do with all the colour changes.  I'm happy to say that once I'm done with filling in the cup, I get to work on the fairy and be close to finishing!!

Titus sends you all some love and warmness from his perch.

Hugs

Anne

Finishes, Thrifting and Crochet!!!

Hello my lovelies!!!

I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend! I've been quite the busy bee as of late.  Finishing things...shocking I know...picking up crochet again...organizing...planning...bobbinating (I love making up words!)  It all started with me just getting fed up with myself for not finishing my stitching into something, whether it be an ornament, a pillow, or whatever.  I just had it with my stitching sitting there staring at me, asking me "What are you going to do with us?!" So I made things!! I think I have crocheting to thank for that.  Not sure why crocheting triggered the finishing bug, but when I was looking at Meme Rose's blog, which you ALL need to do, I felt inspired to make a cute tea cosy for my Nana.  So on Friday, I went to my local thrift store and asked the lady if they had any crochet needles.  They did! They also had a ton of little wools too!! Perfect! I also picked up a couple of other little sewing notions, a nice little basket that the yarns fit nicely into, and lace doilies, for another project I have in mind!  All of which I paid a total of....

Wait for it...........

$5.00!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love shopping there! I get to bargain with the lady which I find so much fun!! She told me that the 8 crochet needles I bought were worth about $1.00 each.  I got the whole lot for 50 cents!! Fabulous!!

Here's some photos of my finds.

Titus wouldn't sit still for the picture.

After my thrift store scores, I headed to Fabricland and found a quilter's beginner kit for half off! I got the whole kit and kaboodle for $25!! Usually, just the rotary cutters cost $25.00 on their own. So I think I got an amazing deal!!

See, I'm on a roll!!!

Onto the finishes.  I finally completed my Mom's ornament.  Yup, finished it in May.  I don't know why it took me so long to finish it.  I made my own twisted cord the old school way: taped to my desk and with a pencil.  I used a tutorial to make the twisted cord. I think it looks really good.  I'm sure my Mom will love it!!

On Thursday night, I began stitching the chart I won from Rahenna: Sisters and Best Friends "Bumble Bee." I stitched it on 32 ct. Natural linen using DMC threads.  I had this cute little frame that worked perfectly with the pattern.  I love bees!!!!

I think this was my fastest finish to date.  If only all of my finishes could be made that quickly!!!

I also started two new projects.  One is a secret and so I can't show anyone what I'm doing.  The other is nearly completed.  I just need to buy new glue and then I can finish it.  There are also a number of little projects I want to start from the Gift of Stitching.  I ended up buying more of the magazines and have been loving reading all the articles and looking at the designs.  Tons of great ideas and projects to do!!

A note on giveaways.  I recently won Topcho's giveaway!!! I am so excited to receive her adorable needlebook that she made! Thank you so much Topcho!! I'll be eagerly awaiting my package!!!

As for my giveaway, I'm still mulling over what to make.  I want it to be a handmade item but haven't picked out the pattern yet.  Stay tuned!!!!

I stitched more of the tea cup handle on TBF.  No Jane stitching though. I've been too eager to get my other projects done that I figured I will stitch on her when I don't feel like finishing!!!

After I took the first photo of TBF, Titus rolled in!! Luckily, he is very gentle and didn't do anything to my stitching!!!

Well, I hope you enjoyed this post.  I'm very happy to have actually completed a couple of projects and hope to have a few more to share with all of you soon!!

Take care,

Hugs from

Anne and Titus