The Best Birthday Present Ever

Kyleigh is on Spring Break this week and is having a good time celebrating her birthday which is Thursday. Yesterday her dad took her to Disneyland.

Today, we took her to the optometrist for her annual checkup and Janice told her that if she was good, she had a surprise for her.

The surprise was a trip to Bubblefest at the Discovery Cube in Santa Ana. Bubblefest is a show with lasers, bubbles, etc. During the show, Kyleigh yelled that this was the best birthday present ever.  She looks like she's having fun, doesn't she?

WIWO - 3/28/2016

Good Monday Afternoon!  I hope your Easter was all you expected it to be!  We woke up to rain this morning and I'm so glad it waited until today to make an appearance.

I finished my London postcard last Tuesday.  I changed the clouds from 828 to white and the frame was charted in white, but I'm using 797.  The fabric is 16-count Crystal Haven Aida from Picture This Plus.

Here's the whole piece so far:

I've continued with my 1/2 hour a day on A Spot of Tea which is my current UFO.  It went from here

 to here:

You really can get quite a lot done in 1/2 hour.  This is about 3 1/2 hours of stitching.  I don't use a timer so it's not exact.

Finally, I had a new start.  This is Pinky from Donna Giampa.  It's being stitched on white 25-count Lugana with DMC.  I'm already loving this piece and finding it hard to put down.

One of my grandmothers painted a copy of the original and it hung in the hallway of my parents' house for years so when I saw this pattern, I had to get it.  It has been in my stash for years, but when I saw the original at the Huntington Library in December, I decided it was time to start it.  I also plan to do the companion, Blue Bear.

Happy Easter

 These pictures were taken at our Easter Service this morning which is held outdoors in the church parking lot.  The cross rises up from behind the stage during the first song which was "He is Risen".

A closer picture of the cross:

 

As you can see in the pictures, it was kind of cold and cloudy, but about 15 minutes later, the sun came out and it was much warmer. 

I hope you all have a happy Easter and remember that it's not all about bunnies and eggs, although those are fun, too.

Happy Dance - Santa and Elf

Started: 3/22/2016

Finished: 3/25/2016

Enjoy Cross Stitch at Christmas 

The theme for this month's Christmas Ornie SAL is Santa and his Helpers so this is what I stitched.  

I don't know what year/issue this was from since I removed all the chart pages that I liked and threw away the rest of the issue (my magazines were taking over my craft room.)  This is the combination of two Christmas motifs designed by Durene Jones.

It's stitched on green 14-count Aida with DMC threads.  I did change the green in Santa's gloves and the elf from 907 to 911 since I thought this green went better with this fabric.  I also left off Santa's mouth and the present he was holding.

Some Miscellaneous Pictures

1) Kyleigh and I went to the Lego Store today, because they were having an Easter Egg Hunt.  She found all of the eggs and got a page of stickers.  She also had a chance to build an upside down tower where you started with four blocks on the bottom and then added an incremental number of blocks each time. Kyleigh tied the highest number of blocks added (13 levels) at the time we were there.  Her tower falls when she adds the blue blocks.

2) Janice posted this picture of her cat (Bobby) on Facebook saying that even though he had his own cat tree to play in, he preferred Kyleigh's Princess Tent.

3) Another picture that was taken from Facebook, this time from our church's page.  On Palm Sunday, the kids made cross pictures and here they are displaying their handiwork.

4) Earlier this month, Kyleigh went to a Kids Night Out at the church and had a really good time.  They played games, did some reading, ate snacks, watched a movie and went to bed in their sleeping bags.

5) Also earlier this month, the school celebrated Special Friends Day.  Kyleigh took her other grandma, but they published a picture of the second graders singing during chapel.

6)) Finally, I rarely post pictures of myself, but Kyleigh took this picture of me while we were waiting the Brinks to finish servicing the ATM and it's a pretty good one even if I'm not smiling.

Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop

Good Morning! My letter is G and the next blog to visit is www.serendipitousstitching.blogspot.co.uk.  

Both were stitched for WOCS (World of Charity Stitching) for their Spring quilt last year .   

This hop is hosted by Jo at www.serendipitousstitching.blogspot.co.uk.  .  Thank you, Jo for letting me join in.

WIWO - 3/21/2016

I did quite a bit of stitching this past week.  I had a finish, a mini-finish and worked on two other projects.  The finish was Mary Mouse which you can see below.

My first mini-finish was Amsterdam, which is the March edition of the Pumpkin Passport.  It's being stitched on an old piece of 28-count Jobelan, but I don't know the color name or who dyed it.  The only change I made was accidental.  In January, I accidentally stitched the top scalloped border in the same color as the bottom border, but it was supposed to be done in a light pink.  I discovered the mistake when I looked at other stitchers' work, but decided I liked it this way so didn't frog it.

Started: 3/13/16

Finished: 3/15/16

Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery

Then I worked on the postcard for March which came from London this time.  I did make a couple of changes on this one.  I've changed the borders from white to blue (797) and the clouds from 828 to white.  I will most likely finish this one in the next couple of days.

