Giveaway, the FIRST!

Hi, world! It's (still) May! And it's also my birth month; can you guess whether I am a Taurus or Gemini? :b

I was going through my little stash in an inventory-ing sort of way and decided to be honest with myself. I have some patterns and kits I will never stitch; they were bought when I first picked up cross stitching and my tastes have since wildly changed from "STITCH EVERYTHING" to a slightly more realistic "STITCH EVERYTHING SUPER GEEKY." So, giveaways for my birth month! I'm so excited about this since it's the first time I feel like I can actually give back.  Am I weird?  (shhhhhh...)  I will post a giveaway once a week in May (4, 11, 18, 25).

I must make it clear that these were mostly bought at thrift stores so they will vary from just patterns to unopened kits. There will be one needlepoint and one crewel as well. I will ship anywhere in the world but it will be just the pattern(s)/kit(s), no little extras as much as I'd like to put some in.

So, here we go, diving into Week 1: The Cute Week!  This giveaway is for all three kits featuring cute (well, I think they're cute) designs.  All three are unopened and come with bonus thrift store price tags, haha.  :)

Sparkly Fun Rules

1. You must be a minion follower on the Google gadget (top right on my blog). I know many people use feedly, etc. but there's no way of showing that!
2. Comment to enter... and tell me why you want the pattern(s)/kit(s).  This way I get to learn a little more about you~  :D
3. You must contact me within one week of winning.

enchanted unicorn, ~3" cross stitch

the little ducks, ~6" needlepoint

cherished teddies, ~4" cross stitch

Welp! Good luck to you all~  This giveaway will close on Sunday, May 10th and I will post the winner on May 11th, along with the next giveaway.  This giveaway is now closed!

yay i am so excited

FotM - April Edition

Hello again, world! It's May, one of the Best Months Ever (more a bit later, kekekeke) and I hope you're hanging onto your britches 'cause this year is flying by.

I wish I could wow you all with my stunning progress but alas! Possibly you will be amazed anyway.

before

after

Are you impressed? I hope you're impressed. :b Can you even see the addition?

more leaf!

One evening, I simply could not stand Muppets anymore. I was just so fed up with "having to" work on it. So I put in two little strands on violets and all was right with the world again. It's amazing what little things can pacify a body!

Still present is the little owl needleminder I thought I inadvertently stole from my friend. Here it was meant to be a gift! I now have TWO needleminders which really makes me feel like I'm moving up in the world of stitching. Thank you so much again, Blog Stalker~ :D

Small Muppet update: From last post, I did make more progress. I didn't achieve my goal of four letters but I did get three-and-a-half which is still pretty great for pokey old me. I underestimated how "busy" one of the four letters was going to be. The last few letters are a relatively simple design so they will (hopefully) stitch up quickly. And since it's so close to completion and the veggie garden is planted (for now), my mojo is through the roof! I almost feel hopeful for a victorious GG post in two weeks. GO GO GOOOOO.

One Lovely Blog Award & a TUSAL

Hello, world! I've been sick of body then sick of mind so it was quite a surprise to find I received a "lovely blog" award from the Great Poodle Lover! It was quite timely to kick myself out of the funk I've been in, so thank you so much, Vickie! :D It feels good to be normal(?) again~


The purpose of this award is for bloggers to nominate fellow, mostly newer, bloggers that they wish to recognize. The goal is to bring attention to blogs that we think are "lovely" and enjoy reading. We hope others will enjoy reading these blogs also.

In order to accept the award, the nominated blogger must follow these rules:

• Thank the person who nominated you & link back to them in your post
• Share seven facts about yourself
• Nominate 10 other bloggers for the award

Thank you again, Vickie, you must know I like to talk about myself. ;)

