What I do when not Cross Stitching

As you all might know I have an Etsy Shop. When I'm not cross stitching, sewing, or messing around with stuff on the computer I love to Crochet. Over the last couple of months while watching all the new shows on TV I have been busy making dish clothes. They are now available for sale in my Shop. Here is a preview of a couple of my favorites. Go take a look at the others, link to my shop on the right.

Updated stitching news

I have been working on my new and improved stitching rotation. I didn't like the one I had after I got it all together and started working on it. I decided to make some changes, big ones too. I am working on the Wedding, that one has to be done on time (by the beginning of May next year) so I can get it to the framers and framed before my son's wedding the beginning of June. The other pieces not so urgent. So I have decided to change things up a bit. I will work on the Wedding for 2 weeks and then one of the other pieces I am currently in love with for a week, back to the Wedding for 2 and then another piece for a week. I am on week 2 of the Wedding so new pictures will be up after the weekend but I do have progress to report on 2 other pieces I have been working on. First would be Sundae Delight by HAED. I like this one and will keep it in my must do pile for awhile yet.

The other one is also from HAED and I saw it on a Facebook group I belong to and had to have it. Last time HAED had a sale I bought it. It's called Power and Prestige and I found after my first week I didn't want to put it down but made myself. It has alot of greys and blacks in it but I am enjoying it alot . I am also liking the fabric alot. Just wish I could remember what I got.

Anyway new updates on the Wedding will be coming next week.

More Stitching progress

While I was looking for something else the other day I pulled out a sampler I started a few years ago. It is The Token by Long Dog. I realized I was close to finishing page 2 so I did :)

Stitching progress

I had set myself a rotation but when I started working it I found I really wasn't in the mood to do some of the pieces I picked to be in it. So I threw out the rotation and decided just, for the time being, to stitch whatever strikes my mood. I am, however staying true to working on The Wedding every 2 weeks because no matter what that one has to be done and framed by May of next year, the wedding is June 3, 2012.

Stitching Progress

I also pulled out Angel of the Morning. It is by LL also and was dedicated to the folks effected by 9-11. Seemed only right that I worked on it that whole day and watched all the doing for the dedication of the memorials etc that occured all around the US that day. I am also a bit of a history/news junky so I pretty much spent the entire day watching stuff on FoxNews, MSNBC(the stuff about how all this was done by the Today show staff which was the broadcast I was watching in realtime that day)and The History Channel. I got quite a bit done on her. This angel has one of the most beautiful stitched faces I have ever seen and I will get her done, it has been to long.

A bit of this and that

Well I have done a bit of stitching this week. I have been working on the Madonna I have in my rotation. I also have been working on some crocheted dish cloths for my shop and a new apron. Amidst all of this I was feeling to well. I had craps (kinda like menstrual craps that I can't have anymore) and my upper thigh hurt when I touched it. I woke up Tuesday with a bit of a rash on my upper left thigh so off to the doctor I went yesterday morning. I have Shingles. So now I have to take an anti-viral med, i have a lotion to use on the rash and pain meds. I actually thought yesterday I wasn't going to need the pain meds but I did last night. I don't like taking them, I will if I am in a lot of pain, otherwise I will stick with tylenol.

I will take a few pics of the dishclothes and apron today as well as my progress on my Madonna. I took a few of the cloths but I think either the flash was off or the lighting was bad so I will have to try again once the sun if full up.

My only plans today are to stay home. It is suppose to be 99 today with a heat index of 107. I think I'll just stay in my nice AC'd house and stitch or something.

Stitching Update

Well I have been working on my rotation (sort of). I did work on The Wedding for a week. I am finding it not to bad to work with a great deal of white after all, it seems to be going pretty fast actually.I have found, also that this one stitches up great in hand instead of using q-snaps. It maybe the row after row of white that makes it that way I don't know but it is going great.


I belong to a group of over one stitccher over in Yahoo groups. They all have done some pretty amazing work and now have me hooked. I have dived into the world of Heaven and Earth Designes http://heavenandearthdesigns.com/ who by the way are having a sale this week:). I am working on Sunday Delight
I am finding that I enjoy doing the over one. It doesn't seem as hard as I thought it would be but I do have to use magnifying glasses to do this one instead of the regular Bi-focal on my everyday glasses. I am still only at the top of page one. I think it will be awhile before I get an entire page done.

