WIP Wednesday - 2/28/2018

I apologize for not posting last week.  I'm not even sure why I didn't, but when it got to be Sunday and I realized I hadn't posted yet, I decided to wait until this week and do two updates.

I only worked on one piece: Tinkerbell Spring Blossoms.

As of 2/14/2018

As of 2/21/2018

As of 2/28/2018

I was stitching this as part of the Spring Forward SAL on Cross Stitch Frog Busters where you were supposed to work on and hopefully finish an old WIP.  I probably won't finish it as the SAL ends on March 20th, but I've made some good progress.  I had hoped to finish this quarter before giving up on it though.  Unfortunately, I lost interest in it last night so I've packed it up for now, but I might pull it out again for a few days before the end of the SAL. 

As a reminder, this is a kit from The Art of Disney series by Stoney Creek and is being stitched with the provided 14-count Aida and floss.

Happy Dance - Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Started: 2/11/2018

Finished: 2/15/2018

This came from the 2016 edition of Christmas Cross Stitch Favorites.  It's stitched on 14-count oatmeal Aida with the called for DMC floss.  The only change I made was to make the the two Christmas ornaments identical and stitch them with solid colors instead of the called for stripes.

This is my February ornament for the Christmas Ornie SAL.  I'm doing the Christmas Carols theme and this month's theme is Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.  

I haven't decided yet whether to make it into an ornament or a card.  It will partially depend on what backing fabric I have.

WIP Wednesday - 2/14/2018

I can't believe it's Wednesday again, but I have two projects to show you this week.  First is my progress on Big Trees.

As of 2/7/18

As of 2/14/2018

 

 At this point I switched to Tinkerbell Summer Blossoms which is my project for Cross Stitch Frog Busters Spring Forward SAL (work on an old WIP and try to finish it.)

As of 1/1/2018

As of 2/14/2018

This is what it will look like when finished.  The color is closest in the picture directly above.

Are you my Secret Stitching Sweetheart?

This is the special valentine I received from my Secret Stitching Sweetheart as part of the Valentine Blog Hop organized by Jo at Serendipitous Stitching.  Did you send it?  It's a really cute design!

Horseback Riding

Kyleigh was given horseback riding lessons by her future stepmother for Christmas this year. 

She fell off the horse Saturday and hurt her butt and side, but nothing was broken or bleeding so it could have been a lot worse.  The horse had a sore back that no one knew about and didn't like Kyleigh's weight on him so he tried to buck her off forcing her to jump off instead.

When we heard about her fall, Janice and I were at the Girl Scout Shop looking at the horse riding badge.  Janice determined that she'd met all the requirements so she bought her the badge.  Kyleigh says she got the badge for falling off a horse.

WIP Wednesday - 2/7/2018

This week, my "large project" has been Big Trees from the National Park Needlework Collection.  I started it about a year ago and finished 1/4 of it and then set it aside.  I pulled it out on Thursday for the Full Coverage Stitchathon in Cross Stitch Frog Busters. 

As of 2/1/2018

As of 2/7/2018

Happy Dance - Fa La La

Started: 1/23/2018

Finished: 2/3/2018

This was designed by Ruth Sparrow of Twisted Threads from the Just Cross Stitch 2000 Special Christmas issue.

It's stitched with the called for DMC (367,550 and 815) one over one on 25-count Opalescent Lugana in Elegance.  It's actually more beige than purple.  It's stitched as charted, except that there were supposed to be scattered white satin stitches in the background.  With the opalescence, I didn't think they were needed so I left them off.

This is my January ornament for the Christmas Ornie SAL (see my sidebar).  The themes this year are 12 Days of Christmas or Christmas Carols.  I've chosen to do Christmas Carols and the theme for January was Deck the Halls, hence the Fa La La.

I went through my stash this morning and found some backing fabric that is almost perfect for it, so I will be making it into an ornament very soon.

January Recap

At the beginning of January, I posted that my word for the year was accomplishment. I hope to update my accomplishments at the end of each month.

I started five projects and finished six which includes two carried over from December, stitching on seven total. I stitched every day except January 27th, because that was Girl Scout Cookie Pick Up Day and I was too tired to stitch when I got home.  Four of these were FFO'd and a fifth will be soon. The sixth just needs a hanger. 

I finished Devin's birthday present in time for his birthday and also finished the Ronald McDonald House Sampler.  I didn't finish my project for the Christmas Ornie SAL, but it should be done in a couple of days.

 

 

 

 

  

I started deep cleaning the kitchen and finished three shelves and one counter.  

I've been posting regularly to my blog, including the catch up posts for October.

I bought a Fitbit for my birthday and have been working on being more active.  My blood sugar is also under better control as I mentioned in my earlier post.

Not a lot, but it's better than nothing and I look forward to getting more done in February.

Other January Activities

Devin's birthday is January 3 and mine is January 6th so we normally celebrate them together.  This year we went to the Steer Inn in Santa Ana.  David & I gave him the framed Haunted Mansion that I cross stitched for him and Devin, Janice and Kyleigh gave me a rather generous gift certificate to 123stitch.com, which believe it or not, I haven't spent yet.

