Silky goodness!

Yesterday, my aunt and I were lucky enough to get across the bay to Pensacola to one of our favorite needlework shops, Needle Delights.

It was the last day of their 20% off sale so I went a bit crazy, but in my defense some of the items, when I get them stitched up, are potential Christmas gifts ;)


This pic doesn't do any justice to the Belle Soie threads O_o"

I got several JBW Designs that I hadn't bought yet from Needle Delights. I didn't see 'A Very Merry Spring' at the store so I don't know where I'm going to get it because it wasn't available through Merchant mall ^-^"

I also bought Lizzie Kate's 'Fall Squared' and LHN's 'Schoolgirl Lessons.' And my first batch of Belle Soie threads!!!!

Oh, my goodness!! They are lovely. I bought them for a design that I'm making for Christmas. I bought Cranberry, Collard Greens, Noir, and Vanilla Pudding. When I got them, I couldn't stop touching them. They are so soft! I started my pattern last night using the Noir threads. (sigh) How can you go back to DMC after working with such soft threads?!? LOL I can answer my own question, expense! The Belle Soie threads are worth it though ;)

My design called for 40ct vintage river willow linen by Lakeside, but they didn't have that color at the store. But the staff at Needle Delights was very helpful by showing me alternative colors to go with the threads :) I ended up getting 32 ct platinum linen at their recommendation. I decided on 32 ct because I'm used to working on that count and I've heard that the higher the thread count, the worse it gets for your eyes. LOL I'd like to save mine for as long as possible. I'm already wearing glasses on a daily basis anyway!

The two JBW Designs of the Sweet Nothings line at the bottom of the photo were two charts that I bid for on eBay. 'Five Little Pumpkins' and 'Smiling Jack-o-Lanterns' are two of the cutest designs I've seen in her Sweet Nothings line. I can't wait to start them ;) It's a shame that most of her earlier designs are out of print!! I wish JBW Designs would publish a book with all her out of print designs, I would buy it in a heartbeat!

(sigh) I still haven't received the patterns I ordered in the mail. The lady at Needle Delights said that the mail has been crazy lately, especially since she sends every package by priority mail. She was telling my aunt and I that a package to Panama City was taking a week to get there! Yes, I would definitely say something was going on with the postal service!!

Well, maybe I'll get lucky tomorrow and it comes in the mail ;)

Have a great Sunday! Happy stitching ^__^

Only 6 books!?!?!?! My heart breaks...

I saw this list posted on Jane Austen's World blog. According to the blog she got it from, the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books on the list.

I've read 36 books on this list. Though I have to agree with Jane Austen's World; this list is by no means complete in any sense of word because a great many more classic titles that I have read are not on this list. Why is Bridget Jones' Diary on the list?!?!? And where is The Scarlett Letter or The Crucible?!?!? At least give me more than just one book by Lucy M. Montgomery!! O____o"

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you love.
4) Strike out the books you have no intention of ever reading, or were forced to read at school and hated.
5) Reprint this list in your own blog.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 The Harry Potter Series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo


LOL Apparently my shortcut key skills are terrible because I can't underline or strike a line through anything, at least on blogger. Needless to say, I didn't hate any of the books I read. I didn't really particularly like Bridget Jones' Diary or Lord of the Flies, but I didn't hate them. I liked to read in school so I never hated any of the books we were given. If something wasn't my style, I just didn't read it again. I mean who would reread Lord of the Flies?!? It was quite a disturbing book!

My all-time favorites were anything written by Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Louisa M. Alcott, and Frances Hodgson Burnett, who only has one book on the list by the way!!

Don't be an average adult!! Read more than 6 books on the list! You won't regret it. I recommend any of books by the following authors: Louisa M. Alcott, Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, Charles Dickens, Alexandre Dumas, or Thomas Hardy.

Have a great weekend. Happy reading and/or stitching ;)

Brooches and buttons

My mom, aunt, and I went on Saturday to an antique show at our local Shriner's temple. It was quite nice. Usually there aren't alot of vendors, but I guess since it's getting closer to Christmas, there were more than usual this time around. Lots of antique jewelry, furniture, clothing, and odds and ends.

