Back in the saddle.

Good morning, peeps!  I'm finally back to the grind...my trip was uneventful...unless you count the three (3) hours (yes, hours) I was parked on the runway, engines off, waiting for thunderstorms to pass Philly so I could takeoff for O'Hare airport last Tuesday.  That was less than amusing...especially since someone decided it was appropriate for a small child to possess a harmonica for this claustrophobic wait for storms to pass. 

Parents -- a word to the wise:  there is a time and a place for a harmonica.  It is in a cowboy's pocket, for when he's reminiscing about the days of ol', while he's crowded around a campfire with his cowboy buddies and they're bedding down for the night after rounding up cattle.  The year is also 1875.  Note the time and place is not in a child's hand when you're stuck on a plane parked on the runway for 3 hours with nowhere to go, nor is it present day. 

There were almost casualties.  That's all I'm sayin'....

Onto more fun things :-)

My computer is still being ridiculous, and will now only let me type anything with out the letter "w".  Don't ask.  So, I will sporadically be posting when I can get a free moment at work.

I've had some serious papercrafting fun in my craft room lately (along with stitching...fear not, pics of my latest stitching endeavors will appear soon), and the latest is this little ditty I whipped up this past weekend:

This is for my sister -- she's getting married in June, 2012, and I thought this would be a fun little addition to one of her tables for a picture of her and Sean.

I got an unfinished wood frame from Michael's for $1.00 (yes, $1.00), and painted it black.  Then, I got open stock scrapbook paper, and cut it to fit the frame, then glued it to the frame.  I used a patterned black one for the bottom half, then two separate pinks for the top.  Then...I got out my Cricut Expression machine (yep -- I caved and got one.  I got a refurbed machine which was GOBS AND GOBS cheaper than getting a brand spinkity spankity new machine, and it still came with two cartridges!  All that OT at work paid off!) and cut out the letters for "LOVE" and also the pink flower.  I used flower adornments from K & Company (found at Michael's, Joann, & AC Moore, and I'm sure other places) and a lil' black brad for the top of the pink flower.  Mosaic pieces with adhesive back are the little squares on the pink strip.  Ribbon and satin cording are glued to hide the paper seams.

That's it for today, my friends!  I'll post my stitching accomplishments hopefully by the end of the week.  I'm planning on doing some framing tonight, then some sewing tomorrow night -- I have all the fabric to make a needlebook, and now I just gotta get to it!

Have a fabulous day, and do something creative to brighten up this rainy, dreary day!

Houston, we have a problem...

Oh, faithful followers....I think that time may have finally arrived.  That time where I have to bite the bullet and get a new computer.  This weekend, after I got home from a week at the shore, I restarted my computer only to find a black screen of death.  Some of you may be familiar with the blue screen of death (this is the story of my life at work -- I'm on a first name basis with the help desk.  They may actually have to draw straws to decide who has to deal with my crazy computer explosions this go-around...but I digress...), but the black screen of death doesn't appear to be as threatening.  All it told me was that my keyboard wasn't connected/attached/recognized/up-to-date with the latest fashions/whatever.  Then it tells me to hit F1 to continue. 

Are you following this??  My black screen of death told me that my keyboard isn't working, yet it instructs me to hit F1.

Figuring I have nothing to lose, I hit F1.  Sure enough, my computer continues starting up.

Freaking technology.

So, my computer starts up, and I start perusing some blog posts, and get ready to post a comment on one of them.  But, alas, my keyboard, just as the black screen of death told me, does not work.  Yet, the function keys work (e.g. F1). 

(sigh)

Needless to say, I'm having a tough time getting new posts onto my site.  I will be away again for the rest of the week, so please bear with me as I try and get new pictures and updates posted.

Also, a very warm welcome to all my new followers!  I hope you can find inspiration in these many crazy rantings that I have here ;-)  I apologize for not acknowledging you all as you become faithful followers, but rest assured I'm truly touched that you all find some inspiration here.  I love being able to share my love of counted cross stitch, and hope that I can share that love and passion through this media outlet.  I know I've found many ideas and inspiration for so many things through crafting/stitching blogs, and I'm thankful for all these fabulously creative people out there who are willing to share their knowledge and inspiration. 

I'm off -- I have a long day in the office ahead of me (I had 200 new emails from being out only a week...), since I have to prepare to head out for work travel tomorrow afternoon.

