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I just had to sneak another one in since it will probably be the last project for the year ;o) Again, it's even finished-finished! Wowzers huh?
This is Snowman 3 from the Cuddle Up Snowmen pattern by Stoney Creek -
Isn't he cute? :o) You may notice that the stitches are HUGE and you would be correct! Years ago, my MIL gave me three covers from some pillows that she had purchased. They have a wonderful grid pattern, very similar to an evenweave fabric, so you can stitch one over one if you wish.
And maybe I should have stitched him over one...but I didn't. The stitch count ended up being a little larger than I'm used to. I had to use six strands of floss for the stitching and four strands for the backstitching. That equals A LOT of floss! LOL!
I even learned a new type of stitch; the Turkey Stitch. I had never used it before in my stitching but after looking at an online instruction video, it was as easy as pie :o)
My 'plan' is to do one of the other snowmen and then possibly stitch something fallish on the backside. That way I can flip the pillows and get more than one season out of them :o) 
To all our friends and family...
...may your day be filled with loved ones, your stomachs filled with a delicious feast and your hearts filled with joy :o)
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaa???????
Christmas isn't over yet! It's only December 23, right?
Correct! No, you're not crazy ;o) But for DH and I, Christmas has been done. This year we decided to do things a little differently; unfortunately we don't get to see the results of that work though.
For many years, DH and I have cut back drastically on gift buying for each other. We have no children and although we are a small one income family, we are comfortable. So this year DH suggested that we contact The Salvation Army and support a family in need for Christmas :o)
What a great idea this was too! We had SO much fun shopping :o) The Salvation Army gave us a list of items that the family needed/wanted and let me tell you, things were very basic. When I saw that socks and winter boots were on the list, it definitely put things into perspective for me.
The family we were assigned had one little girl and she only asked for one toy. ONE! Since we aren't parents, we didn't realize just how popular this one toy was. At first we were scared we wouldn't be able to get it because it was sold out at the first few stores we checked. Thankfully we did track it down. Just knowing that little girl will get what she wants for Christmas warms the heart :o)
DH wanted to take things one step further though so we did stockings as well! We filled them with soap, shampoo, toothbrushes and toothpaste, some candy, mugs with packets of hot chocolate and gloves :o) Isn't Christmas morning all about the stockings? LOL!
When I look back at the receipts, it's kind of scary because the amount of money we spent on this family would have been the same amount we would have spent on ourselves. What do we 'really' need that is more important than a winter coat?
Now don't get me wrong...we don't want to be 'recognized' or 'thanked' for what we did. Just knowing that we put a smile on a little girl's face or warm footwear on cold feet makes us feel good. Gifts are wonderful and very much appreciated by both of us but not everyone is as fortunate as DH and I are.
I'm happy we did what we did this year and I hope we'll continue this tradition for as long as we can. Don't worry though...DH and I are exchanging one gift this year. I already know what mine is ;o)
It seems that my mailbox has been spitting out some wonderful mail the past few weeks. Okay, so there are a few bills here and there but the good stuff definitely outnumbers the bad :o)
Karen had warned me that she sent me something pink but I was REALLY surprised when I opened the package and found these -
Just to let you know Karen, DH says he won't wear them in the bedroom ;o) ROFL! They are by far the most unique item in my pink collection. Thank you so much Karen! I love the little notepad as well ;o)
Yesterday I received a surprise that I wasn't expecting. Tina sent me the cutest Christmas card along with a donkey ornament -
Isn't it just the sweetest???? If you know Tina, you know she is a huge donkey lover :o) Thank you SO much Tina and your little fellow has found his own spot on my ornament tree -
Sorry for the bad pictures. The weather has been quite dismal here :o(
I am truly blessed to have so many wonderful friends :o) Thank you again girls...your gifts definitely put a smile on my face!
Huh? "How the heck did she do that?" you ask? Well, I came up with the most ingenious idea ;o)
One of our local drug stores was giving out free soft cover photo books so I quickly put one together with some of my stitched pieces -
And you thought I had a dozen elves helping me out ;o) LOL!
I LOVE photo books (and anything free) so I thought this would be the perfect way to display and show off my cross stitch.
On the norm, I do like the hard cover photo books much better but since this was free, I wasn't going to complain ;o) LOL!
I was so excited when I received a parcel from Wendy at the first of this week :o) I had won the giveaway she had on her Blog and this is what I received -
It's absolutely lovely! This is the second item that I have of Wendy's and she is a fabulous artist. I now have my birdies hanging between the living and dining room where I can see them from every angle :o) I love the fabrics that she used -
Thank you SO much Wendy! I'm certainly going to enjoy my gift this season and for many more to come!
a LOT more like Christmas around here :o)
I've been working my tail off trying to get this house back to rights and save for cleaning out our closet and making the extra bed, the upstairs of the house is done! The living and dining room have been started and won't take long to finish so that just leaves the kitchen since my stitching room is already complete.