David finished wiring the mini control room for the dirt events at Anaheim Stadium and worked every Friday (rehearsals and testing) and the Saturday (the main event) in January.   He's also heavily involved with the remodeling of the scoreboard systems with at least one meeting a week.

I'm continuing to sort and file papers for Kyleigh's class, but only had to do so twice this month because of all the holidays.  I also volunteered a couple of extra days at the Ronald McDonald House since volunteer signups are very heavy right now.

I also went to the doctor because I was worried about the swelling in my right leg.  It's not the DVT I was worried about fortunately.  I also found out that my HBA1c is now in the normal range, which it hasn't been for several years.  I speak with a Diabetes Care Manager once every couple of weeks and she's finally been able to start lowering my insulin levels.

On January 25, Kyleigh's school had a talent show and Kyleigh participated by singing Stay.  She sang in both performances and did a really good job, but was more upbeat in the second show that the parents attended.  This picture was taken by someone on the yearbook staff and sent to Janice.  It's my new favorite picture of her.

Last weekend Kyleigh went to the Aquarium of the Pacific with her Nonni and Robert.  I love the selfie.  Guess who was holding the camera?

Finally, I belong to the Frog Busters Facebook group.  It's a very active and enjoyable group.  I was named Fabulous Frog for the month of January for my encouragement and participation in the group.  As a result, I received the following package in the mail.

It's Girl Scout Cookie Time

I am the Cookie Grandma for Kyleigh's girl scout troop and Janice is one of the leaders so we're heavily involved in cookie right now.

First we had to pick up the cookies from the Mega Pick Up in Anaheim on Saturday. We were in line for an hour and I was car #2 of 2, but I wasn't actually needed as car #1 was a minivan with the seats removed.  I did need to help Janice transport the cookies remaining after we'd sorted all the girls initial orders.  I wish I'd thought to take a picture of the cases (83 of them) in the garage where we did the sorting.

The line wound around and around the parking lot.

In the top center, you can see the check in tent.

 Each troop had to provide a helper at the Mega and Janice volunteered to do it for her troop--which is why I was in the second car.  In these pictures, she's loading cases of Shortbread into the back of our car #1.

This is what's left after the initial orders were processed and there are a couple of types missing.  I've already ordered an additional 38 cases for her.  The cookies are selling much better and faster than last year.

Bobby decided that he wanted some cookies, too.

 Kyleigh is already to start selling. I think she's at about 100 boxes now and the sale just started.

The last picture is the same pose, but it was taken three years ago when she was in first grade.  She's holding the same number of boxes in each picture1

Happy Dance - Ronald McDonald House Sampler

Started: 1/10/2018

Finished: 1/31/2018

 

This was stitched for the Ronald McDonald House SAL group on Facebook and will be going the the Family Room at Mission Hospital.  The chart was provided by the SAL group and was designed by Ursula Michael.  I love her word charts and have always wanted to do one.  This is the first one I've done, but it won't be the last.

 

It's stitched on white 14-count Aida in the called for colors.The only changes were requested by Joni, the Family Room director who asked that I stitch the "house saying" instead of the "family room saying" and the bottom line.

This was not a fun stitch as there was lots of frogging involved, mostly on the yellow parts in the roof.  I also used up the skein of 498 I was using and the other skeins didn't match.  I was able to locate another skein at JoAnn's though.

I plan to get it framed and hopefully presented to her next week.  I volunteer at the Orange Ronald McDonald House and at some point will be doing input for Joni so this is kind of a special project.

February Pictures

David and I have some friends from Hong Kong that we've known since before Janice was born.  They call us every year at nine o'clock New Year's Eve and that may be the only time we talk to them for the year, but this year we made arrangements to meet them for lunch at a local Chinese Buffet.

Dunstan, Kyleigh and Miranda

Kyleigh took a personal day on Monday.  She was tired and it was cold and she had a tooth growing in weird so she went back to bed and Janice made a dentist appointment.  The dentist said the baby tooth needs to come out so the new tooth has room to come in correctly.  If she doesn't manage to wiggle it out by March 13th, they'll have to do an extraction.  They also found out that she has no cavities, her 12 year old molars are in and the same tooth on the other side is doing the same thing.

Since the dentist is just around the corner from where she gets her hair cut, they decided to do that too.  They had to cut off quite a bit of her hair since she wants to grow it really long and it wasn't very healthy.  They did give her a lot of information on how to take better care of it.

There's a group on Facebook that stitches samplers for Ronald McDonald Houses and Family Rooms.  The Orange House already had one, so I stitched one for the Family Room at Mission Hospital and delivered it to the Orange House.  With all the flu issues, there are strict visitor restrictions in place so I wasn't able to take it to the Family Room itself.

That same day, I went out to my car and found that someone had drawn a heart in the dirt on my passenger side window.  Since I park in their lot, it had to be someone from the house.