Do something creative today!

Life is Good...

Pumpkins Three

As you may (or may not) remember, I started "Pumpkins Three", a La-D-Da pattern, way back in May.  I also made a big ol' promise that I'd keep you updated.  That, my friends, I did not do.  I have no excuse...well, that's not true.. I'm full of excuses...but I'll just go with the fact that my computer has been a pain in my BUTTOCKS recently, and I never got the pictures uploaded.

Until last night.

I finished it what feels like decades ago, even though it was only 2 months, so on Tuesday night decided it was high time to do the finish work for it.  I've been on a kick lately to not frame much, but to find different and fun ways to finish these needlework projects so I'm not giving framers my first born and one of my kidneys to have them frame all my pieces.

So, without further ado...here is "Pumpkins Three" ---

Anddd....I just noticed a rogue string on the bottom right.  (sigh)

BUT...isn't this cutie?!?!  I had just enough fabric with the little maple leaves on it to do the borders and the tabs, but had to do the back a light tan.  No matter -- you can't see it when it's hanging, so it's all good.

I even did a top stitch with matching orange all the way around the border ;-)

This was super fun, and very easy.  The finish work only took me about 2 hours, and is simple straight stitches.  I did add a piece of warm & natural cotton quilt batting to give it more weight so it would hang better and stand the test of time, rather than stuff it.

I also want to give a sliver of info about the "16 Men" project I'm working on.  It dawned on me that I never gave you the exact color changes that I made for the piece so far.  For those of you wishing to make the same or similar changes that I've made, here is what I've done so far:

• The fabric is 32 count "Haunted" from Picture This Plus
• The fiber changes so far are as follows:  
• Instead of DMC 310 (black), I'm using Crescent Colors  "Black Crow".  It's an awesome black that has a purpley-blue tint to it, adding variation and a spooky Halloweeny eerie-y feel to it :-)
• Instead of DMC 333 (I think), I'm using Weeks Dye Works "Purple Majesty".  Again, the variation adds the spook and Halloweeny feel to the piece.
• Instead of whatever horrific puke green color is used for the moon (gaggggg), I'm using Weeks Dye Works "Chartreuse".  I think it is PERFECT for that night moon...and I'll be using it elsewhere in the piece, so keep an eye out for it.

Hope this helps those of you who are planning to do this project!  

Do something creative today, before that molten hot lava comes flowing back into town tomorrow!!

Papercrafting!

I've said it before, I'll say it again...papercrafting is addicting, and it's my new favorite thing to do when I'm not stitching!!

I told you the other day that I had a scrapbooking/papercrafting project I hoped to share with you before 2015...well, Monday night, I took the time to do it!  Since it wasn't hotter than the center of the earth in my craft room (it's on the 3rd floor, and quite frankly, I've been afraid to go up there for the past 2 weeks for fear of heat exhaustion from just opening the stairway door) on Monday night, I decided there was no better time than the present to try this out.

I gathered some of my pre-cut material, including an alphabet, and went to work.  This is the final result:

It's curved, since it's about to head into a travel mug.  Isn't this fun?!  I used some dimension, and added fun brads to attach the flowers and the "laughter" tag.

That is...until I discovered that the opening on the bottom of my mug was not conducive to shoving dimensional pieces inside.

UGH.

So, I had to go with Plan B:  take off the 3D cube dots (to add height to the "laugh out loud" stamped piece, and the small green tag up top), and take the brads out and exchange them with eyelets.  The result is still cute as ever, but the paper got a little beat up from me trying to shove it into the mug.  Major bummer.  I also did not take into account that the bottom would be covered by the black piece that goes back onto the mug to seal it.  Oh well.

(nevermind my messy craft table...)

Nonetheless, it turned out super cute, and I can't wait to use it :-)

Enough, Heatmeiser.

Ok.  It's hot.  I love summer because of the hot weather, but this past week has just been stupid hot.  One of the guys I work with told me there are two designators for how hot it is: Africa Hot, which is for anything 92-98 degrees (but isn't the majority of Africa hotter than that??  Just sayin'...); and Surface of the Sun Hot, which is for anything above 98 degrees.  I told him this was boring, and we need better descriptive words for how hot it's been, and I decided either Liquid Hot Magma or The 9th Circle of Hell.  They seem to be better at giving you a visual as to how hot it's been on the East Coast...and pretty much all over the country this past week.  I'll let you know if he approves of my new terms, because I think they're way better than his.  But, I may be slightly biased.....

