Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas to you all!

I still have some time left as I celebrate on January 7th, but we will be celebrating with my husband's family tomorrow.  I have a couple of more things to do before tomorrow and I'm dreading going out in the madness.  I will be making this post short and sweet since my mom says my posts are too long.  Hope this is short enough for you mom!!

My crocheted snowflakes whip up quickly and I plan to make more tonight.  Nothing like last minute crocheting to do. 

I attached little bells at the bottom and am pleased with the result. I used a little starch and they are not super stiff but they do maintain their shape. 

I finished my brother's deer and will be using craft paint instead for the box.  It's easier for me and doesn't create a huge mess.

My crochet granny square is getting less wonky now that I turn every round.  I found a few stitches that slipped out when I took this picture and freaked!! Luckily, I was able to re-crochet it back together and tie a knot in the end so that won't happen again!

I will be busy baking cookies tonight for tomorrow and hopefully won't eat too many...heheee.

Another one of my giveaway packages arrived safely in Australia.  Noni received the ornament by Blue Ribbon Designs from JCS 2013 Ornament issue.  I'm glad she likes the ornament and it's on display for Christmas.

Thank you all for your wonderful comments.  I hope to respond once I've finished today's shopping trip.  Wishing you all of the best for Christmas.  Sending you all a big hug!!

Naughty Titus playing with the garland...looking like he's done nothing wrong

I Can't Sew Straight. Period.

I just can't!!!! 

Hello again! Two posts in one day! A rarity for me.  After my giveaway post, which you can find below, I spent most of the day trying to sew my smalls into little pillows.  You would think after using a rotary cutter, those quilter's plastic ruler thingys, measuring, pinning, etc, I should be able to sew a straight line.  Right? NO! Egads!!!! I would use stronger words, in fact I almost did a Shirlee.  You know, when she lit one of her stitching on fire? Nearly did.  But then I thought better of it because I really didn't want to deal with a mess and a potential apartment fire.  So I persevered and tried to cover up the wonky lines with trims and filled the pillows to the max.  The first one I'll show you is stitched on 28ct black lugana.  When I was stitching "Give Thanks" by PSS, I noticed that the linen was warped.  It looked as though I was stitching diagonally.  Which I wasn't because I checked a gazillion times! So needless to say, the crookedness followed me to the sewing machine.  Then all hell broke loose on the second finish.

 Ugh, even the photo didn't go my way!! Black does not photograph very well.  

Loose corners...they wouldn't get filled for the life of me!

All my autumn finishes so far.  

I used a few buttons and trims from The Victorian Motto Shoppe.  She really has lovely trims.

I've been making headway with the rooster.  I'm really enjoying stitching it so far.  

Chicken feet!!!

Titus was not the best helper today.  He was rolling around in everything and trying to eat the rick rack!! He's lying in a bit of sunshine we had today. It disappeared not too long afterwards.

No progress on Hannah since I last posted.  I should really crack on with her and start up JCS 1707.  But now with all of the Christmas gifts I'm thinking of making, JCS may take a back seat for a bit.  My quilt is also giving me a side eye and I can hear her saying "Get your panels cut!! Who cares if you can't sew/cut straight.  Get me done!!!"  Perhaps it's my sewing machine.  Yes that's it...blame it on the machine!!!!

Take care everyone and thank you for listening to me rant!!!

Hugs

Anne who can't sew straight for the life of her......

Three is the Number

Bonjour everyone!!

It has been quite some time since I posted.  My blogoversary came and went last week but I was too sick to do a post.  Feeling feverish on the hottest day of September wasn't pleasant to say the least.  I was melting on the inside as well as on the outside...ick! The cold is overstaying it's welcome.  My chest and throat are still sore so I may have to take a trip to the doctor's today.  I have still been thinking about what to do for my giveaway since it's my third blogoversary and I wanted to celebrate that with having three winners.  However, I don't know what to giveaway! I was thinking of stitching something little for each person, but that may take awhile.  I will let you know when I make up my mind. 

Stitching, crocheting and sewing has taken a bit of a back seat since school began.  While I was sick, I did manage to stitch an Autumn design. 

It's a freebie from Blue Ribbon Designs called "Acorns and Owls."  I stitched it on 28 ct. R & R Espresso using DMC, GAST and HDF threads.  I think it's adorable and I hope to finish it up as a little pillow.  Very fun design to stitch!

As for Hannah, I have three motifs and three blooms left to stitch, plus the 1 over 1.  My goal is to finish her by the end of this month. I still have hope this will happen!

I crocheted two more rounds since the last post.  Titus seems to really enjoy me crocheting.  I always have to hide the yarn as I crochet since his little claws come out and play with moving ball of yarn!

I love how he lies around like this!

So on Labour Day, my hubby and I took one last bike trip to a place called Barnston Island.  It took us about 2 hours to cycle there and a short barge/ferry ride to the Island.  The island is located on the Fraser River and is mostly made up of farms.  We saw a lot of animals on the island and derelict buildings.  We even bought some organic beef from a cattle farm, although at first I read the sign as" Beets for sale."  I ran up to the woman and said "We'll take some beets!" To which she replied "Well, all of our beets are gone but we have beef!" Oh...did I feel silly.  Anywho, here's some photos of our trip to enjoy.

We crossed the Patullo Bridge...very scary bridge to ride over!

View of the Fraser River, skytrain bridge and New West to the right

Smiling and shaking with fear at the same time

The ferry tug boat

Cute barn

Derelict door

A cat, a rooster, a dog and some chickens chilling out together

A donkey we fed some apples to.  He's wearing a mesh mask to protect  him from flies

Happy cows!

I hope to catch up with my blog reading.  I've been pretty helter skelter when it comes to reading/commenting. I have been liking Feedly except for that it isn't updating my blog list when I follow a blog.  I didn't notice this until recently and now there's a bunch of blogs I've joined but are not in Feedly.  Not too happy about that bit.  I don't know if this has happened to others, but if you know of a way to fix it let me know.  

Hugs to all and happy stitching!!

Anne