Ah, the coming of Fall and antiquing :)

Hi, everyone!! Fall, as I've said before, is my favorite time of year. LOL I think it has something to do with my nerd-ish heart and the notion of going off to school! (Sigh) I miss school!! ^__^ The mornings have started to get just a tiny bit of nip to them so I was inspired to stitch something fall-ish in honor of the season!!


I started on Thursday to stitch the JBW design Pumpkin! You notice I have one of my fobs from Yuko already in use!! I just want to thank Yuko again because it is sooo much easier to keep up with my scissors when they are attached to this fob :)


Design: JBW Designs, 'French Country IV - Pumpkin'
Thread: DMC 4124, variegated
Fabric: 28 ct Cashel antique white Zweigart
Finished: 9/18 and 9/19/08

The design called for DMC #3826, but I used #4124 partly because I was lazy and didn't want to run to Hobby Lobby and buy the recommended thread color and I had picked up the #3826 color earlier when I first got my JBW designs in the mail. I thought it would look nice for a pumpkin since it reminds me of Halloween :)

Since I finished stitching this design last night, I had time to do something else fun today! My sister and I went to our local Abba Temple to antique. My sister rarely gets to antique with my mother and I because she usually works on the weekends. Today was a fun experience for her, LOL, though she seemed a bit overwhelmed with all the different things to look at.

While at the antique show, I bought several new brooches! LOL You knew I would!! I can't resist brooches....they are becoming my second downfall next to my obsession with books ^_^"

Isn't it pretty and petite? Filagree leaves, a stem, and a lovely flower with white rhinestones surrounding a purple stone at the top :) LOL The stem reminds me of pumpkins for some reason!

A unique brooch containing dried flowers and leaves! I love the border around the edge with the four leaves. While I was picking this brooch out along with the others, the vendor was talking to a friend of hers about brooches. She called them, little 'pieces of art' that you can wear. I quite agree!! I love wearing them to work ^___^

A neat sword brooch!!! It is adorned with five faux pearls. LOL When my mother saw this brooch she said, "But you don't like pearls!" Pearls aren't my favorite despite the fact that they are my 'birthstone.' For June, the birthstone can either be pearls or alexandrite. I love alexandrite, but you hardly ever see it....and if you do find a jeweler who sells it....you're paying practically a car payment to get one!!!

So Glittery with all those red rhinestones!! Next to my cameos, this one might be my second favorite in my growing collection of brooches. The little 'petals' around the center remind me of tiny royal crowns :) (Sigh) This brooch would look lovely with a cream-colored scarf!! LOL I never thought I would say (or write) this, but I can't wait for Monday so I can wear these new brooches. I think I'm going to wear this one first :)

In addition to antiquing, I took a pic of this nice stitched piece by my friend Kristina. She and I used to work at the same bookstore.


She stitched this Asian cross stitch design for me as a gift for starting my new job :) I don't remember what the characters on this design mean....I think she said it was for good luck....but I will have to ask her and let you know :)

Before I forget, I promised everyone that I would scan the mini-article out of the 1899 Ladies' Home Journal about the pincushions/emeries!!


Bachelor pincushion?!

Apparently, men were neater with their possessions then nowadays!! This is a neat article. Who would have thought that strawberry pincushions would have been used by men to keep their pins? (sigh) Makes you long for the past and all the fashionable clothing that was commonplace. It seems to me that our time period has no defining style like other eras.....it makes me sad in a way. LOL That's the historian in me talking :) Darn history degree!!

Hope everyone is having a good weekend! Happy stitching!!

Lovely scissor fobs!!

After a crazy day at jury duty, I came home to a package from Yuko!! The scissor fobs that I purchased from her Etsy store arrived!! ^___^


A pic of my shortcake fob! (sigh) The photo isn't as beautiful as Yuko's pics, but it was the best I could do!! LOL I need to take a photography class in the future ^_^"


A pic I took of my pink cameo fob!! Isn't it beautiful? I love it!!

I showed both of the fobs to my aunt and she loved them too ^___^

Well, I've got some cross stitching to do! I'm glad tomorrow is Friday. I have jury duty in the morning and then I'll be done!!! And then I get to go back to my job and see what state my desk is in O_o"

Keep making such lovely crafts, Yuko! Happy Stitching!