My biggest relief is that our Christmas cards are now DONE and mailed OUT! We did that yesterday and what a great feeling it was to finally have them completed. I apologize to some because you may not receive your cards until after Christmas (I imagine) but who knows, the postal service could always come through in the end. ROFLMAO!!!!
Since December 1, I've slowly been unpacking decorations and putting them up but yesterday, DH and I finally went out and got our tree :o) When I woke up this morning, DH had already put the lights on so all I had left to do was ornamefy it. Denise was wondering what our living room looks like now that the huge couch was gone and this is the result -
I'm love, love, loving it :o) It will look a bit bare when the tree is gone but will look awesome when the fireplace goes in (whenever that will be).
Here's a peek into the dining room -
I love my snowflakes that we bought last year :o) If you look to the left of this picture, you'll get a glimpse of the picture that is on our Christmas card this year -
We put mini lights up the staircase again this year but bought ones with a white wire so they blend in better -
Here are some better pictures of my ornament tree that you find at the top of our stairs -
Most of them are ones I have made but I have added the ones I have received from friends over the years :o)
While DH and I were out yesterday, we went to Amos Pewter and bought our annual ornament. This year we got pen-gu-ins!
They kind of remind me of the Penguins of Madagascar ;o) LOL!
DH also picked me up a new hanger to replace my pumpkin during the winter months -
While the house is not stuffed to the gills with decorations, it still feels very festive. Thanks for taking the time to go on the tour and I hope you enjoyed :o)
Miracles of miracles, the delivery company found us on the third try and we received our entertainment unit on Monday ;o) Apparently they did the same thing to our neighbour across the street. Have they ever heard of GPS???? The guy kept calling me 'sweetheart' and that didn't go over well with me >:o( He's lucky he didn't get slugged!
Thankfully everything was okay despite being in transit for over a week. Being the person I am, I couldn't contain my excitement and began assembling the television stand. Now I realize that IKEA deals with countries from all over the world and I can understand why all their instructions are just pictures with no words but golly...I think I may have to brush up on my Pictionary skills! LOL!
It took a few days to assemble, gather all our books and then fill all the shelves. Even with two huge drawers, we still didn't have enough storage for our DVD collection :oP So without further ado, here's our new unit -
We just love it! We took the door to the room completely off since we'll never need it and it would have blocked the left bookcase.
Turn to the right and on the opposite wall is the couch that was down in the living room -
Remember I said that DH must have had a guy from work come and help him move it? Well the crazy fool had moved it himself! Turns out he got stuck halfway up the stairs ;o) We have a small landing and I have an ivy growing there. It has attached itself to the wall and I didn't want it moved. How he managed without hurting himself, I don't know. DH also got a new end table from a co-worker. It's really cool and so him. There's a humidor attached to the top!
Moving a little more to the right and you'll find my side of the couch -
That leaves a small empty space under the print. Sadly, there isn't much more room left for any new books we may receive down the road so we might look into a small bookcase to put there or a long bench. We're not sure yet.
Things are coming together :o)
What's this you ask? When has she had time to finish not only one but TWO pieces? Don't worry, you're not going crazy because I've been asking myself the same question ;o) Not to worry though, they are not huge finishes by any means. You'll see what I mean in a minute.
This year I went out and bought myself a 3.5 foot artificial tree just for my stitched ornaments. It was a great deal and plus I wanted to treat myself :o) I don't like putting those ornaments on a real tree for fear they will get sap on them. I've spent too much time working and finishing them to have that happen!
One night I put the tree together and then a few days later I put the mini lights on. When I couldn't take it anymore, I dug out all my cross stitched ornaments and started putting them on the tree :o) Since it was still November, I couldn't bring it upstairs yet so when I was in the basement putting a wash in, I'd admire my creation.
FINALLY December arrived and I brought my little tree upstairs. It now resides upstairs on the second floor. We don't have a hallway per se but a landing with the two bedrooms, TV room and bathroom going off of it. I always pictured a tree there and this is what it looks like -
I'm not crazy about the tree skirt as I'm not a gold person but it was the only 24 inch one I could find! It works though. What I didn't take into account was how big some of my ornaments were but that's okay because I love my tree :o) We put mini lights up the side of the stairs again this year and with them and my tree lit up, it's so festive.
Now that brings me back to my two finishes! I was in the craft store one day and came across some rusted tin snowflakes and I knew immediately what I would do with them :o) With a little tweaking of stitches here and there, these are the results -
I just love them and they'll be going up on my new tree once the glue is dry :o) I used the snowmen faces from Oh Joy by Val's Stuff that was in this years' JCS Ornament Issue and stitched them on some raw linen scraps that I had laying around. I changed the colors and used DMC 712, WDW Onyx and WDW Carrot.