I bought two costume jewelry pins. I'm starting a new job in a couple of weeks where I'll actually be able to wear the pins I have stored away. My current job as a bookseller isn't really ideal for the of wearing pins. I'm always dodging people, shelves, etc. and carrying books everywhere. The promotional pins that I wear tend to get snagged on something or other so real pins are not an option for me ^-^"

I love this pin. The woman who sold it to me thought it might be Victorian silver. LOL I must admit that I was excited about the fact that the pin might be that old, but sadly it wasn't after I was done cleaning it when I got home. The vendor told me that I could tell if it was silver by cleaning it with toothpaste. My archaeology training took her words with a grain of salt. I really didn't know if it was advisable to clean jewelry with toothpaste....maybe it is, but I didn't want to risk it!

When I got home, I proceeded to clean it with some silver cleaner. My mom and aunt advised me to clean a bit on the back of the pin just in case. This is a photo of my flower pin all cleaned up. I still don't know if it's silver. I can't really tell. There is a 'maker's mark' on the back that I could finally read after cleaning up the piece. It's made in Mexico so I'm pretty sure it isn't Victorian. I'm quite tempted to take my pin to a former co-worker at my archaeology job and ask him about it. He deals in antiques as a hobby ;) Even if it isn't as old as the vendor thought, I do love it. It is quite unusual.

As much as I love the previous pin, I think this one really stole my heart when I saw it. It isn't a real cameo, just your average costume jewelry piece. I love cameos, LOL but can't afford them that often. This is the second cameo in my collection. I have another one that I bought when I was in England last year. It was an Edwardian period cameo from 1905 that is trimmed in 18k gold.

The subject of cameos reminds me of a customer that I had earlier last week. She had a gorgeous (very small) cameo ring on her finger. I, of course, told her that I loved it. She was surprised and said, "I can't believe that you know what it is. Most people don't." LOL I think my heart broke a little bit when she told me that most people don't know what a cameo is anymore. She said it wasn't antique, but she had it made for her when she was in Italy.

(Sigh) It reminds me of Anne Rice's book Blackwood Farm. The main character Quinn always buys cameos (or has them made) for his Aunt Queen because she had been collecting cameos since she was a little child and her grandfather had given her a cameo of 'Rebecca and the Well.'

The next few items I got the last time we were at the antique show, but I forgot to post them on my blog ^__^"

A cute pin I bought for $10. I was debating on whether to buy it and my aunt said it was whimsical so I bought it! The same vendor was at the show on Saturday, but I didn't buy anything even though I did see some pins designed by Coro. I would have gotten one, but I didn't know enough about that designer's pins and how I could identify them. I'll have to research them and see what I can find the next time an antique show comes up ;)

I bought these buttons from a lady who was selling German buttons and fabric. I couldn't buy many of them since I just wanted something unique for future projects. I love these buttons! They are clear glass with small grape bunches engraved and then painted ;)

These are my favorite!! I only bought four of them because she was asking $1 per button. They are (according to the vendor) black amethyst buttons that were made in Germany during the U.S. occupation. I love the adorable gold deer on the front of these buttons!!! I had to have a few ;)

Hopefully, next time I'm at an antique show I'll be able to afford a real cameo and maybe some more fun buttons!

I was hoping for a visit from the postman today, but sadly I didn't get the cross stitch patterns I ordered ^_^" Maybe tomorrow ;)

Thanks for visiting and happy stitching!

You have what in your yard??

Yes, that was my initial reaction when my mother was outside in the backyard feeding our dog Sam. She looked over into my aunt's yard and come back in the house to get me. Apparently, there were three very large steer in my aunt's backyard. LOL


WOW!! They're so big!!!


Ohio-bred steer!!

