Vacation Stash

While I was visiting my family in Florida, I found a wonderful stash shop right in town and came home with a few things. I went in for more WDW Onyx for my BOAF piece but of course came out with more than just the thread! I got two skeins of the WDW Onyx, the frame for a wonderful SamSarah Stitch Every Day chart that I will show you later, two JBW Designs charts, Holiday Ornamentals and Christmas Motif Sampler, another SamSarah chart, Light the Way, that I've been admiring for a while as well as some fabric and the WDW Clam Shell that I didn't already have. This is a great little shop in Venice if you are visiting anywhere on the gulf coast from Bradenton to Ft. Myers. It's located on the island at 101 W. Venice Avenue and it's called Needlepoint Ivy. The owner and her husband were very friendly and knowledgeable and willing to ship anywhere. They also offer needlepoint canvases and supplies. I can definitely recommend this LNS to visitors and local Florida stitchers.

Thanks for your kind comments

I appreciate your condolences on Boo. I'm so glad I took his picture when I did as I don't have a lot of photos of him. Tomorrow I'm going to pack the cat things away and keep them in the basement for a bit before deciding what to do. I will probably donate them to the nearest animal shelter at this point.

Here are photos of my completed socks and my progress on my BOAF Happy Hearts piece. I don' t think I will manage to finish the BOAF piece before the end of the year as I had hoped but I will be pretty darn close. Who knows, I may sit and stitch all day tomorrow and get it done. If not, it will be completed by the end of January for sure and then it's on to something new!

I stayed home from work today as I was feeling really lousy when I got up. Slept the day away on the couch and I'm hoping a good night's sleep will help me feel much better tomorrow. I hate being sick!

Strange Christmas

I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas and that you are looking forward to the coming new year. I am back from my holiday travels and a bit under the weather so this won't have much stitching content. This was a very bittersweet holiday for me as the day before I left, my cat passed away during a procedure to clean his teeth. The vet was very upset and going to do an autopsy to see why this may have happened but I won't know the results until next week as he is on holiday. The house feels a bit weird without him here when I got home from work this evening.

This was the first Christmas I had spent in Florida in almost 10 years and it was definitely strange. The weather was gorgeous but my family was split up between two households and this is the first Christmas I didn't get to wake up with my nieces and open presents. I did get to see my dad which was nice but I'm not sure I would like to repeat the experience. There is just something about cold weather and snow that makes things a bit more Christmas-ey to me.

I didn't do much stitching while I was down there which is the opposite of what I had planned. However, I was able to finish my other sock and ended up starting a pair for my niece. Most of my time was spent knitting rather than stitching but I did manage to do some stash enhancing which I will report on later. I'm off to nurse my cold....

Many Thanks

Thank you to everyone who comes to visit my blog and has left kind comments about Boo and my sock and other postings. I appreciate your taking the time to stop by. I have had very little time to even read my usual blogs the past two weeks and I miss checking up on everyone. I will do better after the holidays. I have been keeping an eye on you all but not had the time to comment. Keep up the fabulous stitching I see going on around the world - it is so inspiring!

I will be leaving tomorrow evening to travel to NH. I'm flying the friendly (I hope) skies on Wednesday to somewhere much more southerly and warm for the holidays. I doubt I will have the opportunity to check in while I am gone so that will mean even more catching up to do when I return! I want to wish everyone the best of holidays.

Here is an update on my BOAF piece and this is what I'll be taking with me to stitch on. I'm planning to take only one other project with me so this should get lots of attention and may even come back finished! I was able to complete the hands, the two hearts to the right of them and start on the first bird. I've actually worked a bit more on this so the bird is closer to being completed. I'm looking forward to having this DONE and moving on to new projects. To tide me over, I'm taking my SBEBB Valentines exchange piece with me and I hope to have that done by the time I return as well. Happy holiday to you and yours however you celebrate!

Finally Framed

I've had these two pieces stitched for almost two years and I just finally had them framed. The framer I used for Plymouth Sampler had a coupon in the paper for 20% off so I took these two Kathy Barrick designs to be framed. I picked them up on Saturday. Slyvie does a really nice job and I'm really pleased with how they came out. I think both frames complement the pieces. Picking a frame is just agonizing for me and Sylvie is great about letting me pull tons of possibilities off her walls and then giving me her final opinion with my choices. Now I just have to figure out where to hang these beauties. I think Lady in Her Garden will go in the dining room and North, South, East West will either go in the living room or my bedroom.

One sock does not make a pair but

it means you are half way there! I finished my first ever sock last night and I'm thrilled to say it fits! That makes two knitting UFOs completed this year and I don't have any more of the knitted kind so I'm free to start my second sock. I plan to take it with me over the Christmas holidays so I will hopefully have a pair by the start of the new year.

I'm also making great progress on my BOAF Happy Hearts Sampler this week and I will share a photo soon.

Calgon, take me away!

Today we had another nasty snow storm which started as snow in the morning and slowly changed over to sleeting rain. Yuck with a capital Y. We got a good 6 more inches of snow at least and now it's got a nice icy coating on top. I was leaving work for an appointment at 12:30 today and got my car stalled. I couldn't get the engine to turn over so I ran and asked one of the maintenance guys for help. He tried to give me a jump but it wouldn't start. He went to get one of the work trucks and I called my appointment and told them I'd be late and it turns out the lady never came in and they never called to let me know. It's a good thing I found out before I had driven over there on the messy roads.