I also did work on my Watergarden but have to snap a pic and post it later.

I have decided to kill my laptop

I am a very frustrated computer semi-geek at the moment. My hubby and I both have a pretty good working knowledge of computers and how to do things with them. This past weekend we decided to buy one of those new dual band routers that use seperate channels for reqular internet and streaming videos, movies, music etc. So I got the new router all hooked up to the 2 wired computers we use for everything and went to work on the lap top. This was last Saturday mind you. I still can not connect to my private network with my lap top. The only 2 ways to get the danged thing to connect to the net is either plug it into the router (which defeats the purpose of having a wireless computer) or using the guest account with my network which is way less secure. I took the lap top over to my brother's house (he has a dual band router as well) I connect fine there. He came over with his pad computer and hooked to my network no problem. I can even get my XBox to connect to the network but not this laptop. According to the forums it is probably a Vista issue and since Microsoft is basicly not supporting Vista much anymore finding a fix through them is probably not going to be easy. Linksys says its my wireless adapter and I need to update the drives (which i have done) and still no go. I have a feeling the only way to use this machine wirelessly again is to upgrade to Windows 7 :(

Started a rotation

I have started a rotation to get some of my projects done now the question becomes, can I finish them? I know one I have to get done. It is The Wedding by Lavender and Lace. That one is a gift for my middle son when he gets married next year, so what I figured I would do is a week of the wedding, a week of whatever comes up next on this list then a week of the wedding again. So every other week I would be working on the wedding. So this is my progress so far on the Wedding, not bad for me since I've only been stitching it a couple of months
I am also working on The Watergarden by Chaletaine.

My rotation will be
The Wedding
The Watergarden
Christmas Tree 2008 Nora Corbet (I have several I want to do over time)
Flower Power
Saucer Magnolia The Silver Lining. I have on of these tree in my back yard.
Madonna Dalorosa---Solaria
Sanctuary--The Drawn Thread
Jingle Bell Xmas---Victoria Sampler
and lastly I need to add an angel to a RR piece I did several years ago, one of the ladies had to drop out and didn't get to do her so it's one short. These are the freebie christams angels from Lavender and Lace.

I will post pics as I work on these. Hope this works out I have a lot of UFO's and wanna stitch waiting in the wings :)

Vacation Pics

Had a nice time, as stated before, on my recent trip to Wisconsin. I tried posting pictures of the lake everyday to Facebook, cell service was spotty at best but I did manage to get one everyday. I have to say though that this one is my fav, I made it the wall paper on my phone, it was just the perfect shot.
There was a hammack set up and my oldest son Danny enjoyed it a lot. One day while taking a break, the guys were playing pranks on each other. My brother in law Rick decided to play a joke on my nephew and shot off a set of firecrackers near were he was napping. This of course gave my son Chris a idea, while Danny was napping in the hammock
Chris decided the best way to wake his brother up was to do the same thing. Poor Danny had known this may happen and tried to stay awake and fool everyone but the hammock was to much to resist and almost fell out of the hammock over such a rude awakening.

A lot of birds came by while we were working and one day a group of swans came by
which or course got the dogs excited, but the swans just sailed peacefully on by.

It really was a nice week, the only thing missing was my youngest son Matt, he had work and school so had to stay home and got tasked with dog sitting for Danny's dog and ours. Here is a shot of the rest of the Kupcho men.

I really am looking forward to going up there again. Probably not until next year though. No more vacation time plus the place it not winterized and gets shut down around October. Maybe after Chris's wedding next year we will be able to go for a week.

We are Back

We are back from our vacation. Well mine anyway, hubby says it wasn't one for him he worked almost everyday doing things to the cottage. I figure if I had to fly for 2 hours drive for 2 more and am not in the same start or town I live in and not have to do the things I normally have to do on a day to day basis I am on vacation. Had a nice time none the less. Got to spend time with family I hadn't seen in a while. Also learned that being around a semi construction site even if you aren't always the one constructing can be very noisy and messy.

I have some great pictures I will have to upload and edit tomorrow to share. I am not safely back home and tomorrow hubby goes back to work so back to my usual routine.

