Stitching Update - Week Ended 1/8/2012

I did finish the Precious Moments, You're One in a Million project for Q4OC (Quilts for Older Children and Adults.  This is from PM64 - Love, Family and Friends.  It's stitched on 14-count white Aida with DMC floss as charted except that I left off the words.

I'm currently working on the Pretty Fence Snow Globe from Vee and Co for WOCS (World of Charity Stitching).  I would have been a lot farther, but I had to frog the entire yellow flower and it's leaves.  Fortunately, I hadn't started backstitching it yet.

Look What My Daughter Gave Me

Janice cross stitches and enjoys other crafts as well.  We've made many trips to Michaels, Jo Ann's, Needlepoints Ltd and Hobby Lobby together. 

For my birthday, she put together this stitching basket.  There's a booklet, some 14-count white Aida (which she knows I use a lot of), some DMC floss, a bookmark blank, a towel (that she wants me to stitch for her), some needles, a ball of cotton yarn for knitting dishcloths and a Michaels gift card (which is already in my wallet).  I think she did a great job, don't you?



Happy Birthday to Me

Today is my 62nd birthday.  Janice, Kyleigh and I celebrated on Tuesday by going to Chili's since they weren't going to be available today.  I love their Ribeye and loaded baked potatoes.  Kyleigh told them it was my birthday so they sang and gave me a free chocolate shake.

David and I planned on going to Famous Dave's tonight since we had a $25 gift certificate.  On our way we called Janice and she and Kyleigh were able to join us after all.

I'm participating in two birthday floss exchanges where you send/receive and card and two skeins of floss.  One of the ladies from the Shared_Crosses Yahoo Group stitched this card.

Since I love cupcakes and pink is one of my favorite colors, I love this card.  I had commented on her post about it, but never thought it would be coming to me.  Thank you, Lynette and also to all of the ladies who sent cards and floss.

Some pictures and the loss of a friend

Janice sent me some pictures this evening:

Kyleigh received a princess dress up box from Santa so this is what she wore to take out the trash on Sunday. 

Kyleigh has also discovered how to get in the freezer to get her own popsicles.  She can even get out the stool and open it up herself.  Note the child lock on the refrigerator--it doesn't do any good either.

This picture was taken at Downtown Disney the day after Christmas.  Kyleigh received an unstuffed Build-A-Bear for Christmas, so we took it to get it stuffed and buy an outfit.

We also lost a friend today.  My daughter's ex-husband's grandmother died this morning of natural causes.  She's been sick for a while so it wasn't unexpected, but it's still hard on the family.  When my daughter was married and before they moved from California to Indiana, we spent all of our holidays at her home and she was more of a grandmother to Janice than her "real" grandparents since she rarely saw them.  We were privileged to spend Thanksgiving 2010 at their home in Indiana on the way home from my father's funeral.  My prayers go out to her husband, daughters and grandchildren.

Stitching Update - Week Ending 1/1/2012

I didn't have a lot of time to stitch this past week since we had Kyleigh with us during the day, but I did manage a finish and a start.

The finish is my third letter for the Jungle Animals Alphabet SAL at Q4OC (Quilts for Older Children and Adults).  I stitched K and M last week; this week I stitched the N.

I really enjoy stitching these little alphabet squares, partly because they're so quick and cute.

The start is Precious Moments You're One in a Million, also for Q4OC.  This was for the 2011 Stitchers Challenge so I'm a little behind.  It will be going to Love Quilts Brazil once it's finished.

I had hoped it would be my final finish for 2011, but instead it will be my first finish for 2012.

Happy New Year!

We hadn't planned on doing anything for New Year's Eve, but Janice heard about a family friendly event at the Great Park in Irvine (a former Marine Corps Air Station).  They were going to raise and drop a hot air balloon at 9:00 p.m. and there were activities, music and food so the four of us decided to check it out. 

It was extremely crowded and there were lines for all the activities and food, but we did manage to eat dinner, look at the old cars and planes, call David's dad to wish him a happy birthday, send cards to those in the military and police force and find a good place to sit and view the balloon while watching the bands play on stage.  Kyleigh also made a new friend who shared his light up ball, party hats and glow necklaces.

Unfortunately, it got very cold and foggy and the balloon started to disappear so we left about 8:00 in search of hot chocolate.  We ended up at a McDonalds on the way home (love Janice's iPhone 4S).  I didn't realize that McDonalds made such good hot chocolate!

