March TUSAL...

another belated post!  I've been slacking a bit in my posting for March, too busy enjoying the beautiful weather we've had.

In the TUSAL glass is the rest of the red long johns and my Halloween fairy.

All I need to do to finish this one is add beads to the sailboat and find a LSU tiger lookalike.  That should will be my goal this week!

meine Liebe Auszeichnung

Dear Jill gifted me the Leibster Award the other day!  How approriate since I'm half German, meine Mutter ist Deutsch.

  Liebster is a German word meaning favourite, dearest, or beloved.  The Liebster is awarded by bloggers to other new bloggers who have fewer than 200 followers to help spread the word about their blogs and to help them gain wider recognition.

The Liebster award comes with four conditions that each recipient must satisfy when accepting.

1. Choose five up-and-coming blogs with less than 200 followers to award the Liebster to.
2. Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.
3. Post the award on your blog.  List the bloggers you are giving the award to with links to their sites.  Leave comments on their blog so they know about the award.
4. Share five random facts about yourself that people don't know about you.

My award recipients are listed below, please pay them a visit!

Ann @ Colourful Cross Stitches - is new blogger since January, and is working on The Stitcher's Days of Christmas and the cutest Victorian Dollhouse.

Helen @ Helen's Hobbies - has been working on the Spanish Sampler and it looks wonderful so far.  She's also Welsh, like me, so you can't go wrong there!

Carol @ Stitching 'n Stashing - has been working on the Sturbridge Box, and it's lovely.  AND, she quilts... only in my dreams!

Alice @ Pins and Needles - is another new blogger since December, and she loves Margaret Sherry and cats like I do!

Joyus @ A Joyus Place - has a few things in the works and just finished Santa's Flight.  It looks great and I can't wait to see how she frames it!

Now the boring fun five random facts...

1.  I seem to "kill" every electronic device I have - laptop, mobile, mini laptop.  I'm crossing my fingers for my nook and new mobile!

2.  I am a baking panaholic.  If it's new or holiday related, I want it!  I could have sworn I bought a whoopie pie pan, but I think I hid it from my DH and now can't find it.

3.  I like to collect some of the kid toys from Mc'D's, depending on what movie it's from.  Nathan has to be VERY careful when playing with MY Toy Story toys.  ; )

4.  I've read all my son's "The Hunger Games" books and can't wait to see the movie.

5.  I have all good intentions of posting things I have to bought for people, but can't seem to get my act together to bring them to the post office - I'm up to five at the moment!

Phew, that was harder than I thought!  Now this is just me saying... for you new bloggers, if you can't come up with five people, just do what you can and have fun!  And Jill, thanks again!

I thought I'd liven this up a bit - me wearing my mother's dirndl... scary, I know!

March Hermitting... belated

Can I just say my hermitting was really the weekend prior to the scheduled one?!  That was our girls stitching weekend and it was at the lake, just like January and February.  Otherwise, I really didn't do very much this past weekend.  I think I was stitched out!  But I am very anxious to continue with my Halloween Fairy, and this one's for me!

I did manage to see Casting Crowns on Sunday evening - AMAZING!  It was their Come to the Well tour, with Matthew West, and also included Lindsay McCaul and Royal Tailor.  My mother-out-law, DJ and her guys came too.  It was honestly one of the best concerts I have been to.  I loved the stories, praise and prayers and I also loved how they all came together at the end to sing.  DJ's son and I picked a child to sponsor through World Vision.  My little guy was born on Nathan's birthday, but he's a year older - such a cutie!

 

 

Quick note - Jill gifted me the Liebster Award (how sweet) so that will be my next posting - thanks, Jill! 

Fab Girls Weekend at the Lake!

This really was an "Over the river and through the wood" start to our weekend!  Due to an accident on the main highway and with help from my Dad, that's the road we took.  I think we spent more time driving in West Virginia than Maryland!  It was beautiful, but I'm so glad it was still daylight.  Poor Sonya almost lost it in the back - between the twists and turns and Nathan trying to get her to watch his DVD!  We finally made it "To Grandfather's house we go", or rather Oma and Opa's house, to drop off Nathan and head to the lake.  (And we only lost Joann and Denise once - glasses next time, Denise!)

We got some stitching done on Friday night, then took a short break on Saturday afternoon in downtown Oakland for some antique shopping.  DJ and Sonya found some treasures, but Denise, Joann and I came home empty handed.

You never know what kind of people you'll find outside of the house, taking pictures no less!

My girlfriend, Kari, joined us on Saturday afternoon.  Even though she's not a stitcher, she needed some girl time too!  We watched three of the four Twilight movies, into the wee hours of Sunday morning and we even lost an hour!  Much laughter and fun, we had a great group - now know as the Stitching Mafia.  So let us know if you need a stitch... not a hit!

This is what I worked on for the weekend, my Halloween Fairy.  Love her!  I really need to finish so I can get started on some mermaids.

Alas, the weekend came to an end much too fast.  Fabulous food, fun and friends, what more could we ask for?!  I think the next time we go, it needs to be when the clocks "fall back" so we get the hour back that we lost! 

We picked up Nathan on the way home and the girls got to see my Mother's chapel.  A great end to a perfect weekend!  Here's DJ's version of our trip.  Until next time...

WIPocalypse for March

  I finally finished my snowman mittens!  Well, sort of... I need to really finish them and make them into "mittens", but to hang on the tree.  This is the one I had to flip visually so they would match.

 

It was a slow month - but my next post will show what I did over the weekend!

 

WIPocalypse Full Moon dates for 2012:
January 9, February 7, March 8, April 6, May 5, June 4, July 3, August 1, August 31, September 29, October 29, November 28, December 28

The Stitching Mafia!

