Last post for this year!

Wow, it's hard to believe that 2014 has almost ended.  So much has happened this year!

Stitching

I've spent the last year participating in a Stitching from Stash challenge.  We had a monthly budget & needed to stick to it if we could.  I managed to spend almost NOTHING for the entire year!!  This month, I did need to buy new needles, a total of $9.47. I almost bought a pretty floss organizer to use with my bigger projects so that I don't have to carry around 50+ bags of floss with them!  That was $7 so I spent a total of $16.47 on tools for my stitching.  I think I did pretty well this month!

I didn't have a lot of finishes this month.  I did do an ornament for an exchange.

I hope that you all had as wonderful a holiday as we did!!  Until next year, enjoy the rest of the holiday season!!

November Stitch from Stash

Well, it's that time again - time to update you on my stitching this month.  I've been very hard at work, however, most of it I can't share with you yet!

1.  I've been working on a couple of models for Myrtle Grace Motifs.  They're really nice, but I can't share until they are published.  Ironically, the designer lives just a few miles from where we moved from in IL!

2.  I finished an ornament for an exchange this weekend, but I can't show it until the recipient gets it!  I can show you the one I received in the exchange.

Didn't Lori do a beautiful job?  She not only made the snowman ornament, but the bag it was in & sent a cute little Santa pin too!

ALL of my stitching this month was done with $0 SPENT!!!

Well, till next month, happy stitching!

September Stitch from Stash

I did it again!!  I managed to go a whole month with NO BUYING STASH!!!  I have started & finished several new projects.  I finished the model I was stitching for X's & Oh's.  Can't show you a picture yet, but as soon as its published I will!

I made this pumpkin cocoon for a coworker's newborn.  We have 4 more coming between now & February so my crochet hooks will be smoking!!

This is a RR I was working on.  I did the bottom quarter of this one.  I can't wait to get mine back & start on a new round!

This is the StitchinMama Mystery Christmas SAL.  I'm working on it on Sundays & this was the first Sunday.  When it's finished, I'm going to use it as the center panel for a Christmas quilt.

These were the towels I got back from another RR I was in.  I love them!!

My stepmother was busy too!  She made me this beautiful tablecloth.  Look at the satin stitching on those grapes.  She did an amazing job!!

Well, that's it for this month!!  Have fun looking at all the blogs in our

Stitch from Stash challenge!!

The Well Planned Day planner is my favorite planner!!  I love that I can fit ALL of our family's needs into my purse - school assignments, dr appointments, grocery lists, you name it - it's in there!!! I love it so much that I have become an affiliate for them!

Right now, there is a new offer for you - when you purchase a Well Planned Day Family Homeschool Planner - or - a My Blog Plan you can add a Well Planned Day Wall Calendar for just $.99!  

Rockcrok's are awesome!! You can use them in the microwave, on top of the stove, in the oven, in the freezer, or on the grill. But- you think they are too expensive at $95 for the 2 qt one?? Well, such a deal I have for you!!! From Sept 1 until Sept 15, for every $65 purchase, you not only get your choice of any one of 6 cooking tools, but you also get 1 ticket to win a free Rockcrok!!! Book a party & you get another ticket! Sign up to be a consultant & you get another ticket!! On September 16, I will draw the winner's name. So, who wants a Rockcrok now???

New Year!: Good morning, everyone! I am so excited! The next ...

Good morning, everyone! I am so excited! The next 4 months are big ones at Pampered Chef. We have lots of new products to introduce to you! We have new cookie baking workshops & dinners done workshops. 

So, to get the season started, the next 4 people who book parties for September will get our new Holiday Cookie Collection recipe cards

 & our new small bamboo Snowflake spoon, 

as well as our September hostess reward - 60% off one of our dinner essentials!!

 The party can be live, Skype, Facebook, or catalog. Email me with the date & time!!  krmattox@yahoo.com

Back to school!

Wow, this year is just flying by!!  We've had another great month!

 First, stitching.  Not much news there.  I'm doing great on my Stitch From Stash challenge.  $0 spent again this month!!!  I'm working on a model for X's & Oh's & she sent me all the supplies so that was easy!  Check out all the other blogs in the Stitch From Stash challenge.  https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGWLBoH9gA6FZRstNIKwZNUla_Gl7JqcZKUX2CW68-kPlw3Myl7J00jQK1QkD70OdmsfkSBumu3TXTc9t696JvPd8u_27iS_FTuN4WQZzl5sZB-kRbBVChZYiVWYnfTe_174eyUFr1-lk/s1600/SFS2014-button.png

After 4 years of homeschooling, Mariah has chosen to go back to public school.  On the one hand, I'm happy for her.  She'll meet lots of new kids & hopefully make lots of friends.  With me working full time, it takes a lot of pressure off of me to homeschool her in evenings & on the weekends.  On the other hand, I'm worried for her.  I remember all the nightmares we had before & am praying non stop that the school will work with her this time.  We picked up her schedule last night & she's excited because, in addition to all her other classes, she has piano keyboard every afternoon!  She also signed up for a reading club that meets once a month.  

