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

Stitching, Lovely Visits and Loads of Photos!!

Hello everyone!

It has been quite some time since I have done a post. I am still working on catching up with emails and blog posts (got it down from over 500 to 350!) Thank you for all your lovely comments on my last post.  Know that each and everyone of them mean a lot to me!

It has been a very busy couple of weeks so I will fill you in on what has been going on in my part of the world.  Last week I worked with a lovely group of grade 3's and 4's.  Split classes are quite difficult to manage but the teacher I worked for has her class set up perfectly.  There was one day during the week I didn't work, so we took advantage of the semi-nice day and took a long bike ride all over the city.  We traveled to North Vancouver by Seabus, then decided to go up to Grouse Mountain, where the school I work for is located.  I have actually never been up to the top of the mountain before so I was glad to get the chance to enjoy it.  Wow, the air is so fresh up there!! We also visited the Cleveland Dam and I have to say I as a bit of a chicken trying to take a photo of the dam.  I'm not too keen on heights! After the damn, we had the immense thrill of  cycling down the mountain! We even cycled over the Lion's Gate Bridge! Bit scary, but I'm proud to proclaim I have conquered the bridge. Needless to say, I was extremely sore for the next couple of days, particularly my upper back! I suppose going down a mountain you need a lot of upper body strength, something I'm sorely lacking in. Here are some photos of our 8 hour long trip!

My chicken shot of the dam through the bars

Lion's Gate Bridge view of Georgia Straight

So then on Friday, I met up with a fellow blogger for tea! Melissa, from Words and Blooms, is a most wonderful, sweet lady who I have enjoyed getting to know.  She stitches the most beautiful Blackbird Design pieces and samplers and was one of the first blogs I followed.  Both her sampler stitching and Margaret's, inspired me to stitch a sampler of my own!! She is always so generous and brought me the most beautiful frog, linens and a cute cat pin cushion! I stitched her a design from Nan's Threadwork Primitives but hadn't found the perfect fabric, or time, to finish it! I'm on the hunt Melissa!! Be sure of that!! Look at the beautiful frog she got me!

Isn't it beautiful?!

I LOVE his little bag of fish!!!

Lovely linens!!

Threadwork Primitives freebie I stitched for Melissa

A new Quaker small using one of Melissa's linens!

This past weekend was so beautiful here in Vancouver.  We had sunshine!!! AND MY MOM VISITED ME!!! I was so happy to have her stay over, even if it was just for one night, it was fun. We watched a foreign film that was really slow moving, but okay. In the morning, we chatted, looked at loads of your blogs, ooh'd and ahh'd over samplers, Chatelaine's, cute ornaments, HAED's, everything!  It was a great morning! Then we did my taxes. Bleh. However, we are getting quite a bit back from the government so a BIG happy dance going on here!!!! After that, we took a long walk along the Quay and enjoyed a lunch/dinner at the PaddleWheeler Pub.  Unfortunately we didn't have anytime to do any sewing but she may stay a bit longer and come over again...I sure hope so!!

I love that last photo of a kid's bike caked with the mud from the river.  The tide was out so we could see what sorts of things lay at the bottom of the river!

Sorry if this is taking awhile. I hope you had some tea or coffee to enjoy this post...I am nearly finished!!

Even though I have had a crazy couple of weeks, I have managed to put in some stitches here and there.  I have added a lot of little motifs and bit more of the border in Jane. I put in a couple of stitches in TBF too. I know Margaret has been antsy for an update.  I should probably mention that Margaret was the other recipient of my RAK and I'm happy to report that she loved the little gift! It seems that both Mia (Margaret's cat) and Clarisse (Lynn's cat) were VERY interested in the pillows too! I think they smelt Titus' scent on the pillows!I do try to keep him away but he likes to be in the midst of my stitching and sewing!!

I would like to wish everyone a Happy Easter! I hope you all had a wonderful time with your family and friends.  We will be celebrating our Pascha this weekend and boy am I looking forward to it! It is the most important time of the year for Christians: the resurrection of Christ!! I will do a separate post after Pascha to share with you some of our traditions.

Sunshine, my cousins' bunny

If you read down to here you made it!! I hope you enjoyed my post and I am looking forward to spending some time reading all of your posts today.  It's nice to finally have a relaxing day to read, stitch and enjoy some good tea!

Hugs to you all!

Anne

Merry Christmas!

Here are the photos as promised!

I think that the little guy and his snowman friend are enjoying the carolers!

First Pinkeep!

Well, I managed to finish my very first pinkeep! Certainly not perfect but it is still lovely.  I'm sure my mom-in-law will love it.  Now I need to reorganize my sewing desk and set up my sewing machine so I can get on with the rest of my projects.  I've been very busy lately and will get busier as the weeks go on, so I will try and update when I can.

Here are some photos of the pinkeep as well as this great little "Merry Christmas" Design from Nan at Threadwork Primitives.

My trusty old Stork scissors

Some cotton fabric I found at my moms's

28ct Evenweave Design by Nan from Threadwork Primitives DMC threads

See the holly fabric? I just got that and it will work perfectly