By that point I was pretty wet and just a little mad. I decided to try to start my car one more time and realized I didn't have it in park and that's why it wouldn't start. DUH! I'm not telling the guys at work that one!!! After that I just gave up and came home. While I was sitting on the street waiting for the plow guy to finish cleaning the driveway, the UPS man came. He was delivering my order from Pennyworth books which ordered all because of Danielle. I read her blog and had to check out the site. And of course that led to ordering! These are the books I received:

A Thousand Days In Venice by Marlena De Blasi
This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland by Gretel Ehrlich
Guests of the Sheik: An Ethnography of an Iraqi Village by Elizabeth Warnock Fernea
Caviar: The Strange History and Uncertain Future of the World's Most Coveted Delicacy by Inga Saffron
In Light of India by Octavio Paz
The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain
A Fortune-Teller Told Me: Earthbound Travels in the Far East by Tiziano Terzani
Roads to Santiago: A Modern-Day Pilgrimage Through Spain by Gees Nooteboom
The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them by The Freedom Writers with Erin Gruwell
Healing and the Mind by Bill Moyers

Did you catch the travel theme here? Hence today's title. I guess even though I'm stuck wintering in Maine, that doesn't mean I can't travel the world! Pennyworth books is a great site as each book is only $5.00 and my shipping was only .50 cents! Now I don't need to go to the library or a book store for a good 6 to 8 months. :-)

Stitching Accessory of a sort

This is my cat Boo. He sits on the arm of my stitching chair whenever I am stitching or knitting. He often paces around the house if I'm not sitting in the chair and everytime I head towards the living room, he runs to jump on the chair. My stitching pieces usually have some Boo hair woven into them somewhere. He's pretty good about leaving my threads alone but he keeps a close eye on my progress and any stray threads that might come his way.

He was quite disappointed that I was only taking a picture and not planning to sit for a bit. I have a stitching lamp on the other side of the chair that he usually naps under - kitty heat lamp!

Poncho-rific

I have been on a mission to finish some projects before the end of the year and this is one of them. I started this poncho back in August of 2004. It's from the Sally Melville book The Knit Stitch. It is a really simple pattern, garter stitch two rectangles, sew them together and then add fringe. Why it took me so long to complete I don't know but I'm really thrilled to have it done. And, best of all - it fits! LOL Not always a given when I'm knitting.

I'm also hoping to finish up my sock this week and cast on for it's mate. I am planning to take the socks with me to FL so maybe I will be able to finish another project started in 2004! My next project will be a cardigan sweater that I've had the yarn for for a while. It's Manos del Uruguay in a fantastic red/purple/gold combo. But that will probably be a project for 2006......

My Busy Hands

I love the phrase on this BOAF sampler - "Busy Hands Make Happy Hearts". My heart is pretty happy with my progress on this piece. I'm really hoping to be able to finish it before the end of the year. There's still quite a bit to be completed but I'm thinking of taking only this piece with me for the Christmas holiday so I just might get it done if it's the only thing I have to work on.

If I can finish it before the 31st, it would be the third UFO that I started in 2004 and finally finished. I had one more large Goode Huswife piece that I started but I really disliked the fabric and how it was coming along so I cut it up and will restart the pattern someday on different fabric.

Socks and Snow

Friday we got over 13 inches of snow. UGH! Thankfully it was the light and fluffy sort so it was realtively easy to shovel and I got my neighbor's plow guy to pick me up. I walked home from work at around 3:00 because the roads were pretty lousy. It wasn't a bad walk and it probably took me about 30 minutes. It's only a 5 minute drive usually so that's not too bad. Plus it was kind of pretty.

I've been doing some stitching but I've also been knitting again. This is a picture of my sock - it's been a UFO since May of 2004. I am quite proud of it as I had to rip out the heel 2 times before I got it right. The third time is the charm in this case and I'm on my way to the toe. I also finished the second piece of a poncho I started in August of 2004 and this morning I washed both pieces and they are drying now. I hope to put them together this week and maybe I will have a modeling photo. Stay tuned!

Exchange News!

Today I received my Legacy Holiday Sampler House Exchange Piece from Jacque. I am just so thrilled as the piece is just so me. Jacque confessed she stalked my blog which I really appreciate her taking the time to do. This piece so matches the colors and style and taste of my house it's perfect! She also included lots of wonderful goodies in the package.

When I do an exchange I tend to focus on the giving part and don't pay much attention to the receiving end until that package arrives. When I got Jacque's today, I was totally stumped as to why I was getting a package from Kansas City, MO. It took a few long seconds for me to connect that it was my exchange piece! LOL

I also had another package waiting for me from my friend Nancy. I'm going to wait to open it until it's closer to Christmas though. That is the plan anyway! LOL I'll probably give in by the weekend.

GH Angel of Tulips HD

Last night I finished the GH Angel of Tulips that Danielle and I have been stitching. I really love the design but wish I'd chosen a different fabric for it. This fabric had a very open weave which made it easy to do the over one stitching but it reminds me of needlepoint canvas when I look at it. I will definitely stitch this over again on 40 count as the design called for and as Danielle is doing.

Now I will continue to focus on trying to complete my BOAF UFO/WIP and my CHS alphabet series that I'm stitching with Vivian who is light years ahead of me!

Christmas at Casa Pearl

Today I've spent most of my day so far decorating my porch for Christmas. Since I'm not putting up a tree this year due to traveling over the holidays, I really needed the decorating to get me more in the Christmas spirit. It started snowing this morning just after I got up so it was a nice accompaniment. But it was also quite cold and I think my poor hands will never warm up. I hope you enjoy my photos - I love how the house turned out! I promise I will have stitching content very soon!