Another Stitching Finish

I finished this yesterday. Sorry the picture isn't better, but it was quite hard getting the whole thing in the frame. I absolutely love Shepherd's Bush designs. This one is called Sailing Away. The colors are so soft and it was really a fun stitch. And quick! I like quick! I have a tendency to pick larger projects, but am trying to do some smaller things so that I feel like I'm accomplishing something. This will probably end up on the one of the walls in the Guest Room. Everything in there is Shepherd's Bush. One of the walls is quite long and I'm in the processing of filling that one up. Maybe by next year I'll have enough up to post a picture.

FINALLY!!!!!

We have been living with this room for three years almost to the day - since we moved in. This is what we were living in and had to work with:

When we bought our house three years ago, we knew that work needed to be done. Of course, there were things that had to be done right away (a roof is a good thing, etc.) so the inside basically sat for a few years. Right after we moved in, my husband and a friend drywalled over the brick fireplace and removed brick from the floor in front of the two windows. He then subfloored where he removed the bricks and there it sat for about three years. We called it "roughing it". We didn't have enough furniture to fill the room, so it looked pretty pathetic for all that time. Oh, and there was no carpeting on the floor - just painted subflooring.

Finally after three years (almost to the day) we have an end result (or almost the end):

There are pictures to be found and decorations, but I hesitated buying anything until I saw what the furniture would actually look like in the room. I'm so happy with it. This room was almost the death of me or the end of my marriage - I'm not sure what came the closest. My husband wanted Laz-y-boy!!! AUGHHHHH! We had that before - been there, done that. I'll admit that it is comfortable furniture, but it's so.....Laz-y-boy looking. I just couldn't take seeing another piece of reclining furniture in my (okay, our) family room. He actually ended up picking out the sofa and ottoman and as a concession to him, the chair in the foreground on the left is a reclining chair. I think that he's sat in it once - go figure. Also I saved an incredible amount of money on this furniture. A lot of calls to North Carolina did the trick. Once I got my prices from NC, I went to my local furniture store and dickered with them! Things are so economically bad, that they honored all the prices. Wasn't quite like shopping on a shoestring, but I did save a ton of cash!!!

While my husband was in an agreeable mood about ordering window treatments, I also convinced him that we needed some for the kitchen too. He wasn't smiling after he saw the pricetag (but then again, he usually doesn't smile much on a good day either - LOL), but they look so nice. The next project is the kitchen, but that will probably be on hold until next year or when the economy gets better (or until my cooktop dies and the refrigerator groans one last time. Oh yes, the dishwasher hasn't worked in two years, but I enjoy washing dishes three times a day (yeah, right!).

Over the sink.

Over the doorwall.

A Bit of Nature

I meant to add this to my post earlier and had forgotten. This picture I took recently out at my BILs. He has a number of fruits and vegetables out at his place and I couldn't resist taking a picture of this dragonfly. I thought the colors against the raspberries was incredible and that on the tips of it's wings you could see the leaves through them.

This is my latest accomplish. It's Sampler of Stitches by The Drawn Thread. I loved working on this because it wasn't just cross stitch, but a combination of that and speciality stitches. Once I started working on it, I couldn't wait to keep going, but it came out in nine installments over a period of a little over a year, so I had to be patient. Now I'm working on Sail Away by Shepherd's Bush. That is a fun stitch also because of the combination of cross stitch and specialty stitches. The colors are wonderful in in (a lot of blues - my favorite) and I'll post a picture of my progress next time.

My First Entry

This is my first entry into the world of blogging, so please excuse any mistakes I make here.

Let me introduce myself. I'm a stay-at-home mom of two very ACTIVE children. My son is a 10th grader who swims, plays football, caddies golf and just took driver's training. I get a little worried. My daughter just entered middle school and that too is scary!

I decided to enter the world of blogging after seeing so many interesting blogs from people across the world. It is truly fascinating to see their worlds, their hobbies, the pictures and to hear their opinions. I always wanted to do this, but it's finally now that I've been inspired to do so.

I am passionate about needlework. Any kind, whether it be cross-stitching (my first love), needlepoint, knitting, quilting - I love it all. And that is what started me on this attempt to blogging. A friend sent me a link to a Neighborhood Round Robin that was starting up. Traditionally, one person will decide on their theme, and then pass her fabric around (sometimes around the world) for people to enter buildings, trees, etc., to create their town. When the piece comes back there may be up to a dozen different houses, buildings, etc. And they are truly stunning. This particular Round Robin is done totally by the person who wants it. They are to graph out and design their Town. Then they stitch it entirely themselves. As I've wanted to do one of these forever, this seemed like a good opportunity. I don't believe stitching actually begins until December, which gives all the "town builders" sufficient time to plan and draft out their towns.

So, that is why I started this. Also to share my love and enthusiasm for the craft and pictures of what I've done.

I've attempted to put in a picture of a sampler I recently completed. It's by Handwork Samplers and is called Flora Virginia's Holmes' Sampler. It was so much fun to stitch.