On days like this past week (with the exception of Friday, which was just so hot it actually put me into what I'm referring to as a Heat Coma -- I couldn't move off the couch, even though my AC was on cooling down the 1st floor, so I just stared at the tv.  It was even too hot to turn a page in a book or hit the button on my nook.), there is little to do other than stay inside where it's cool and stitch!!

I've been working on a few things -- my Country Cottage project is coming along nicely, but I had to put it in time-out for a bit, since I have to rip out one of the chairs -- it's too narrow.  I'm a square too short.  (sigh)  So, I picked up my Cricket Collection "16 Men" again, and have been feverishly working on finishing that one.  It's going great, and I'm SO pleased so far with the color changes I've made.  Most of the major changes I made to fiber color won't come into play until I get down to the actual ship, but so far, so good!!  Love that moon and the skull flag!!  LOVE.

I also did a bit of work on my Cricket Collection "Spring".  I made a major fiber color change in this one, too.  The "P" is supposed to be a light yellow, but up against the Buttercream Silkweaver fabric, it was too light.  So, I opted for a light orangy-pinky-salmony-color instead, and I think it turned out faboo!

I bought some great fabric for my Little House "Stitch in Thyme" piece that I'll be turning into a needlebook, but I realized I'm lacking brown thread, so I'll have to hit up Joann's this week so I can get cracking on that project.  So many things to do, so little time.

I also, shockingly enough, decided to do a little gluten-free baking last night.  I know, I know, with Liquid Hot Magma temperatures out there, who could think of turning on an oven??  Well, I saw this recipe over at Blacksheep Bakes, and was inspired to make it gluten free!!  I underestimated how much more of the sour cream I'd need in the recipe, so it came out very crumbly, but very good nonetheless.  I'm sure it would be bangin' on vanilla ice cream!!!!  I plan on perfecting this adaptation, and once I do, I'll post pictures and my changes.  I've also adapted it to be refined-sugar free, too!  Keep an eye out!  I promise to post the changes asap!

That's all I have for this blistering hot weekend!  I wish I had more to post, but this week went by so quickly, and the heat made me drag every day.  I bought some nifty stuff for scrapbooking and papercrafting at Michael's this weekend (I had some great coups!), and I have some cool ideas that I hope I can get to before 2015.  I have one specific project involving a travel coffee mug that I hope to finish and share with you all before the fall arrives!!

Stay cool and do something creative!!!

I have a slight problem...

Good morning, everyone.  My name is Jacki, and I have a problem.  Welcome to Obsessive Compulsive Stitchers Anonymous.  The first step is admitting you have a problem, and boy, do I ever.

I can never seem to be satisfied with working on just one thing.  No, siree.  Apparently, it's necessary in my house to have 3-4 projects going at the same time.  Why?  For no other reason than I see something in my stash that I have to do, and so I put down whatever I'm doing, and run and get the supplies and cut the fabric for this new thing that I need to be working on.  Now.  Right this minute.  It can't wait any longer.  I have an obsessive compulsive urge to start everything in my stash...

What's my newest OCD project??  It's Country Cottage Needleworks "Simply Vintage".

I hope you can see these pictures ok.  I must've changed some crazy setting on my camera without knowing it, because I've been having a tough time getting my pictures to come out right.

Anyhooter.  This is that lovely Antique Almond fabric by Silkweaver that I used for the Plum Street Samplers freebie a couple months ago.  I picked a section of the sheet (yes, sheet.  I have so much of this fabric, it's unreal) that wasn't quite as dark as the rest, since the DMC colors in this pattern are lighter in color.  This is 40 count, so it will make a nice little addition to one of the rooms, or even the hallway, on my second floor.  I may even put it on the walls on the staircase.  Who knows!  I'll have to see what happens once I finish it and get it framed.

That's all I have for today everyone.  I hope to get some stitching done on "16 Men" this weekend, but we'll see how far I actually get.  I'm seeing Harry Potter on Sunday, and I CANNOT WAIT.  I may actually have to lock myself in the living room and read the book before going so I can remember all the details.  It's been 2 years since the book came out...so my memory is slightly hazy about every little detail.

Enjoy your weekend!  It's supposed to be gorgeous!