Memorial Day 2016

In memory of those who gave their lives to protect our freedoms. 

Slow Sunday Stitching

 Its Sunday again and time to slow down and relax a bit. My niece and youngest cousin spent the night last night. We had a good time watching movies, eating cookies, having a dance party, you know, girly things.

I FINALLY decided what to spend my jury duty money on. You remember, a couple months ago, I had jury duty? Well I've been hoarding the money because I couldn't decide what to pick up. This week I picked out a couple hand dyed fabrics to use with two of the kits I have. These are by Silkweaver.

I'm practically jumping up and down with excitement. Hand dyed fabric! Love! In the case of the Frog Pile kit I recruited my husband to photoshop the fabric into the white background so that I could pick one that worked. He tried a couple of them for me and I thought the soft rainbow looked best.

For Slow Sunday Stitching, I'm going to be listening to my audible book (Wizard's First Rule) and working my way across the top of the first page of Waiting by Frances (retired), charted by Tilton Crafts.

Not a lot to see here yet but I'm slowly plodding along. How are you spending your Sunday?

Kittens!

I came home today all full of fire and ready to clean this house. Not just clean but CLEAN as in dejunk, dust, full on crazy I'm tired of this mess clean.

That lasted for about an hour. I started in the bedroom, got my dresser and the cedar chest cleared off, started a load of laundry, put the trash on the curb, ate some S'moreos, and *poof* ran out of steam. Oh well, its cleaner than it was. 

The last couple of weeks I have been working on Library Kittens again. I am so happy with how this is turning out. Just to give you some idea of how far along this has come recently, here is a photo from the beginning of the year.

And here it is now....

Wait for it....

.... ;)

There is still a fair amount of backstitching in the upper left to be done, but I have been doing some here and there when I get to it.

May you have a blessed week!

Its a Purple Sort of Spring

I dragged myself outside after work today to do some much needed yard work, and I was delighted to discover that my yard has decided to celebrate spring with purple flowers EVERYWHERE.

The violets are taking over :) Unfortunately, I had to mow most of these today but I did leave a couple patches in the corners.

My lilac bush is starting to bloom and smells amazing.

And this year I found these pretty purple flowers in the back corner. I have no idea what they are but I let them continue to grow.

The last week or so has been a little light on the crafting side of things. I finished the hat last week and made a dent in the remaining yarn for the scarf. I also spent some small bit of time on Library Kittens. I'm itching to get back into the sewing room for some quilting time but Ragnarok Prep is going to have to take a priority.

I'm getting conflicting reports on whether or not it is International Hermit and Stitch Weekend this weekend, but either way, I'm hoping to devote some time to working on my garb. Happy Spring all!

Slow Sunday Stitching

It's been a fun and full weekend so far. We had a Girls-Day-In yesterday, with my cousins and my niece coming over to watch Mine Craft Diaries, Fruits Basket, and a little Doctor Who. We made homemade potstickers, ate cherry pie and ice cream, and even ran out for a couple hours to finish up the mother's day and gift basket shopping.

I put together a quick gift basket and tried my hand at making homemade bath bombs. The bath bombs didn't work out. I added too much water, causing them to react and fizz, and foam over. Never fear, I made a quick batch of bath salts instead. Same concept, different form. I used Stress Away essential oil by Young Living in them and they smelled so good that I wanted to take a bath myself. 

There is also a flameless candle, a book (Storm Front by Jim Butcher), some chocolate, and a bottle of Red Velvet Cupcake wine. I don't drink so I have no idea if this is any good but my cousin thought it sounded delicious enough to get one for herself.

We have church and Mother's Day activities today at Nana's nursing home, and a funeral to attend tomorrow.

I plan on taking my crochet scarf with me today but when I get home, it will be time for Slow Sunday Stitching. I would like to do some stitching on my Tribal Otter.

I hope you all have a lovely Mother's Day. Don't forget to tell someone that you love them today.

May's One Monthly Goal

Last month my goal was to finish my Craftsy class. I did not make this goal. I'm starting to get a little frustrated with my embroidery software. There are things that I know it should be able to do but I'm missing that one critical click or step that makes it work the way it should. I am having trouble finding the tutorials that I need, and the manual for the software simply acknowledges that the tool exists. I really need one solid weekend uninterrupted dedicated to figuring this out.

This weekend I started working on a hat to match my basketweave scarf. I only have six skeins of this yarn and wanted to make sure that I had enough yarn to do both.  This month, I should be able to finish the hat and the scarf.

One Monthly Goal is supposed to be a quilty goal setting party, but with Ragnarok coming up, I don't think I'll get a chance to do much quilting. So my goal this month will be to make the embroidered water bottle carrier for my cousin Rune.  Here is a photo of one I made last year.

After sticking to one cross stitch project for the month of April, I was ready for a change. I had ordered some fabric and threads from Jodyri Designs at the beginning of March and they didn't make it to me until the first week of April (hand dyed!) So sadly, I had to put off starting my otter cross stitch.

But no more! The pattern is Tribal Otter by KLT Charting. This, along with the hat and scarf and a plethora of Ragnarok Prep activities will keep me busy for this month.

What are your plans for May?