1. I love to travel but due to some weird screw-up in my head, I have become afraid to fly! I have been to Okinawa, Japan twice, England once, and to at least 40 of the States. Only the extreme NE/SE and Alaska have eluded me.
2. I like anime, manga, and video games... a lot. I wish there were more projects geared towards those subjects so that I didn't have to make the patterns myself!  Luckily there's a lovely community at Sprite Stitch that helps out.
3. Most of my stash comes from thrift stores.  I must see and touch things before I buy and I have no needlework shops within easy driving distance.
4. Blue, blue, blue!  Everything must be blue!  I like yellow and green a lot too, but mostly blue.  And rainbows.  But blue.  Think of the cerulean Crayola crayon and you've got the perfect blue though all blues are wonderful.  Blue.
5. I lived in Hawaii for ~five years while getting my university degree.  Truly a beautiful place but I don't think I would ever want to live there again; so expensive!  Even if money were no object, I felt "trapped" by the lack of four seasons.  My husband is a nice souvenir though.  :b
6. I love to cook, especially to bake bread!  I have tried a bread machine before and it just takes the fun part away from baking.  I love kneading the warm dough and punching down.  My favorite is a plain ol' loaf of wheat bread.
7. I love yard work!  I have a vegetable garden started (cabbage, garlic, potatoes, broccoli, onions, lettuce, and spinach so far, with tomatoes and peppers started and cucumbers waiting) and probably more houseplants than is really necessary.  I also really like to mow grass... with a push mower.  We have a lot of grass (around an 3/4 of an acre) so I get my fix quite readily.

And here are my 10 linked blogs you should check out, in no particular order~  Perhaps they've already got nominated... well, you're getting nominated AGAIN. :b  Also please don't feel obligated to participate.  :)

1. Daniela at Krížikové vyšívanie
2. Alyssa at Brownie's Chair
3. Preeti at Creat - E - witty Unleashed
4. Pandy at Adventures of a Crazy Cat Lady
5. Missy at Dork Stitch
6. Annie at The Crafty Pixie
7. Reaper at The Stitching Reaper
8. Becca at finding flapjack
9. Elle at EllemereCrafty
10. Pamela at Hokkaido Kudasai

Sneaking this in on this here post, I present my (somewhat late) TUSAL!  What do you think is added in there?

Answer: Moooore Muppets!

And because we haven't seen her in a while, Oreo would like to be on the blog. She takes the time to sniff the flowers, this time one of my African violets.  Don't mind the stretching Kalanchoe in the back; it was a dark winter and it got quite leggy.  I haven't the heart to cut off the flowers just yet.

Welp, that is all from me today. It's a somewhat bizarre weekend so I am going to pretend it is IHSW and hermit up with my Muppet letters and see just how many I can finish before Sunday evening.  I will set a lofty goal of four letters.  Fingers (needles?) crossed!

Gifted Gorgeousness - April Edition

Here we are for the April installment of Jo's Gifted Gorgeousness.

click to join the fun!

I'm still plucking diligently away on Muppet letters which will be a gift for a good friend ('s first baby). These letters were tweaked from this and this alphabet image which I ran through KG-Chart.

Can you guess them?  K worked up quickly (comparatively) though his one eye looks a little weird.  Will probably go back and fix that.  I am hoping next GG this piece will be done.  Probably won't be though.

Sorry for the slight blur. And cat hair. And short post.  Until next time.

FotM - March Edition

Here it is, APRIL. Jeez. Here is my update for Alyssa's Flower of the Month SAL... updating February in  March  April. :b Wish I could say I have a finish but alas, it was not meant to be. I did make some progress though.

before

after

This piece came with me on our anniversary vacation. I parked myself under an Ott lamp my friend set up and whiled away the morning hours before our day really started. Also present is the cute little owl needleminder that my friend loaned me and I accidentally came home with! I realized this after I fished it out of its travel bag to take the picture. Eek!

Also, the more I look at it, the more I feel I'm no where near halfway like I had previously thought. Wishful thinking on my part. :b  New goal will be to catch up after May as I am pushing hard on (and getting a little tired of) Muppet letters.

January! February! March!

But here is proof that I do indeed have March done!  I was way, waaay ahead of the game on the daffodils as I finished stitching it in September of 2010!  I don't believe I used any of the recommended floss colors because I had just started cross-stitching at the time and did not have a lot!  I think the flowers turned out great but the leaves may be a bit off. :)

finally

Daffodils are my favorite flower, hands down. I'm pleased to say the ones in front of the house have finally started blooming! These were here when we moved in, as well as the hyacinths. I have since continued down the sidewalk as I can't seem to live someplace without planting more daffodils. ;)  These particular ones are still in somewhat of a "recovery mode."  I think the previous renters were mowing down the leaves much too soon so there are not a whole lot of flowers.  Since we've been here, they've more than tripled the blossoms though!  Next will be thinning them out.

I love spring.