Titus, the new Cat and Our Christmas Tree

Well Hello my lovelies!!

It has been quite sometime since I have posted anything.  Reason being is that I have had been pretty busy with work and whatnot, as well as not much stitching to share.  But I do have big news to share! We have a new cat!!! His name is Titus, the god of the giants.  It also means "saved" in Greek, which is exactly what he is, saved!!! About 10 days ago, we went to meet him from this lovely older couple.  The lady is quite ill and was instructed by her doctor to find a home for her beloved cat.  It was quite an emotional greet and meet.  She adores her cat and was heartsick to have to give him away.  I understood her pain, since we just lost our darling Lucy and I am still grieving somewhat from her absence. My husband really wanted Titus and I was still unsure, however, next thing we knew, he was in our home! For the past week, he remained under our bed, only coming out on the 4th day at night to eat a bit of food.  I was quite stressed about him and hoping that he would adjust to his new home.  We talked softly to him and after the 2nd day, I was able to reach under our bed and let him sniff me and pet him a bit.  On the 7th day, he really came out and checked out our bedroom and even our living room! He is quite the big cat! Very fluffy, very purry and very cute!!!! I have started to bond with him and am really loving his quirky character!! He head butts with such a force that he almost knocks us over!! He also does this odd doggie growl, remember growly grey cat? He only growls though when he hears our noisy neighbours walk up and down the hallways, which is really funny.  I've never had a male cat or a cat that has had to adjust to us.  Lucy just was always ours.  I will still miss her, but this new furbaby, is starting to steal my heart!! He is 5 years old, well trained and is called a Ragdoll cat.  Can't wait to have him fully comfortable with us!!! Here are some photos that are blurry because he wouldn't be still!

So cute!!!

 I promise to get better photos of him in the future.  He really is a riot!! I gave him catnip last night for his first time and he went super kooky!! I have a video of him inching around like a worm but I don't know how to post it.

Well, we got our Christmas tree up! We usually have a large Christmas tree decorating party every year, but this year we wanted it quiet because of Titus.  So we had a few close friends over and had a wonderful time!! It's amazing how fast our tree gets decorated with 5 pairs of hands to help!! I have quite a selection of special ornaments.  Some my mother made for me when I was a girl, and some I bought over the years that are near and dear to me.  We have two beautiful golden birds that perch on the branches.  In our family, bird ornaments are a must on a Christmas tree! I had to continue the tradition!!

Mrs. Claus stitched by my Mother

My favourite blingy gold stars!

Chippy is up and happy with his nut!!

Our Master Nutcracker!

My first Christmas pillow...I really love it!

Daylight christmas tree..not nearly as pretty as it is in real life

As for stitching news, I have started one of Daffycat's reindeer designs but have not finished it yet because I have to stitch it at the computer!! BLECH!!! My printer ran out of ink and I keep forgetting to take the cartridge out to be refilled, therefore, I have to sit uncomfortably stitching.  Now the weekend is here, and I am extremely busy.  My mom is in the city and it's her birthday today, plus we have church tonight and tomorrow morning and big dinner for my mom at night! It will be fun but no time to get anything done!  Luckily my mom is going to come over next week and help me sew up all my projects so I have it all ready for the 25th.  We don't celebrate Christmas on the 25th seeing as we are Orthodox.  But I do give gifts to my friends and other non-Orthodox family on the 25th.  We celebrate on the 7th of January...so I have some time yet to finish my immediate family's gifts!!

I have almost caught up with my blog reading and am really impressed with everyone's stitching! It's been great to read everyone's Christmas traditions and seeing the lovely trees all dressed and sparkly!!

Don't miss Dearest Cucki's giveaway! She is the loveliest person and is having a generous giveaway!!

Take care everyone and I will post again mid week! I am going to Tori Amos' concert on Tuesday night!!! It will be my sixth time seeing her play live.  She is one of my favourite musicians!

With lots of love and hugs!!

Anne

One done...more to go!

Hello everyone!

I have been debating whether or not to do a post today, sort of feeling under the weather, therefore I feel this post will not be as good as it could be.  The other reason is I am really not happy with my blurry out of focus photos.  Having a close friend and auntie who are both professional photographers, I feel the need to create half decent photos.  I have thought about getting a camera this year, but it is not a complete necessity, so we will look into one sometime in the future. As for stitching, I managed to sort out the frogging issues on both of my Sajou projects and am happy to say one is complete!! I cannot frame it until this weekend because I need a foam board for the backing.  The frame I am going to use I found in a thrift shop and it fits the piece perfectly!! I love how that happens :D

I loved how "MP's" turned out!! "M's" will be great as well once I stitch a 1 over 1 crown above the "M" and sew it with that lovely crown fabric I have.  I think they will both love their gifts!!  As for the rest of the sewing and stitching I need to accomplish, I will begin a couple of them this weekend as well.  The reason for the wait is I need to go buy some DMC threads that I don't have.  In one pattern, I have only two out of all the DMC threads I have?!!! Seriously, what's with that? Anywho, I'm looking forward to a trip to Michael's.  It's always a good time in a craft store!! My husband's stocking is still in parts.  I got the proper batting I need but I don't feel up to sewing today. 

