Flutter, Flutter, Bye 2014!

Hello everyone!

The end of 2014 is at hand and with that I have thought back to my year of accomplishments, both in life and in stitching.   It has been a year of ups and downs but boy did it finish with an up!! Never in a million years did I think we would be having a child next year.  But the Lord blessed us with a little wee bean to cherish and love. It's been fluttering lately and kicking a bit.  The coolest feeling in the world!!!! Most likely, I won't be blogging as much next year with working full time, moving and preparing for little bean.  I hope to update at least once in awhile, but we will see how things go.  Not only are we blessed with a wee child, my husband's health has improved a bit.  He still is susceptible to colds and flues, but his pain in his thyroid is gone and that's a relief, for both him and me!! We just hope that his health continues to improve next year.

Onto stitching, since that's why we are all here.  Last night, when I was thinking about doing a post, I thought, oh...I didn't really stitch or finish much this year. Yet, as I looked back at my photos, I actually did manage to finish things! I added a few more WIP's to the mix and most likely, they will remain WIP's for awhile now.  New babies take up loads of time! Which is wonderful....stitching can always wait.  So I created a few collages for you to enjoy.  One is dedicated to stitching, the other to crochet. 

Crocheted loads more stars and mug cozies not featured here

After some thought about a making a baby blanket, we decided to use the big granny square blanket for baby.  I am trying to make a nice edging around the blanket but ran out of creamy white yarn.  I started making one with some beautiful silky cotton but the holes are too large and I think baby's toes and fingers would get caught in the blanket.  At least I will have one blanket finished for baby!

Stitching WIP's.  Well, I've carried two WIP's now into their third year: Knotgarden and Tea bath Fairy and added 4 more to the mix! Here are my WIP's.

All I did this year was add in some kreinik!

Made significant progress but it stopped in March

Now the samplers!

JCS started in January and last stitched in November

Sarah Chapple started April 27th and last stitched last night!

Had to include a close up of the 1 over 1 butterfly

Next up, my newish WIP's that I think I could finish one at least in January.

Bittersweet Flower

Sarah Emery

Well, there you have it, my stitching in a nutshell.  I'll leave off with some photos of my new camera, and some random photos.

My cool new camera photo of a blazing sky!

Trying to learn how to knit.  Boy is it complex!

No clue how to pick up stitches, decrease, increase, follow a pattern...nada.

Thank you all for your support this year, your love and prayers.  It means a lot to me to have such lovely friends all over the world.  I hope to continue our friendships next year too!

With love, from us.....

And Titus of course...no new photo but this one still kills me every time I see it!

December News

Hello everyone,

It's been some time since I've updated the ol' blog.  I'm finally on a two week vacation and am so happy! I haven't been overly productive in the crafting department but I hope to make that up these next few weeks.  I'm sure everyone is busy getting ready for Christmas in a few days.  I have some time before I need to get gifts and whatnot for my Christmas on the 7th of January.  I tried going out to a mall last weekend and it was packed...making me feel closed in and sweaty.  

On the stitching/crafting front, I managed to mail away my snowflakes yesterday, although they will be received quite late.  I also have finished a few little things and can only show 2 since one is a surprise for a friend.  

One of the crocheted snowflakes

LHN's JCS ornament finished with Annette's fabric

An old quaker stitch finally finished for a friend

 I've made some progress on Sarah Chapple, the granny stripe and the Sarah Emery sampler but I won't bore anyone with teeny tiny progress photos.  

On the Little Bean front, I am growing a wee bit more.  Waking up still in the night to go to the bathroom multiple times but I'm getting into a groove with less sleep. 

I received a lovely surprise in the mail from Shirlee the other day.  She made me the most loveliest ornament that is now hanging in our tree. Thank you dear Shirlee!!

I hope to visit some blogs this time around.  I do peep by often but haven't been very good at leaving comments.  It seems that facebook and IG are easier for me when I'm busy.  Speaking of FB, I'm a part of the Scarlett Letter group and there have been amazing giveaways on there lately.  One from Kelmscott designs where you post a chart you want to stitch from the Scarlett Letter.  It's been fun looking at all the samplers I want to stitch at some point in my life.  I've saved the photos so I can refer back to them to purchase.  Here's just a few of my favourites:

Sarah Dutnell

Sarah Singleton

Dorothy Walpole

Aren't they gorgeous?!! Oh to dream of stitching them one day!!

Off to church now.  Take care everyone! Have a very Merry Christmas from me, Titus, Lee and Little Bean!!

A Snowflake to Love and Winner!!!

Hello everyone!!

