Finally framed.....

Once Upon A Tree Sampler is finally framed and hanging in the kitchen. This chart was featured in Just Cross-Stitch Magazine in 4 parts during 2009. It was beautiful as charted but I just grabbed from my box of silks and changed all the threads and beads. I love it!


On the exercise front - I'm going. Some days that's just as good as it gets; so I'm proud of myself for getting up and not talking myself out of it, but actually going. Today was TurboKick and while it was a great cardio class, I'm beat!

I think I'll go stitch for a bit and recoup. Have a great Monday!

Quick note on survival.....

I survived Zumba and most of a toning class this morning. I don't know how the rest of my day will go, and while I'm very sore - it feels good.

I have a ham bone in the soup pot with white beans, finely minced carrots, fresh garlic and sweet onion. Add a nice crispy skillet of cornbread and we'll have a great winter dinner this evening.

I don't think I've posted this on my blog so here's my Chatelaine piece, Evening In The Park. It's stitched on Silkweavers 32ct Jobelan in Sudden Storm. It's a really softly mottled piece and is a wonderful companion for the colors in this piece.

While Dear Husband's away.....

the wife will play. He's gone until Friday and I've planned something special for everyday. Usually I hibernate at home and luxerate in having the house to myself, staying up till all hours of the morning and sleeping in. If you can call 7:30 really sleeping in. LOL

This year I decided to step out of the box and try something new. I hit the casino with friends last night (it's ladies night). Broke even and had a great time; that's what it's all about!

Tonight I have a group of friends coming for dessert, manicures (and hand dips in one of those paraffin spa baths) and of course swimsuits and the hot tub. They will all go home loose-as-a-goose and ready for sweet dreams. Of course I'll stay up and stitch. Can't quite put down WFN and I even have a new start all ready to go!

Gym update - I need to get back into my early morning machine routine which consist of the elliptical, the treadmill then making a round of the free-standing weight machines. Who knew they were actually fun? I called Lisa, my exercise partner and we both decided we have to get back to it. Also convinced her to come to a ZUMBA class with me and give it a try. If you have the opportunity but have never tried one, your really missing something!

Today will consist of cleaning house for my guests, including bathing the dogs (you know they have to greet everyone who enters the house). Baking a homemade chocolate cake too, from scratch!

I think I'll turn the music up really loud and practice some Zumba routines while I'm cleaning......

enjoy today, no matter what you do!

Here's an update of Waiting For Neptune (Linda Ravenscroft is the artist). You can see the beginnings of the scroll work on the left. I can't wait to work over to the tail of a seahorse or up to the tail of a mermaid.

Not everyone.......

loves Valentine's Day but I do. We've made it into an elaborate celebration and had years where it was simply a quiet, romantic day spent together. It's all good - so Happy Valentine's Day, feel special and loved all day.

On a crafting note, DH will be out of town next week and I'm anxious to start my new piece. It's ready to go and these past few days I've been so excited about putting those first stitches in. Can't wait to get started and see it start to grow. ooh - it's Ian Daniels, Salamander piece for the black box.

The perfect little black box.....

since I'm to fat for a perfect little black dress, I'll have to settle for a perfect little black box. ROFL

I spent the better part of a late afternoon and evening plotting the fragmentation of Ian Daniels Salamander chart to fit the openings for this box. I think it's going to be fantastic!

On a whiney note, I did my first Zumba exercise class on Friday and I'm still sore. It was great fun and I will be going back.

A couple of new starts....

there are so many beautiful charts I would love to start. Here are two relatively new ones.

A Chatelaine, Evening In The Park stitched over 2 on 32ct. Jobelan from Silkweaver in Sudden Storm.

A Linda Ravenscroft piece, Waiting For Neptune stitched over 1 on 28ct. Lugana in Ivory.


I have a couple of new craft projects in the planning stages, along with 1 new cross-stitch piece. I found these beautiful black boxes (about 10x15 or so) at Hobby Lobby. They are very, very nice and are lined inside with black felt like a jewelry box and also have a hinged lid. The top is cutout into various spaces for pictures but rather than having the entire lid cutout with a large mat that has individual cutouts (have I lost you yet?) these pieces actually have the wood top cutout, leaving behind the black wood outlines around the cutouts. There is a layer of glass under the cutout and a compartment to insert your photos into. Now I thinking I could stitch parts of Ian Daniel's Salamander chart to fit the cutouts. It's in navys and orange/peach/shimmer shades. It would look very nice sitting on the coffee table and would be a great place to hold all that damn remotes.

Pretty and functional too...

New beginnings.......

are awesome! my bad, I've been neglectful of so many things since this past summer. I quit several groups and activities so focus more time on family and the things I really want to do. Time to reinvent my stitching blog and that means a beautiful new template. It's courtesy of Izzie Grace Blogging Backgrounds; you'll find her button at the bottom of my blog. They are free and she literally have 100's of beautiful backgrounds to choose from.

I've been traveling, stitching and quilting up a storm since last summer. I'll be back with pictures after tweaking my template.....