Well, that's it for now.  How did YOU do?

Stitching this month

Wow, it's hard to believe that another month has gone by.  This year is just flying!!  A coworker pointed out yesterday that it was exactly 6 months until Christmas.  I told her she was evil!!  :)

I've had another great month stitching from my stash and managed to spend $0 AGAIN!!!  That is not easy when there is an LNS, Michael's, Hobby Lobby AND Joann's within minutes of you!!

I did have another finish this month.  I'm in a RR in my Happy Stitching Niche group.  I finished this piece for Sue.

Currently, I'm working on a model for X's & Oh's.

If you'd like to take a look at some of the other blogs participating in the Stitch from Stash project, go here  Stitch From Stash

Until next time!!

Stitch from Stash - May

I can't believe it's already the end of May!  Lots has happened the last month with home & work.  I've put most of my stash up for sale.  I have another huge load to put up this weekend.  We've moved out of the apartment and for the next week we'll still be at Red Roof Inn.  After that, we'll be moving into Value Place for a few months.  Hopefully, we'll be able to find a house by the end of the year!

My stitching has been great!  I spent $0 again this last month!!  I've been working on a RR piece for one of my groups and almost have it finished.

I'm also working on some crochet pieces, but no pictures yet.  How's everyone else doing??

Stitch from Stash

This is going to be a very quick update.  I SPENT NOTHING LAST MONTH!!!  I'm so proud of myself.  I even won a chart in our challenge that I can't wait to stitch for myself.  It's a Wizard of Oz chart and absolutely adorable!   May will be different though.  I have 2 babies to make samplers for and have very specific ones in mind.  The fabric & most of the threads will come from stash but I'll have to purchase the charts.  Faith, a very dear friend whose blog Faithfully Stitching always inspires me, had a very good idea.  Since we are saving $25 a month by stitching from our stash, she is putting into a special account to use for Christmas.  I think I'm gong to do the same!  We'll have a nice little nest egg for Christmas presents, not a lot, but enough to do something special for the 3 of us.  Well, that's all for now.  Sorry this is so short, but we are in the process of moving & only have 2 days left.  If you want to check out all the other blogs in this challenge, click on the button on top or follow the link here:  http://epicstitching.blogspot.ca/p/blog-page.html

Easter weekend

I hope everyone had as glorious a weekend as we did!!  We started off Thursday evening with unexpected company from out of town.  Art lives in a motor home and every November travels from Wilmington, IL to somewhere near Dallas, TX for the winter.  In April, he travels back.  He had stopped for a few days on the way down and stopped Thursday on the way back up.  He had only planned to stay one night, but decided that since he didn't have to have the tow trailer for his car back until Sunday, and I had Friday off work, he would stay Friday night as well!  We had a great time catching up and can't wait to see him again in the fall.

Saturday, Mariah & I went to the roller rink & then the library.  We had the pleasure of seeing a special performance on Saturday morning.  There was a 10 yr old girl who is training for National Roller Skating Champions there.  She & her coach (a 10x winner) had been there for 3 days working with the girls in the Skate Club.  At the end of the lesson time Saturday morning, she did one of her routines and was amazing!!  Mariah was inspired - until she learned how hard she would have to work to get that good!!!

Sunday morning we were up bright & early - 4am for me, 5:30 for Rich & 6 for Mariah.  Doesn't she look pretty in her Easter dress?  She's getting so grown up!  I baked a sausage breakfast casserole to take to church and we went to the sunrise service at 7am.  Afterwards, we had Easter breakfast.  Everything was very good and the sanctuary was beautiful with all the lilies & Easter drapings.  We went home afterwards & Rich & I laid down for a nap.  Mariah woke us up at 11:30 and we went to Bob Evans for dinner.  We enjoyed it so much that we decided that that would be our new Easter tradition.  When we finished dinner, Mariah & I decided to go geocaching.  There was one close by and although we got within 9 ft of it, we never did nail it down.  We decided to search for it another day!  We came back home & watched 'Percy Jackson & the Sea of Monsters', 'Dallas Buyers Club', & 'Captain Phillips'.  All very good movies

I did get a lot of stitching in this weekend.  I finally finished my February ornament.  The only reason I can think that it took so long is that it was very monotonous - all shades of brown.  It did come out very nice though!

I got started on my March ornament.  It's Eeyore sniffing a butterfly!  I have it in my purse and worked on it at the roller rink, library, and Bob Evans.

I also pulled out Fright Night Friends.  The top picture was from the last time I worked on it.  I came pretty close to finishing 'O'.  A couple of more evenings of stitching and I should be able to move on to W!

Well, that was our weekend, how was yours??

March Stitch from Stash

It's been a pretty quiet month.  I was VERY good!  I spent Friday, March 21, wandering through downtown St Charles with a friend.  We had a beautiful day & it was so nice out that we even had lunch on the patio at the winery.  I went to both the yarn store & the cross stitch shop & DID NOT SPEND A PENNY!!  I did, however, spend money in the spice store, the English shoppe, and a couple of others.  I haven't really even done a lot of stitching this month, although I am a few stitches away from finishing an Easter bread cloth for a friend!