As you can see, their noses are much shorter but I needed to do that in order to get a rounder looking head for my circle. I used Sharon's Magnetic Needleminder Tutorial to cover my metal form. I glued it to the front of the tin snowflake and then cut a circle out of antique white felt to glue on the back and cover the mess ;o) Add a little ribbon and voila!
Btw, our delivery DID arrive today so now I'll be busy putting furniture together :o) I'll be back soon to update you on that.
This week has been busy, busy, busy! Each day I've been on the go and by the time I get home I'm just too tired to stitch or Blog :o(
As I mentioned in a previous post, we 'were' expecting delivery of our new entertainment unit this past Monday. Well...they called Monday and asked for directions but it turns out they were on the other side of the province. Apparently there are two places with the same name. Okay, so I explain where we are and set up delivery for Wednesday. Well...they called Wednesday and asked for directions but guess what? They went to the OTHER place...AGAIN! Maybe I didn't speak proper English when I gave them the directions ;o) Now it's set up for this coming Monday morning. We'll see if they can find us this time. The third time's a charm right? LOL!
In the meantime, we've been getting things ready and one of my jobs was to rearrange my stitching room to accommodate my revamped sofa :o) After seeing the totes upon totes of stuff, DH says I have too many hobbies. Pfffffttttt!
This morning I went and got my hair done. It's been about ten months since I got my foils so I was due. I needed something to cover those white hairs that are mysteriously popping out of my head ;o) When I arrived home, DH must have gotten one of the guys from work over because we had a case of musical chairs. LOL! So here are some pictures of my new room -
My desk remains in the same spot since all the plug-ins are along that wall -
Even poor Popcorn had to be moved -
The only problem I have with her new location is that my little 'sweetheart' can nibble the curtain if I leave it down so it has to be knotted up...
The 'majority' of my stash ;o)
And the 'new' loveseat -
Eventually I would like to get a flat screen television with built in DVD player to put on the wall above the desk. Besides that, the only other thing missing is my table and lamp. I'm still deciding which one I want to put there.
Thank you for all the wonderful comments on Sabrina :o)
Sabrina is getting the party itch ;o) She's starting to get more and more bling now -
With a dress like this, I know I'd want to show it off! LOL!
The front of her dress is officially completed so it's onto the middle section. I think I'm about 60% done. What do you think?
People have asked me why I'm beading as I go. To be honest, this is not my normal practice. I usually wait until I have my entire cross stitching done before I even think of beading. But I decided that since there were SO many beads on Sabrina, I would do them as I went along because I knew that if I waited until the end, she would never get finished.
I have a feeling that I will be changing to larger Q-Snaps in the near future ;o)
Has it really been a week since I last posted? Yikes! I have no idea where the time has gone. I've been running here, there and everywhere but it doesn't seem like anything is getting done. DH had four days off this past week but his busy season starts next Monday so he might be a bit scarce for awhile :o(
I will have some stitchy pictures to show you soon but I'm waiting until I have a good enough progress picture to show you ;o) Am I a tease or what? LOL!
There are going to be some changes here at the Pumpkin Patch over the next few weeks. Good changes, don't worry! :o) We have a new entertainment unit coming in on Monday for the upstairs television room! DH and I are SO excited because that means that we'll have easier access to our DVD collection and our books can 'finally' be unpacked after ten years.
That being said, DH had to finish painting the room and replacing the baseboard. When we bought the house, this was a third bedroom but we converted it to meet our needs and we had the closet taken out for more room...hence the finishing.
I had mentioned awhile back that we were thinking about getting a fireplace. Unfortunately that has been put 'on hold' but we are still planning on it at a later date. This is where things might start to get a little confusing ;o)
Taking into account the new entertainment unit and the 'possible' (future) fireplace, DH and I will be doing our own version of musical chairs! Since there will be no room for the sofa in the living room, that will be moved into our television room upstairs. With the sofa being gone, we decided to replace it with my nice recliner that is in my stitching room. Wait! I'm not going to end up chairless ;o)
On the weekend, DH and I tackled the nemesis couch that is already in our television room. For those that don't remember, it's got a recliner on one side and a chaise on the other -
Shortly after we bought it, I was having trouble on the chaise side because my butt slowly sunk into a hole >:o( We called the company and they had someone come out to fix it. It was good for awhile and then I slowly sank back into my hole and it was not comfortable. I contacted the company again and suggested we order a recliner for that side to replace the chaise. They couldn't guarantee that the fabric would match and suggested a partial (very small) refund. Not too long after that, the company went bums up. So what do you do with a piece of fairly new (and not cheap) furniture that you hate? You revamp it!
TA-DA!
This will be the new loveseat in my stitching room! I really think that DH and I have a future in furniture building ;o) What do you think? LOL!