I got on the phone and called over to my aunt's house. LOL She wasn't surprised about it at all. My mom and I were wondering why all the dogs around the area were barking! Our dog Sam was barking like a maniac because (to him) they were unknown intruders in my aunt's yard. It was quite funny to see him bark so madly at these huge steer because he is just a 7 month old chocolate lab!! I swear he thinks he's bigger than he really is ;)

You may wonder where the steer came from....our friendly neighbors down the street. They have moved down to Alabama from Ohio. They bought a house in our subdivision, but also bought 28 acres of land right beside their house that wasn't in the subdivision so they can graze their animals. Apparently, they will be bringing more cattle with them once they get the land cleared and ready for grazing. The steer in my aunt's yard had jumped a bit of the fence in her yard that had slumped down because of fallen tree limb.

Well, after seeing the steer in the backyard, I walked down to our neighbor's house. No one was home so my aunt said she didn't mind them being in her yard so we just kept the gate shut while we went to work for the day. By the time we got home, they weren't there....or so we thought. Apparently they had come back through the fence so we all scrambled for our cameras and took some pics of them. We may live in the country, but we don't owe any farmland much less farm animals so we were acting like amused 'city people' on a vacation!!! ^__^"

I went down to the neighbors' house (finally someone was home) to let them know that their steer were in our yard. LOL The owner was very nice and apologetic. My sister and I told him that it really wasn't a big deal. None of us minded the steer being there, but he continued to apologize. He said, "I wondered where they had gone."

He got a fed bucket and came up through my aunt's yard and lead the steer over the fence. It was amazing how fast those steer could be when they saw that bucket of fed. I didn't know that cows could jump, but they did indeed jump over the fence to get out!


Steer and a satellite dish!

The funniest part about the steer was the fact that they were munching on some grass near my aunt's satellite dish and one of them nudged it. LOL She told us that she can get her extra channels now, but not the regular ones on cable. I wonder what she'll tell the cable people when they come to reposition her dish. ^___^

It's quite sad that my uncle is going to have to fix the fence. I quite liked having the company of grazing steer!

Have a great Sunday ;)

Ah, autumn and apples!

My favorite time of year is the autumn so the latest Cross-Stitch and Needlework magazine was a must-have!



I haven't started on any of the projects in this issue yet. But I hope to start Nora Corbett's 'Halloween Fairy' design in the future. I just need to make a trip to Pensacola to get the required fabric, threads, and Mill Hill beads. Even if you don't care much for autumn designs, the Nora Corbett design is well worth it for fans of her artwork!!

Earlier this week I went by Hobby Lobby with the intention of buying some more 28 ct Cashel antique white Zweigart and was pleasantly surprised with the decor of the store. Lovely orange pumpkins, scarecrows, and fall-leaf garlands. They have put out all of their autumn ceramics, garlands, and other fun items. (sigh) Love it.

The autumn always reminds me of school. I went by Target last week and they had started to put out all of the school supplies. My geeky heart longed to go back to school just to buy some cute folders, pens, and a new book bag ;)

With the spirit of autumn in mind, I started a new cross stitch project. The JBW design 'French Country III - Apple.'


Design: JBW Designs, 'French Country III - Apple'
Thread: DMC 4210, variegated
Fabric: 28 ct Cashel antique white Zweigart
Finished: 7/15/08 and 7/17/08

I must say that after using a variegated thread for the first time, I love it!! I will definitely use them on other designs. I love the DMC 4210 for the apple design. I picked it up at the store because it reminded me of apples when they start to get old with colors ranging from a ripe red to a deep red ;)

LOL I was so proud of my first attempt at variegated threads that I showed my aunt the apple design. We were debating on how to finish it and we decided that it would look great in a frame ;) We might go to Pensacola in the future to see what types of frames Needle Delights have in stock since they have remodeled their store to include a framing section!

I ordered some more JBW designs from them early this week so I can't wait to get started on some more autumn designs such as the 'French Country IV - Pumpkin' and 'Autumn Harvest.'

Thanks for visiting! Happy stitching ^___^

The book-buying bug (Yikes) and some slow stitching O_o"

Wednesday was a good day at work. I received a craft book that I've been waiting on for a while. Sew Pretty Christmas Homestyle ;)


(Sigh) It makes me giddy just looking at the cover of this book!