Thank you all for your lovely comments on my last few posts.  I am finally finished reports, save for one complex report.  I was on a roll yesterday but it had snowed and I wanted to take a walk along the river, so that's what I did! It is so cold here but beautiful.  I will take this over rain any day.  Nothing worse than having to commute with bags and umbrellas and fighting with the wind.  Anyhow, I did do a wee bit of crafting at night which I will show after I show you what my dear friend Vickie sent to me when I told her about Little Bean.  She stitched the cutest ornament for us that I can't wait to put on our tree.  

Isn't it the sweetest ornament?!! Thank you so much Vickie dear! We will put it up every year on our tree and tell Little Bean all about it.

I also got a few more rows crocheted in my granny stripe which I have abandoned for awhile. 

Titus had to step in to model for all of you.  See how he's eying the string?!

Then I finished Sarah Chapple's vase, which is just so beautiful.  I'm going to stitch the other one then work on the 1 over 1 butterflies that are around the vases.  

I did try to stitch on the PS Santa ornament last night but I decided to cut the fabric which was really silly because I cut it without taking into account the stick he's holding so either I will rip it out or leave the stick out.  My hubby asked why I would do such a thing...I don't know why I make my life more difficult for myself, I just do.  Oh well.

The Winner of the $25 Gift Certificate is..............................


Maggee from Stitching Devotee!!!!!

I did the random generator thingy and the number came up 26, which was Maggee's comment number.  I couldn't take a photo of it for the life of me so if anyone knows how to do that, let me know for the next time!!

I'll be contacting you Maggee to get your info and send you the GC tomorrow after school.  

Thank you all for participating!! I wish I could give out more!!

Hugs to all

Anne

Can't Sleep and Reminder About Giveaway

It's 3:30 am and I can't sleep.  I went to bed early but woke up wide awake.  Is this the "energy" burst you get during the second trimester? If that's the case, I'm not a big fan of it.  I like my sleep!! Give me energy during the day not when I'm sleeping!!

Okay, rant over.  Thank you all so much for your well wishes, hugs and hurrahs.  I mean to respond to everyone once reports are over, which I will be this weekend. We are thrilled about little bean and everything seems to be fine except this waking up early bit.  So as I was transferring over photos onto my computer, I realized I forgot to do a post about my little Victoria trip a few weeks back, for my sister's convocation at the University of Victoria.  The last time I had been in Victoria was when I was 12 so it was nice to revisit the city again.  We stayed in a charming B & B and wandered through the downtown, which I fell in love with.  Victoria has amazing old buildings and the most charming little shops, including a knitting and stitching store!!!! I hadn't been to a local needleshop since the one in Prince George closed when I was 11! I was in heaven, and did a lot of damage too...hehee.

Buttons Knitting Needleshop

Loved all of the framed stitching on the walls!

Carriage House Samplings...forgot to even look at the ribbons

Birds of a Feather Sampler Sarah Emery

 I felt sort of rushed since my auntie and sister's boyfriend don't really have an interest in stitching, so I completely bypassed the beautiful wools and ribbons, forgot that they were there until I saw the photo, and sort of in an elevated state, ran to the fabrics, threads and charts.  It was so nice to see and FEEL the linens! I bought a few.  Couldn't help myself, plus I saw the beautiful Sarah Emery on the wall and realized I have that chart, so I bought the linen and threads to stitch it with.  

I also found a Good Huswife chart and a cute PS Santa that I am going to make for hubby this Christmas.  My sister, who didn't want to come in at all...lol, came in and ended up buying the same Good Huswife chart, linens and threads to stitch it.  Here she is stitching on the ferry.  I got her started.

I took a lot of other photos of Victoria but it was getting dark already at 4 so not many photos turned out that well.  We visited the Empress Hotel and wow, is that an amazing hotel! I felt like I was transported back to 1882.  The Parliament building was all lit up but again, photos turned out crappy.

Cool little alley

A door from old China town

A really cool Irish Pub I want to visit when I can drink again

Parliament all lit up

The tea room where High Tea is $50

Next time I visit Victoria, I will have more time to explore and revisit the stitching store with ample time to peruse. Very charming city if anyone is interested in visiting.

Well, I have done a smidgen of stitching, but mostly crochet.  I have been stitching snowflakes like crazy and you never know, some of them may float into your home soon! I started a baby blanket but changed the pattern since the bamboo cotton I got is very fine and doesn't work well with crocheting from the back stitches.  Those who crochet will know what I'm talking about.  

I actually finished the vase on Sarah Chapple but the lighting right now is pretty dim so I'll post an older photo.  

I stitched a bit on the PS Santa and started Sarah Emery.

Low 3:30am lighting

Last but not least, I guess I forgot but I ordered two more charts and some black lugana  awhile back.  One of the charts is Beggar's Christmas and I want to pull the threads and stitch that one to add to our Christmas ornaments this year.  