February's Stitch from Stash

Well, it's that time again.  I haven't gotten much stitching done this month.  Between work, crochet orders, & not feeling well, it just hasn't been in the cards.  In our Stitch From Stash challenge, we are allowed to spend $25 a month for 11 months out of the year.  My personal goal is 12 months and get 10 ufos finished.

 Laurel's Stitchery, one of my favorite shops, had a sale on Kreinik this month and I needed several spools for the UFO I'm working on.  Fright Night Friends takes LOTS of Kreinik, especially since I've decided to do the lettering in purple braid.  So, I spent a total of $15.21 on spools of Kreinik and now I have enough to finish it!  I hope.

Update on UFO goal

Today, I finished my 2nd UFO for this year.  It is version 2 of Mary's Sampler by Plum Street Samplers.  I really enjoyed this piece, both versions.  I hope she does another one like it soon!

My next UFO will be Fright Night Friends by Stoney Creek.

Stitching from Stash update

This year, I decided to take a stab at reducing my pile of stash and UFOs.  To help with that, first I made a couple of resolutions - stitch 12 ornaments this year and finish 10 UFOs.  I also joined a group that's spending the year putting ourselves on a stash diet.

So far, I'm doing great!  I stitched one ornament

finished one UFO

started and finished a quilt square

and almost have a 2nd UFO finished!  All of this was done from my stash, with only 2 skeins of DMC thread purchased that I was missing.  I have spent a grand total of 70 cents!!

My weekend

It was a pretty darned productive weekend!  

Saturday morning I did my drug testing for Citi.  They've hired me on permanently and my start date is January 27.  I'm so  excited!

My friend, Belinda came over with her sister, Kathy.  They do quilting and we're wanting to do a craft show together so we were talking about a lot of different options.  They brought me 2 gifts.  The first was a quilted bag that they are selling.  It's an emergency car kit and is filled with things like nuts, cheese & crackers, lotion, wipes, etc.  Things that you may need in the car and not necessarily have in your purse.  It's really nice and they're selling them for $30 each.  I will take a picture and post on my blog later.

The 2nd was a floor Ott lamp.  Belinda had ordered a table lamp from Joann's and when it came, the manufacturer had packaged it with the floor lamp free.  She had no need for a floor lamp and new that I was wanting a new one.  So, she brought it over to me!  I love my new lamp!!

I had a couple of finishes this weekend.  I finished a quilt square for a friend.  This is a very special young woman who had a big cancer scare.  She was a member of one of my stitching groups so we decided to make a quilt for her.

I worked on my crocheted slippers, got down to 1/2" of being done & ran out of yarn!!  Guess they'll have to wait awhile! 

Today I'm going to be working on Mary's Sampler version 2 and then a crocheted ruffle skirt after that.  We're going to be going on a virtual tour of Martin Luther King's home later today.  If anyone else is interested, here's the link  http://www.nps.gov/features/malu/feat0001/BirthHomeTour/

 

My first UFO finish for 2014

One of my goals for 2014 is to finish 10 UFOs from my UFO box.  This is the first one.  It is Mary's Sampler version 1 from Plum Street Samplers and done as a SAL.  It is the story of Mary's part in Jesus' birth and along with the sampler, the designer posted the Bible verses done very nicely.  http://www.plumstreetsamplers.typepad.com/plum_street_samplers/page/2/

 I was doing well on this, finishing each section within a couple of days of release, until the last section was released.  On Version 1, it is the border.  It took quite awhile to get it done.  Version 2 is not only the border, but 2 additional parts that need to be stitched.  

The finishing will be to frame this on top of a 3 ring binder covered with Christmas fabric in coordinating colors.  I will then print out the Bible verse pages that go with it, basically telling the story of Jesus' birth, and place them inside the binder in page protectors.  This will be a Christmas gift for a loved one this year.  I've now killed 3 birds with 1 stone - 

1. 1 of my 10 UFOs finished for the year
2. My first Christmas gift almost finished
3. Entirely done from my stash - no items were purchased to make this project.

How are YOUR goals coming along for this year??

My first finish for 2014

I've finished my first ornament for 2014.  It is the Amaryllis Artwork's ornament from the 2010 JCS Ornament issue (love my cd!) titled North Star Mandala.  I love the way it came out but I still have to figure out how to finish it.  Anyone want to volunteer to do it for me??

2014 is here!!

2013 was a good year, all in all.  There were many ups & downs.  We moved from Manteno, IL to St Charles, MO.  I'm now working full time and Rich is staying home with Mariah.  Mariah has joined a homeschool co op for art & drama classes.  She's doing great with her homeschooling.

2014 is a new year.  I always try to set goals to meet for each year and this year is no different.  I'm going to post them here and give you an update on the first of each month.

1. Lose 75 lbs by 12/31/14.
2. Learn to cook Asian food from scratch.
3. Take 3 accounting classes through MIT.
4. Read 50 books....
5. Save $4200.
6. Stitch 12 ornaments.
7. Finish 10 UFOs.

What are your goals for 2014??