Nearly finished :)

Hi, everyone! Just a quick post to show my progress on my WIP Elements. I haven't had much time to stitch on this pattern over the week. I got stuck with jury duty for two weeks....fun times, really! O_o"


I've gotten almost all of the Eau block finished, which means 40% of my pattern finished!! Yeah :) The only motif to add to this part of the pattern is the woman with the pitcher of water!!

In other news, I found an interesting mini-article in the 1899 Ladies' Home Journal that I bought last weekend. I will have to share it with you later on this week when I have to chance to scan the images so I can upload them on my blog :) The article is a neat bit of history on strawberry emeries/pincushions.

In addition to getting some stitching done this week, I ordered some very cute scissor fobs from Yuko's Etsy store :) I bought two of her creations: a pink cameo-charm scissor fob and another with a super adorable felt strawberry shortcake-charm!!! I can't wait to get them in the mail ^____^

Yuko's blog is one of my favorites. She always takes gorgeous photos and has some of most beautiful finishes for her stitched pieces! She just had her birthday recently! Happy b-day Yuko :)

Hope everyone has a good work week! Happy Stitching!!

Blast from the past

(sigh) Now we just have to wait and see what Hurricane Ike is going to do. I WISH it would just disappear. Category 4 and 5 hurricanes are bad news to any area they come in contact with!!!

I got more stiching done on my WIP Elements. Not much, but at least it's progress :) Sometimes I don't have the time to sit and get some stitching done after work during the weekdays. Especially, if my mom and I take our dog Sam for a walk. He's a 8 month old brown lab!!! LOL And he is crazy. We are trying to teach him how to walk without rushing ahead of us.....I can't even hold the leash....he's 60 lbs of energy!!

Here's some pics of my progress on my French sampler.



I finished some more on the 'Eau' block ^__^ I got the words 'Eau' finished, some other motifs, and the scorpion!



In other news, I went antiquing yesterday :) I saw several beautiful brooches that I couldn't afford, but I found a blast from the past while at one of my local antique shops!!


O_o" I can't believe I found one of these!!! A Ladies' Home Journal from 1899. The vendor has several others, but I couldn't afford all of them....even though my bookish heart longed for them ^__^

The magazine doesn't have any color plates like the Lady Godey's magazines of the same period, but it is still valuable as a source of historical lifeways.

Well, I hope everyone has a great week :) Happy stitching!!!

Hurricane Gustav and stitching

I hope everyone is safely at home today along the Gulf Coast with this crazy hurricane that has come through!!

It's been a busy weekend. I've got some stitching done when I could find the time to do so! My family and I were getting our house ready for Gustav by putting things away in our backyard shed, bringing flower pots inside, and making sure that items that couldn't fit in the shed were tied down. We also made a grocery run and stocked up on foodstuffs in case we lost power. Even though we were lucky in not getting the worst of Gustav, I don't regret getting our house ready for the season! We even got our generator out and ran it for an hour since we haven't used it since Katrina.

In terms of stitching, I worked on my WIP Sampler Elements by Anagram Diffusion. I love French cross stitch patterns. They are so beautiful ;)



The fabric I'm using for this pattern is 32ct olive green Belfast linen and measures 27" x 27". I didn't think the color would work for this design. I wanted a lighter green, but a very nice lady at Patches and Stitches suggested the color when I told her what DMC thread color (498) I was using for the pattern :)


Design: Anagram Diffusions, Sampler Elements
Thread: DMC 498
Fabric: 32ct olive green Belfast linen


This is the first block I worked on from January throughout March. My aunt got the pattern for me during Christmas. I had to wait until January when I went up to visit some friends in Huntsville before visting their LNS and getting advice on fabric and thread colors.


Wow!! I actually ironed it so it would look nice ^___^ Yesterday and today, I worked on the lower left of the 'Eau' block of the pattern. I also got the ribbon by the dolphin finished and the first letter of Eau ;)

Well, I'll post later with more progress on my WIP. I'm going to get some reading done while I have the rest of the day off from work. I'm reading Georgiana, The Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman. It's quite good for a biography. The movie version called The Duchess comes out later in September. I can't wait to see it!! I love Keira Knightley when she is in historical films. I'm a sucker for historical period films!! I love the costumes ;)

Be safe! Happy stitching ^___^