Getting ready to go

I am getting ready for a much needed vacation. A lot of family stuff has gone on around here in the past few weeks and months and I am in serious need of decompression. We are headed up to Wisconsin to help with the renovations on the Cottage. This cottage has been in my hubbies family for about 50 years. His uncle Mickey bought it in the early 50's for around 25 grand. At the time hubby's grandmother thought it was a large waste of money. Uncle Mickey and Aunt Ceil never had any children and could afford it and enjoyed it a great deal. It sits on Lake Michagan up in the northern part of Wisconsin. It, over the years became a fun place to go for a week or so in the summer to fish and hang out, even Grandma went a few times:). Uncle Mickey passed away in the early 70's but Aunt Ceil keep it. Her brother Louie (hubbies uncle) helped and when Aunt Ceil passed away about 6 years ago Uncle Louie became the owner of the cottage. Now he is gone and my father in law owns it. It has for many years been in need of some serious upgrades and since my father in law got it he has been slowly but surely with the help of my brother in law Tom seeing to these. Now we are at the point where it needs to be pained and they turned the garage into living space and drywall needs to be hung to the framed out rooms. I can't hang dry wall but I weld a mean paint brush.

I have been married to my hubby for almost 36 years and have never been up there. My kids have gone at various times while visiting the grandparents but my vacations always seemed to fall in the winter when it was closed up for the season. I'm kind of looking forward to it. Will let you know how things went and some pictures while I'm at it. :)

Spring has sprung

Spring is finally here. My grass is turning green and the flowers are coming up. Over the last few weeks my cherry trees have bloomed. I have a pink one in the back that is almost done blooming.

Out front we have 2 of the yoshino cherry tree that you see at all the cherry blossom festivals (the one here in Middle Georgia started this past weekend) so they bloomed right on queue.

We cut back the crepe myrtles a month or so ago. They are starting to green up. When the start to bloom I'll have to post up some more pictures. Now it is time for the roses to start flowering. I can't wait.

Yeah Sping Is Here:)!!!!!

Weighted in today and not good news

I missed last weeks meeting and as a result I didn't have good news. I gained 2 pounds in 2 weeks. So not what I wanted. Note to self; Don't miss anymore meetings!!! My goal this week is to track better and lose the 2 I gained and maybe 1 more if I can. The weather is starting to warm up and I may actually take the dogs for a walk in the afternoon again. Hard to get motivated to do that when you are cold all the time. Spring is right around the corner and I am ready to be warm again :)

Working my weight loss one day at a time

I have been going to Weight Watcher's for 16 weeks now and have lost 16 pounds, that is about a pound a week. I haven't been walking like I have wanted to, for me it is just to danged cold in the mornings and by afternoon I just don't have the mojo, I do go from time to time but not as much as I need or would like too. I have a new goal as well. I want to be a lifetime member by next spring (2012) when my son Chris gets married. I can do it :)

Two Major up coming stitching projects!!!

I have picked two stitching projects for this year. I had planned on some entirely different stitching goals as the last year came to and end but life as they say sometimes has other plans for you :)

First off my middle son asked his girlfriend to marry him on Christmas day, I am excited about this, one, because she is a nice young lady and two, I get to be a mother-in-law :). No jokes please, Chris is the first of my three sons to get engaged and I'm excited. Anyway, I was wondering what I could do for them as a gift for their wedding, I knew it had to be something very special and then I remembered Lavender and Lace's The Wedding and took a look at it again on-line. My DH also looked at and agreed he thought it would be perfect so I ordered the pattern, fabric and beads from my favorite online LNS and waited for it to arrive. The order came last week and Friday I went up to Hobby Lobby and bought all my floss, I decided to get all new for this special project. Now to start this project!!!
My second stitching project is in memory of a very nice lady who was on several stitching groups with me over the past several years. Her name was Renee and she passed away a week or so ago from cancer. She will be sorely missed. One of our groups has decided to pick one of her favorite designers and stitch in her memory. She liked Just Nan and Victoria Sampler. I didn't have any Just Nan's kitted and ready to go, but I did have several Victoria Sampler's ready, I picked "Jingle Bells" Christmas Tree Farm. I have started this one but just barely will post a progress picture as soon as there is more then white to show.