I would love to try some of the projects in this book. The designer Tone Finnanger has some gorgeous patterns and great gift ideas. I especially love her pattern for the 'muffin' pincushions, which are actually what I would call cupcakes, and then her pattern for apples! Her previous book Sew Pretty Homestyle had lovely patterns for pears and strawberries :)

LOL I just need a certain lovely aunt to make a craft room so I can sew some patterns together. You know who you are!! *hint hint* ^__^

Since the book-buying bug had caught me on Wednesday, I also purchased A Dictionary of Victorian London, Be With You, and Socrates in Love. The last two books are translations of two successful Japanese novels that I've wanted to read. They are considered to be in the genre of 'pure love.'

Be With You is about a man whose wife has died and he is left to continue on and take care of their young son. His wife miraculously comes back to life, but she doesn't remember anything of her previous life with her husband or son. They get a second chance to fall in love before the rainy season ends and she has to leave. Socrates in Love tells the story of a young man who falls in love with a popular girl. Despite their growing relationship with one another, both of them have to deal with the fact that she is ill with leukemia.

Both of the books were bestsellers in Japan, which in turn speared on manga, anime, or television/movie versions of the books. I can't wait to read them....though I might be in for some tears in the end.

A Dictionary of Victorian London is fun. I love anything to do with the history of England so I ordered this book into the store on a whim. I'm glad I did! It is an A-Z dictionary that has various words, events, etc. described not by an comtemporary author, but through articles, letters, etc. written by people who lived during the period. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves Victorian England. LOL It will definitely help the next time I need a definition while reading a Victorian novel ;)

On to other news besides the ever-ending greed of the book-buying bug!

I meant to put up a pic of the progress on my '4 Seasons' sampler by Anagram Diffusion, but sadly I haven't....shame on me. But it is in some serious need of ironing just to get the wrinkles out so it will have to wait until later.

But despite no pics of the sampler, I started on one of the patterns out of the Gift of Stitching magazine. It is for an Icelandic-style biscornu.


It looks so nice....

...but in truth, it's very slow stitching. The pattern calls for Victorian red 28 ct linen. LOL Of course, none of the stores in town carry that linen except for two of my local needlework shops, which are an hour and half away. So I had to use 14 ct red Aida.....and let me tell you....insanity.

I've gotten so used to working on linen by Zweigart (when I can find that brand) or others that I've forgotten how slow it can be to stitch on Aida fabric. LOL Especially if you are stitching with 'one thread.'

(Sigh) I think my aunt is right. She said that it sounded like being used to knitting with very nice woolen yarn and going back to acrylic yarn. LOL I guess crafters do have similar grievances when it comes to quality. I have nothing against Aida fabric or the stitchers who love it, but I've been spoiled using linen and my stitching is too slow.

So in short (LOL), I probably won't have this biscornu finished anytime soon. Maybe early next week if I'm lucky with time.

Thanks for visiting, reading my ramblings, and perhaps understanding my 'grievances'! Happy stitching :)

(sigh) Stitching....the bad and then the good!

Not much stitching since my last post, mostly because I've been debating on what to start next and that depends on what fabric I have...(O_O)"

But some progress was made in other ways yesterday. My sister and I went by the main public library downtown and wandered around for an hour or two; my sister in the non-fiction sections and myself in the craft sections. I found several cross stitch books, two of which I've borrowed before and two that I hadn't seen the last time I was at the main branch of the library :)

The first new book I picked up was 100 Cross-Stitch Christmas Ornaments by Carol Siegel.


The red heart is one of the designs I want to stitch. The book looks so nice and pretty until....


NO TEMPLATES?!?!?!?! O_o"

There are several ornaments in this book that I would love to stitch....LOL the only problem.....the lack of finishing templates. Yes, a good cross stitcher in the world went bad in their giddy madness to finish their Christmas ornaments and tore out the templates in the back!!!! O_o"

Fits of last minute finishing during the holidays can be devastating to fellow stitchers who borrow books from the library. (sigh)

The second new book I picked up was Scrap Saver's Christmas Stitchery by Sandra Foose.


Aren't the Christmas bears just the cutest?!?!