Reminder!! My giveaway ends on the 30th so there's still time to enter! Click on the right side bar under the header Giveaways and it'll pop you over to the post.  Good luck to all who entered!

Hugs to all...maybe I can get another hour of sleep in?!

Anne

A Mircale

I think it's time to announce to everyone...............................

We are having a baby!!!!!!!

A completely miraculous occurrence for us.  One we thought would never happen.  We will be expecting him/her in the middle of May.  I don't want to release all the details to try and keep it private from the internet...not really about keeping it private from people, just the world wide web. 
I've been feeling pretty good. No nausea, just super sensitive to smells.  I'm now called "Snoopy Dog" at work because I can sniff out weird smells for the Health and safety group.  I've been very hungry all the time and my sleeping patterns are wonky.  I'm in bed by 8:30 and have had no time for stitching.  That won't change much either because I just accepted another day of work so now I am full time which means I will be in transit a total of 15+ hours a week.  Boo for transit! We are looking for a place to move to since I can't stand this old apartment building. Hopefully something will come up soon in January/February.  

Thank you all for your prayers, I believe they helped big time! We had the ultrasound the other day and I saw him/her and cried!! Heard it's heartbeat, saw it's hands and legs and beautiful profile.  We are still in awe of the whole experience and are trying to plan for wee little bean - the name we call it right now.

Thought it would be nice to share some good news to all of you!!

Hugs from all of us!!

A Long Time

It's been too long since I've updated my blog and come by and said hello to you all.  Life has been so busy as of late and it will only get busier.  So I have to pause this morning and write an update on me, stitching and a wee little giveaway I want to throw at the end of this post.  

Work hasn't wound down.  School life never does and with all my meetings morning, noon and afternoons, it feels like my life force is being sucked dry.  The kids are great of course, even though I'm training them on how to walk down the hall to the learning assistance center ready to learn, and not all kooky and hyped up.  So these past few weeks it's been about training, self-regulation...getting ready to learn is my mantra! Report card writing will be needing to happen soon and all of us teachers are counting down till Christmas break.

Stitching has taken a bit of a back seat as of late because of school but I have done some stitching.  I finished a sweet little design that I need to put together for a friend and mail off. Can't show it yet though till she gets it.  I'm already thinking of stitching Christmas gifts, like all of us are, and am woefully behind!  The other day, dear Annette sent me the sweetest little package.  She knew I didn't have the JCS magazine yet, although I do now, and sent me the linen, threads and some fabric for that adorable LHN ornament.  Thank you my dear! It really made my day!

You have to see her adorable finish.  I want to finish mine like that and she even gave me some of the fabric she used! I finished mine but on 40 ct linen.  I'm going to stitch it again on the linen she gave to me and then give one of them away.  I did use a different red though.  Nina's Chilli Pepper because I just wanted to use a Nina thread.  The other one will use Annette's red.  This design just makes me smile.

I made some progress on my samplers and believe it or not, Tea Bath Fairy.  Didn't take a photo of TBF though since it doesn't look like much has changed. Just filling in with that pesky kreinik.

Wow that photo is bleak.  Anyways, just filling in the border.  Thinking about taking a break from that border and stitching the massive vase that's above the bird's head. But then again, I might have to take a break from sampler stitching and get going on Christmas stuff. 

I did buy some charts with my JCS magazine but why, I don't know.  I'll never have the time to stitch all the things I want to stitch...but the charts just begged to be bought!

More BBD charts.  I love BBD and their Beatles series are amazing.  I adore strawberry fields forever and I can see that Blackbird would be a great RAK gift to someone in the future.  

Next up is my progress on the Bitterest Flower.

I can foresee this moving along a lot faster once I get going on this.  Titus seems to enjoy this design a lot.

He really likes to embed his fluff into everything I own.  The other day while I was in the principal's office, no I wasn't in trouble, I was talking and moving my hands around, as I do, and I saw fluff flying everywhere! I felt so bad adding Titus fluff into his office since he has allergies.  

As for my Sheep Sal with Sarah, Lija and Kaye, I made minimal progress on Kindness. The border is taking a really long time stitching up. 

Giveaway Details!!

If you've made it this far, congrats!! I really want to give back to my friends and would like to giveaway a $25 gift certificate from 123stitch.

All I ask is you enter your name stating you are interested and I will do the draw at the end of this month on November 30th.  I would have stitched something but I really lack the time and oomph to get it together to do that this year.  I will also be announcing some fabulous news in the next little while so please stay tuned!!!

I'll leave you with some photos we took on a rare sunny day. 

Hugs to you all....I'm sorry for not commenting, I will try but I'm off to the island this weekend and the next few are report card time.  Maybe that will be a good time to procrastinate and do some blog hopping...ehhehehee.

Ciao!