Finally, I've been watching a few Floss tube videos and Katy (The Stash Queen) who works on multiple projects each day for a specific amount of time on each (usually 15 or 30 minutes) gave me the idea of doing this with my UFO/WIPs.  I have a large number of these, but keep finding new pieces I want to stitch.  A few years ago, I went through all my stash, pulled out all the UFO/WIPs and cataloged them in Excel, marking them with the approximate amount of stitching left and I've actually kept up with it.

Yesterday, I alphabetized and sorted them by size classification and is a very old UFO titled A Spot of Tea from Cherished Teddies for All Occasions.  This is where it was when I pulled it out of the drawer.

And here it is after 30 minutes of work:

For some reason, I stitched this in lavenders instead of the pinks on the chart, but it's so old, I don't have a clue as to why although I do think I like it better this way.

Happy Dance - Mary Mouse

Started: 3/6/2016

Finished: 3/15/2016

Brooke's Books - Advent Animals

This is my March square for the Brooke's Books SAL on the Stitch Maynia Facebook group.  This is an annual SAL where you stitch  any Brooke's Books chart including any of her freebies each month. 

 

The chart was stitched on 14-count Lt. Blue Aida with the called for DMC floss.  The only real changes I made were to do the border in two strands of floss and I stitched her crown in Kreinik #4 braid in 002 instead of the white called for.

 

Lego Table Update

Since Kyleigh has spent quite a bit of time with us over the years, we have a table for all of her toys, books, etc.  David had found a Lego table at a garage sale and we've been using that for this.  We have to take the table down to put up the Christmas tree.  When David went to put the table back up this year, he discovered that the table legs were broken.  This is what the top looked like before he updated it. 

 You can see the mesh bag that goes into the hole in the middle of the table and the missing pieces on two of the blue legs.

David found an old bed frame at a garage sale and decided that it would work for the new legs.  He made the legs longer (see the original leg leaning against the new leg).  Because the table wasn't that stable, he reinforced it by adding panels on the sides and back.  He also created an additional plate for the center.  I've now added all of her toys back waiting for the next time she visits.

WIWO - 3/14/2016

After I finished the Princess Clock (See post below), I stitched on Mary Mouse again.

For some reason, I couldn't find one of the colors that I used last week on her which is the reason for the "hole" in her face.  I have more now though.

Lucky Family Project

Kyleigh's class had to do a project call Lucky Family which involved making a shamrock and telling about your family.  Kyleigh chose to do hers with all pictures.  There are pictures of Janice, Devin, Grandma, Grandpa, Chad's family and her cousins.  Part of the project was to stand up in class and tell all about the picture.

Happy Dance - Disney Princess Clock

Started: 2/21/2016

Finished: 3/13/2016

Clouds Factory

This was stitched on 25-count Opal Lugana in Blue Diamond by Silkweaver with DMC threads and 002 Kreinik #4 braid.

I made a few changes to this:

1) Eliminated the flower in Mulan's hair

2) Changed the E5282 to 729 on Brave's belt
3) Changed Anna's eyes to 798
4) Changed Aurora's dress from blue to pink
5) Changed Ariel's clothing from human to mermaid
6) Used two strands of floss for the backstitching

This will be made into a clock for Kyleigh's birthday at the end of the month.

Picture Preview

Today is picture day at Kyleigh's school.  Janice sent me some pictures as a preview.

WIWO - 3/7/2016

I continued working on the Disney Princess Clock from Clouds Factory this week.  It's a little over half done.

 On Sunday we went over to Janice's after church so that David could fix the lock on the front door.  I took the third square in the Advent Animals series, Mary Mouse and made a small start on it.

A Busy Saturday (Picture Heavy)

We met for breakfast this morning and then David ran home (actually he drove) to meet the roofers who were putting a tarp on our roof in anticipation of rain.  We have contracted to have our roof replaced and solar added, but it won't be done until April, hence the tarp.

Janice, Kyleigh and I went to Home Depot for the monthly build, this time a wagon.  First, she hammered:

 Then she added wheels and the pull rope:

 She decided not to paint it, so the last step was adding the stickers:

And finally the finished project--a wagon for her dolls to ride in:

The wagon is covering up the pins on her apron, but she receives a pin for each project she completes.  She currently has eight pins--two more and she'll receive a star for completing 10 projects.

OC Parenting Magazine was holding it's annual Summer Jamboree at the Discovery Center today so that was our next stop.  Kyleigh had a good time and we got some good information about options for the summer. 

She pretended to be a scientist:

 

 She made a dolphin picture by etching a pattern on aluminum foil, coloring it with markers and framing it. 

 

 

 

She filled aluminum foil with marbles to see how many she could do before it stopped floating (67).

 

She also became part of a poster.

We also saw a 3-D printer, had Kyleigh's ID done and got lots of freebies.    Afterwards, both Kyleigh and I got our glasses adjusted and then went home.