The ornament design I want to make for the holidays this year!! Felt gingerbread cookies, too cute!!

The good news about visiting the library's website after coming home was the fact that another branch had a second copy of the Christmas ornament book!! Yay, perhaps I'll find some templates in that one! Keep your fingers crossed ;)

The goodness of the day continued when I went over to my aunt's house to ask which JBW Designs she had bought the last time we were at Needle Delights in Pensacola. We were looking through her designs (she had several that I was going to buy that day) when she decided to buy The Gift of Stitching digital magazine. To my credit I was going to buy it myself, but she beat me to it partly because she's sneaky (pretending to look at the website) and partly because her ultra-cute cat was on my lap and I wasn't paying attention to what she was doing. What can I say?! I'm a cat person so I was distracted by the cuteness!

OMG!!!! If you haven't subscribed to The Gift of Stitching....you know what I'm going to say...shame on you!! Paying for it is super easy and you get it instantly! No waiting for a bookstore to open or anything, I consider that a plus ;)

My aunt and I proceeded to download all the issues (she bought the package deal with a 1 year subscription and all the back issues for the magazine at a very good price) and then we looked through all the Christmas ornament issues first and through the rest of them after we finished exclaiming over every single Christmas ornament ^__^

(sigh) It was amazing. I love the quality of this digital magazine. In addition to the patterns, you get articles on the history of different countries' stitching and diagrams for new finishings like biscornus and old ones like strawberry emeries, scissor fobs, etc. LOL I've already printed out several ornaments or projects that I want to start!!!

LOL Now my aunt and I are waiting with much impatience for the newest issue of Piecework to come out at our local Barnes and Noble. According to the website, it has an article on pincushions. I love small finishes in addition to all others so this magazine is a must have ;)

Thanks for visting and happy stitching ^__^

A rabbit and lovely antiques :)

Yesterday I decided to take a break from stitching Christmas ornaments and dug through my stash. I remembered that I had bought two of JBW Designs' 'French Country I - Rabbit' and 'French Country - Amour.' I decided on the rabbit design since my nickname is 'Bunny' and it is my blog's name as well.

After work yesterday I went by Joann's Fabrics to look for some nice DMC thread for my rabbit design. I got DMC 3350 as the optional color since I didn't have any of the other threads that were recommended. DMC 3350 is called 'dusty rose' and I thought it went well with the color linen I was using from my stash.

This design is suppose to be made into a pillow...but I haven't progressed to that yet :) I did buy some fabric at Joann's and Wal-mart yesterday.....LOL now I just have to decide on one of them! ^__^"


Design: JBW Designs, 'French Country I - Rabbit'
Thread: DMC 3350
Fabric: 28 ct Cashel antique white Zweigart
Finished: 7/4/08 and 7/5/08

I worked on this design a bit last night after I had cut my piece of linen and fray checked it. I had to take out most of my stitching because I accidently 'counted' the stitches wrong. (sigh) I hate it when that happens. I woke up early this morning and stiched on it a bit before deciding to go to my local antique store to check out a porcelain 'bunny' that my aunt thought I might like. It was cute, but it just wasn't for me. I'll have to keep my eyes out for a nice bunny in the future. While I was at the Antiques at the Loop I found something I couldn't live without!!! I'm sure some of you have guessed what it is....



Yes....a book, but not just any book!! Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Shuttle from 1907. It was only $12....so I grabbed it of course :) I try to collect her books when I find them. I figured that $12 was cheaper than trying to order the same book through a bookstore since even a paperback version of the book is about $20 because they don't publish it that often ^-^"

I don't know what I'll work on next....maybe my WIP '4 Seasons' by Anagram Diffusions. I got the pattern for Christmas! I like how it's turning out so far. I'll have to post a picture of it sometime this week.

I might just work on something else, but who knows....maybe not since I don't have a nice varieties of linens. The next time I'm in Pensacola, I'll have to make a stop at Needle Delights and pick up a variety of different counts of linen since Hobby Lobby is good for everything but linen selections.

I hope that everyone is having a safe "Independence Day' weekend in the States and a safe weekend everywhere else in the world :) Thanks for visiting and happy stitching!