I've really been loving everyone's posts and stitching for the holidays.  I love how our blogging community is so inspiring and kind with encouragement!! Thank you all for taking the time to visit me.  I will be barraging everyone's blogs this weekend...it's a bit too hard for me to sit up right now!

Off to eat some borscht...just managed to make some...and here's a progress on TBF (Tea Bath Fairy).

Love and hugs!

Anne

Finishes for ISHW!

Good evening my lovelies!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful weekend.  Over here in Vancouver, we had a fairly decent sunny, but chilly Saturday, perfect for shopping! I had a delightful day with my cousin-in-law scouring fabrics at Dress Sew.  She is the best to have around, with all her interior design and sewing experience!! I felt a little overwhelmed thinking about my sewing projects and what I needed to get for them, but she calmed me down and helped me work out what I needed.  I don't know why, but for whatever reason, I have to visualize, down to the very last detail, how I am going to make something.  Not just the finished product, but the actual motions and procedures of making it.  As she says, I make things more complicated than necessary and just to trust my skills and creativity.  So true!! It's so good to have an amazing friend!!!! After our fabric frenzy, we marched onwards to H & M.  That was a crazy time! The opening of the Versace line had happened that morning, and the store was still filled to the brim with people.  I had tons of things breaking my arm, hot, overdressed, not finding anything I wanted...not good.  I'm not the best shopper, let's leave it at that.  On the other hand, my friend is amazing at shopping.  She is like my sister...knows what she wants, goes through everything, finds what she wants, and tackles it with gusto! I tried on some things and hated how they made my back end look bigger than it actually is.  Pretty in the front, but horrible in the back.  So I left the store with nothing after I felt deflated. As we were walking to the skytrain, I said "Let's go into the Bay! They just opened up a TopShop!" The Bay....I love the Bay.  My Nana shops there and I have many fond memories of her and I shopping there.  So off we go to TopShop, and lo and behold, it's airy, bright, and spacey! I felt invigorated to try on things again!  I grabbed a couple dresses and put them on with renewed vigor!!  The first one was waaay too big ontop and made me look odd.  The second, a Chinese Cheongsam dress, LOVE THEM!, I couldn't get over my hips...sigh.  Then, I tried the most gorgeous teal, blue dress that was quite sassy and it fit beautifully!! Plus it didn't make me look all that bad either! So I got it! Yay for finding a gorgeous dress!

It's a lot shorter and prettier on and in person.  Looks great with some opaque black tights and silver high heels with some bling on the neck and arm!! Can't wait to wear it for my friend's stagette!!

Onto stitching news.  I managed to do a lot more frogging than stitching. My weekend was the International Frogging Weekend! For whatever reason, I made a mistake on two gifts for my friends.  Those Sajou patterns can be tricky and hard to count.  I don't have a program that can make them bigger to print, so I make do with the tiny charts I print out.  Not good though.  I will have to re-look at where I went wrong when I'm not exhausted from teaching/traveling and rethink how I'm going to fix the mistakes I made EARLY on in the pattern.

(Photos are going to be not so good since I took them right now in bad lighting)

Then, after not much luck with stitching, I decided to attack sewing.  As I was re-watching the Youtube video for making a stocking, I realized I bought the wrong kind of batting.  What I need was polyester thin batting, and what I asked for and got from the lady was "thin" quilting batting, which is still pretty big and kind of hard for me to work with.  I was very frustrated with myself for not writing down the correct materials and making things more difficult for myself in the long run.  So I figured, why not just finish my other Estonian snowflake and that cute PSS ornament?!!  It was a lot of fun picking out all the trims for my ornaments!! At least I'm okay with making them now!! The outcome is fairly good, not professional, but good nonetheless.  Then I noticed, hehe, that I actually didn't finish the pattern on the green Estonian snowflake.  See if you can spot the mistake!!  Now I am going to have to keep the ornament instead of gift it like I planned. 

Hopefully by Wednesday, I will have caught up with my blog reading and comments for all the ISHW participants.  Again, I love each and every one of your comments and really want to be good and respond to each one.

Take care and happy stitching!!

Anne

Tiny Rose Garden Finished!

Hello my lovelies!

Today I put in the last few beads in Chatelaine's Tiny Rose Garden Mandala!!! Hurrah! I'm so glad it's over.  Beautiful design, but the opalescent fabric drove me mad!! Although the sparkle is divine, the fabric made my stitches all wonky and the thread break multiple times.  Next time I get an opalescent fabric it will be linen!

Love that blur!!

Question: Do you make your beads line up the same way throughout a Chatelaine pattern? I found it quite difficult to do in some sections.

Regardless of imperfections, I think this design will look great in a gold frame over my stitching desk.  I may embark on a larger Chatelaine project next year...we'll see about that though!