On a beautiful, moonlit night...

... The Stitching Mafia meets for the first time at the lake.

 

So if you happen to be near Deep Creek and have the urge to stitch for the afternoon, this is where we'll be!

Fun Daily Calendar Journal

I saw a version of this on Pinterest (see here) - What a fantastic idea!

I wanted something a little sturdier and bigger, so I went "shopping" on eBay.  I found a Longaberger basket/liner/protector for under $30 that was perfect for it!  Could I have found something cheaper?  Maybe, but I wanted something that wouldn't fall apart years from now and I can even hang it if I want to.  

To incorporate some type of cross stitching, I cheated and used pictures from my old yearly calendar!  I used ones that I knew I would never make and that matched the month.  I then glued them to a background and then to cardstock to make it firmer.

I wanted something bigger than the regular index card, so I bought the larger ones instead.  And go figure, the stamp that I could have used for the date was donated a while back because I never used it! 

 And just so you know, this project was Ming approved!

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant hapus!

The little Welsh girl, oh so long ago!

Saint David, (Dewi Sant in Welsh) is the patron saint of Wales. and he was one of many early saints who helped to spread Christianity among the pagan Celtic tribes of western Britain.  Go St. David!

You can wear one or both of the national emblems of Wales on your lapel to celebrate St. David.  Women usually wear the daffodil (the Welsh symbol which is in season during March) and the men wear the leek (St. David's personal symbol).  I will be wearing my daffodil pin and since DH doesn't like to wear the lovely felt leek I have for him, he wears a Welsh/American flag pin instead.  Maybe I can get Nathan to wear the leek?!

So close to blooming!

My neighbor's daffodils always bloom first!

So to get ready to celebrate St. David's Day, Nathan helped me make some Welsh cakes.  He is my little baker, and can't wait to grab the chair and help me out as only he can.

We changed them up a bit and made them stars since I looked everywhere for my "special" cutter and couldn't find it anywhere in my scattered baking supplies.

How sad, Griffin gave up sweets for Lent so maybe I'll freeze some for him later.  Or better yet, make a fresh batch next month.

 

  

 

Look what I found online, too cute!  I think I'm going to order it so I can make her for next year.

Gotta Love Veggie Tales!

I hope you can see this... too cute.  And honestly, I didn't know that - or just forgot it, like so many other things!

February TUSAL & Hermitting

It might not look like much, but I'm proud of it!  It's been slow going on the baby piece, I'm sort of stuck on the red long johns!  No new pics since there wasn't much progress.

  

As for my IHSW, we were once again at the lake.  Some of the lake was frozen and most of the snow was gone, but it was still pretty.  

I didn't stitch as much as I could have, but did have a very relaxing time.  

I worked on a belated pressie for someone special, so I can't show it here!  Just a little something, but I should have reversed the pattern and didn't realize it until it was almost done.  Oh well, now I have an extra one and don't have much more to go on the reversed one.

 

 

In other news, we had a King Cake for Mardi Gras yesterday and Nathan thought that because there was a baby in it, that I should have one!   When I told him he'd have to share his room and if it was a girl, it would also have to be a princess room, he was not impressed and quickly changed his mind!

Happy Hearts to You!

I meant to post this yesterday, but just didn't get to it - too much loving going on!  I hope you all had a day filled with love and kindness.

We don't really "do" Valentine's Day per se - cards and a little bit of candy, Paul's favourite dinner (meatloaf!), and some goodies for the boys.

As lovely as roses are, I love carnations - they last such a long time.  I was lucky enough to receive FOUR bunches!

So I joined the bandwagon and bought a Creative Options bobbin box.  I was able to put all three of my DMC boxes into one, yeah!  I'm pretty sure I have all of the DMC colours, but I might be missing one or two along the way.  
The only "problem" I had with the box, is that the cardboard bobbins don't fit the way they should - it's not quite wide enough.  I tried to turn it over, but then they were too tall and the lid wouldn't shut properly.  I also tried to trim the bobbin, but that wasn't right either.  End result - I put them in crooked and still have plenty of room for more!

Saving the best for last... we had another stitching date on Sunday, but only Denise and DJ were able to come.  The time just flew by, as it always does when we get together.  Looking forward to meeting next month, for the weekend this time!

 

Send a Free Valentine...

What do farmers give their wives on Valentine's Day?  Hogs and kisses! What are you going to put on your card?!  It doesn't cost anything but a couple of minutes of your time... just do it!

We have less than a week left to reach our goal of 5,000 valentines by February 14! Choose which valentine you want to send to a child in the hospital: Dear Friend, I just have to share a few of my favorite valentines we've received from people like you who want to wish kids in the hospital a happy Valentine's Day: Tons of Smiles and Hugs coming your way from Arizona!! XOXO Happy Valentine's Day to You! – Kristina B. What do farmers give their wives on Valentine's Day? Hogs and kisses! – Matthew and Laura G. Big Hearts, and Big smiles coming your way!!! Happy Valentine's Day from Aurora & Family ;o) – Aurora D. We've collected 1,400 valentines so far and have less than a week to reach our goal of 5,000 valentines by February 14. We're hoping to shower each of our patients with lots of valentines, so they know how much people care. Please send one of our kids a valentine today. Kids in the hospital this Valentine's Day won't be able to celebrate at school with their friends, but we can still give them a fun day to remember. Your valentine will help us make this Valentine's Day extra special. Send your valentine. Just a few words mean so much. Thank you for reaching out and showing kids in need that you care this Valentine's Day. Sincerely, Pam King Sams Executive Vice President, Development Children's National Medical Center