ishkabibble

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. ;)

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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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. :)

Daniela at Krížikové vyšívanie
Alyssa at Brownie's Chair
Preeti at Creat - E - witty Unleashed
Pandy at Adventures of a Crazy Cat Lady
Missy at Dork Stitch
Annie at The Crafty Pixie
Reaper at The Stitching Reaper
Becca at finding flapjack
Elle at EllemereCrafty
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.

March TUSAL, IHSW(?) and Special Fabric!

Aloha, world! I am completely timely, right? Well, at least I have a good excuse this time. This past week was our 2nd anniversary so my husband took some much needed time off and we disappeared! We went to stay with a couple of good friends and explored a different part of the US, lazed about their house with video games, and visited not one, but two cross stitch stores.

First off, welcome to my new followers! I am creeping ever closer to that elusive 100 mark and that just tickles me blue. :D I'll be catching up on blogs over the next week or so~

I will admit to being completely derpy about this month's IHSW! I couldn't even remember if I signed up (I did not). As most of the weekend was spent traveling, not a whole lot of stitching went on. However! The violets came with me on our trip. I suppose I got a lot accomplished on them though not enough to finish. I keep telling myself this piece is now about halfway (possibly more since it's bottom-heavy) but man. It seems like I'm getting nowhere fast on it. And now that we're back, it will probably be neglected again as I try to cram more Muppet letters into my life hahaaaaa. sigh

But cross stitch stores! Stores dedicated to cross stitch! Who knew there were such wonders in the world! And to top it off, they were freshly filled with goodies from the Nashville Market! I was good. I limited myself to $20 and wound up with $23 of delicious fabrics and flosses I would never be able to find around here. It could've been much, muuuuuch more, especially as there was a large piece of delicious blue and sparkly fabric that I fondled for a long time before sadly putting it back. I was informed by Madame Enabler that the shopkeeper would cut a smaller piece but something that lovely must be kept whole! Right...? I'll probably kick myself forever for not getting it. :)

two Silkweaver fabrics and four WDW

I picked up two fabrics and four skeins of discontinued Weeks Dye Works to try. I'm a bit frightened of the fabrics because they're 32 count which will probably result in me stitching about 2" from the fabric.

Silkweaver - blue/purple 32 count evenweave

The first is this lovely blue/purple hand-dyed evenweave that I had to take outside to get even a little close to the right color. It's not very large ( 9" x 13") but at 32 count I could probably get a lot of use out of it especially if I decided to go crazy and do over-1. Who needs eyes?! :D

Silkweaver - 32 count evenweave

And the other, the other. Oh, the other. 13" x 18" SPARKLES. This picture does not do it justice. It is a lovely creamy white. With SPARKLES. Oh, I could just hug it. I think it screams a winter piece. Maybe a redwork. Or, knowing me, bluework. Or I may just frame it as is because SPARKLES.

three chart leaflets and a card kit

And since cross stitching seems to be much more plentiful in that area, there were a few thrift store finds as well! I found a few Christmas leaflets, a little card kit, and a welcome chart. The welcome design is really pretty but my favorite are the towel designs. There are some real cute ones in there and I spent a whopping $3 for the lot.

layers upon layers of ORTy goodness

And here's my TUSAL update! There's quite a bit of yellow Muppety goodness in there with a healthy cap of February violets sprinkled on top.

I hope you have a wonderful day and SPARKLES! :D

Gifted Gorgeousness - March Edition

Hello again! Here is my March installment of Jo's Gifted Gorgeousness. Still plugging away on the Muppet letters; I've reached the great milestone of having one part of the child's name finished! I apologize in advance for the somewhat sparse post, privacy being what it is and all. But here's one new letter for your viewing pleasure!

meep meep meep meep meep meep!

Beaker and Bunsen! :D They're some of my favorite Muppets and I'm quite pleased with how this one charted up. I may go back and play with Bunsen's glasses some, though. They seem small and too round! Or I might just be being picky.

Until next time! :D