Onto squirrels.  Thanks so much for the kind comments on my Chippy.  I know the ornament isn't perfect, but it's cute and no one will see the imperfections on the tree!Funny thing is that both Lynn and Carol posted pictures of squirrels this morning.  The squirrels seem to be popular! I think they're squirrels are adorable, unlike our city squirrels here.  One day, if I'm fast enough, I'll try and post a picture of our scrappy squirrels!

Okay, back to stitching.  I have been pretty busy the past week and weekend to actually start or finish my projects.  I am rethinking some of my Christmas gifts this year.  My mom will still get something stitched, but I think my sister will get something sewn up.  The need for fabric and sewing tools is dire! I ran to the fabric store yesterday to get a bunch of materials I needed for projects and came out only with a few things from my list.  That means I need to make another trip to the downtown fabric store, to get the rest of my materials.  This seems to be the story of my life: running around like a chicken with her head cut off while time runs out! Now my weekends are getting booked fast with upcoming parties: a stagette, a bridal shower, my mom's birthday, our Christmas tree party, etc.  Hopefully, I will create a twin of myself and she can go run around looking for what I need!!  We all wish that!

This is the materials I have for my hubby's Christmas stocking.  He chose the green and the gold/red fabric and he will be drawing his stocking, since he's the better artist out of the two of us. I think it will be a great stocking! Hopefully, I won't screw up sewing this...I am a bit nervous! Must not be scared, must not be scared......

Here's an update of TBF.  I will be working on her and other multiple projects this upcoming ISHW!!!!I think this is the last free weekend I have, so let's get hermitting!! You can visit Joyce's amazing blog and enter your details to join us!!

So this past weekend, I went to an amazing craft fair, Circle Craft, with one of my best friends.  She and I love to stitch and do crafty things.  Funny thing, is we have never done it together! I suggested to her, while we were browsing all the wondrous craft stalls, that we should get together and have a finishing day.  She chooses beautiful designs to stitch but has a hard time to getting them into a frame, box, ornament, you name it.  I think it would be fun to have a craft day: rum, treats, glue and away we go! Um, the glue being USED for projects, nothing else I swear!!!!!!! Here's some delectable cider jelly from the fair.  I'm going to keep the balsamic one for myself, and give the others away!

P.S. Wagapapa is having an amazing first year giveaway!! Click here for the link.


All of you have been so inspiring with your stitching and ornaments, I can't say it enough, thank you!! Hugs to all!!!

Anne

Oops, forgot to mention, I found the perfect fabric for that cute Plum Street Sampler ornie!

I want some wooden buttons, but guess what? I don't have any!!! Put those onto the ever growing list for my hologram to buy!!

Christmas Ornament Finished!!

Bonjour mes amies!!

I am happy to report that I caugt the finishing bug on the weekend and managed to finish two ornaments!! Chippy is pretty adorable I must say.  I really loved the trim that I used.  I find that while I am stitching, I mentally choose the trims and fabrics I will use to finish the piece.  If it doesn't come to me while I am stitching, like the Plum Street Sampler ornie, the piece usually ends up in my to do pile for awhile. I have to envision the finished ornament before I can make it.  Odd isn't it? What is the process that you go through for finishing a piece? Is it before, during, after....?

The red fabric is on the back of the Snowflake

Estonian snowflake stitched last year

Sometimes I don't have what I need to finish, actually, most of the time I don't have what I need to finish a piece!! For example, all those beautiful designs I stitched through out the year, still need frames or boxes or whatever will work to display them.  While I was busy piecing together Chippy, I pulled out some of my stitching and tried to find at least one frame to use! Alas! Nothing fit or looked right!! I sadly put my pieces back into storage and I think I heard their sad sighs of dismay.  Especially my Geisha girl....insert tears here :(  Tanglewood is sad too.  Really sad.  I really need to save some money and just bite the bullet and get the two of them framed.  Sadness aside, I am quite impressed with my mad skillz and gusto for finishing two ornaments. As for the reindeer fabric, I think I will make a couple of gift bags and perhaps a table runner.  Good thing we have Youtube!! There are some great sewing tutorials on how to make both of those projects.  I'm looking forward to next weekend to sewing up a storm!!

Here's my friend's "M" finished.  I still need to stitch the "P" , then I will be done 1 gift.  I am trying not to freak out so much.  Thank you all for your kind comments and suggestions.  It really helped me organize my list and just work steadily down the list.  I think that if I stay focused, I will get everything done that I need to do!!

Remember this Chatelaine I started awhile ago? Well I got sidetracked from my list and decided to try and finish it.  Nearly done!! Just need to finish the Algerian eyelets, backstitching and beading!!  Hopefully by next weekend it will be complete. 

I hope to visit and comment on everyone's blogs today.  I have to say that there are some of you who are posting everyday, making it difficult for me to keep up!! Even if I haven't commented, I do enjoy reading each and everyone of your posts!!

Take care and happy stitching!!

Anne