'Happiest of Holidays' stitching finished!

I've been stitching since 11:30am and finally finished stitching 'Happiest of Holidays' at 3:20pm. I did have a break for lunch and I went outside to give our dog, Sam, some cold water and food :) He was good for once and didn't jump on me like crazy ;)

I took a few pictures of my stitched piece. I'm convinced that I need to start taking my photos outside so I can get the right lighting for my pieces. Linen seems (at least for me) to be quite tricky to take pics of!!!




Design: Sue Hillis, 'Happiest of Holidays'
Fabric: 25 ct white Lugana Zweigart
Thread: DMC 321, 'over one'
Finished: 6/26/08 and 7/3/08

This ornament does call for Weeks Dye Works thread, but since I'm not near a needlework shop I went with the option of DMC 321. I think this design would be quite easy to use a variegated thread on since it is 'over one' and on 25 ct linen. I should have tried it, but I only had a skein of Caron Wildflower that was red and green...which I didn't think would look right on this design.

Thanks for visiting :) Happy stitching!

One ornament almost finished :)

In November or December, I had bought the Just Cross Stitch 2007 Christmas Ornament issue. I stitched up the Twisted Oaks design 'Santa in the Moon' in a day, but didn't finish it. Tonight I thought....well, I've got the time so why not add the beads. It didn't take me too long to do though I need to work on my bead technique since it is all new to me....those beads can be devilish!!

Now I just need to pick out a fabric for the backing and I can sew it as a pillow ornament!!

Here's some pictures of my finish so far. Yet again, I apologize for the quality of my photos; they don't do the ornament or fabrics much justice (O _ o)"






Design: Twisted Oaks, 'Santa in the Moon'
Fabric: 32 ct white linen
Finished: ?? One day in December
Thread: DMC 498 w/Mill Hill beads 00479 white

The last picture is of the ornament with a sampling of the various Christmas fabrics I picked up at Hobby Lobby, Joanne's Fabrics, and Hancock's after the holidays were over. I don't know which one I want to use for the backing...though I really love the glittery snowflakes on the blue fabric. I don't know if it suits the 'Santa in the Moon' theme?! Hmm...

Hopefully if all goes as planned tomorrow, I will work on the 'Happiest of Holidays' and possibly have it completely stitched up :) Keep your fingers crossed!

Thanks for reading my blog! Happy stitching ^___^

Japanese goodies!!!!

I'm sorry for not posting sooner. I've been a bit stressed lately and we had family come down from Michigan last week. They stopped by our house on the way down to Orlando. Let's just say it was alot of people in one house!!

I was very happy this morning when I saw a new comment on my previous post. It was from Yuko!! I had wrote a nice comment on one of her most recent posts to compliment her on her gorgeous work. I love her finishes!!

She told me that she had received her copy of the Christmas Preview issue of JCS in the mail. After reading her comment, I remembered that I finally got the Japanese craft books I bought from eBay in the mail yesterday!! I got Stitch Ideas Volume 3-5 and Cross Stitch for A Princess...at least that's how they were translated on eBay. I have to show everyone a picture of the books :)



(sigh) Despite my best efforts, I ended up buying yet another book yesterday at work. Yes, you must get used to me talking about books in addition to cross stitch on my blog ;)

I recently finished reading Emma by Kaoru Mori. It is a manga (Japanese comics) series that takes place in Victorian England. A maid and gentleman fall in love and have to overcome obstacles in order to be together. It was a sweet series. I love anything to do with England so I read it. The anime that accompanies the manga is very good as well.

Well, I was reading the fifth volume of the series and one of the characters mentioned a book called The Prisoner of Zenda. (sigh) And of course, I looked it up on the computer to see if we had it in the store and luckily we did. So I bought that yesterday. To my credit, I finished Totto-chan today so I can start my new book....and yes, I will get to Jane Eyre. I figured that I read it already so I wanted something new. LOL

I promise I'll have an update of my ornament later this week. Thanks for reading my blog.

Also a special thanks to Yuko for leaving such a nice comment on my blog :) It really made my day!!