Today will be church and stitching and hopefully catching up on some DVR'd shows on the Food Network and maybe some laundry.

PHD Stitching for 2012

Today was our last day with Kyleigh.  We didn't do much today besides watching TV, painting, cutting and taping and taking a long nap.  Janice picked her up about 4:00 and the three of us went shopping since Kyleigh was running out of pants--she's really hard on clothes.  We went to the Outlets at the Block and got her several pairs of leggings, some long sleeve shirts, a skirt and shirt combo, a nightgown and a dress.  We also got her some new earrings. 

I spent some time going through my PHD (Potential Happy Dances, also know as WIPS/UFOs) projects so that I could "plan" my stitching for 2012.  Here is what I came up with (in alphabetical order):

12 Days of Christmas - Margaret Sherry

Angelic Ornaments - Dimensions Kit (There are eight angels altogether)

Ballerina Kitten - Dimensions (No Count) Kit

Butterfly Whimsy - Dimensions Kit

Christmas at the Beach - Gold Collection Mini

Crabapples, Lemon & Berries - Borderline Towels booklet

Christmas Cutie - Cross Stitch Card Shop #81 (Cover Kit)

Denim Darlings Bib - For the Love of Cross Stitch - March, 1998

Let Freedom Ring - Sunset Kit

Majestic Eagle - Sunset Kit

Tinkerbell - Disney/Thomas Kinkade Kit

Tropical Paradise - Mill Hill Kit

I have approximately 75-80 PHDs, but these are the ones I'd like to complete this coming year.  Several of them don't have a lot of stitching left so should be completed quickly.  I plan to either work on them on the weekends or do an every other week rotation similar to what I've been doing the past few months.  

I also have the HAED, Seaside Victorian that I'd like to continue stitching, but probably won't finish and my current WIP, One in a Million (Precious Moments) if it's not completed by tomorrow night and at this point it doesn't look like it will be.

In addition, I have several charity commitments and would like to do a bunch of small Christmas ornaments.  I also have a couple more projects that will be added to the list, once some of these are completed.

Too Much Help

Kyleigh again arrived bright and early in her nightgown, but today was a different kind of day.  It started with grandpa having to move the car on the lawn just in time for the street sweeper to go by.  While it was there, he decided to wash it since it was very muddy from our trip north last week.

Kyleigh was grandpa's willing helper, but she managed to get wet when they were rinsing the car so we took a bike ride around the block hoping she'd dry off. (She rode, I walked)  The shirt dried, the jeans didn't.  Grandpa went to move the car back to the street since the sprinklers were ready to come on and Kyleigh ran out to watch him and came back even wetter, so I let her go out and play in them before I changed her. 

If you haven't guessed already, it was about 78 degrees out today--not exactly normal weather for the end of December.

After lunch we decided to deliver Christmas presents to the friend that provides our seats at the Angels' games, but first I had to wrap them.  This time the help was provided by our two cats, Pumpkin and Soxie.

They totally ripped the paper on this side of the box, but with some creative compensation, I got it done and we got the presents delivered safely.

Once we got back, grandpa decided to do some cleanup in the backyard.  He mowed the largest section of lawn and then he weeded the border between the patio and the grass.  We used to plant impatiens there, but haven't for several years.  Again, he had a willing helper.

Janice calls Kyleigh "a tomboy in princess clothing".  She always wants to wear a dress, but she's not afraid to get dirty.  Janice was a tomboy too, but never wanted to wear a dress.

Another Kyleigh Day

Kyleigh arrived bright and early this morning in her nightgown and slippers.  After getting dressed, eating breakfast, watching some cartoons on TV, playing with her new Tangled game on her MobiGo and watching grandpa change the flourescent lightbulbs in the kitchen, we went to the Michaels in Buena Park to do a free make-it/take-it which involved gluing pieces of tissue paper to a palm tree or a dinosaur.  Here's Kyleigh's completed project:

Our next stop was McDonalds for lunch and then on to Barnes & Noble where we tried to resolve a problem with a Nook purchase and got a book for Kyleigh.  Resolving the problem took almost 1/2 hour and she was a good waiter so the book was a reward.  Then it was home for a nap.

Kyleigh enjoys playing Doodle Bear on the Fisher Price website.  This involves stamping various colored stamps on one of three bears and then printing or washing the bear and starting over.  We have several bears lying around our house now, all pink with pink stamps.

A Kyleigh Day

Janice had to go back to work today so Kyleigh had a sleepover last night and spent the day with us.  We were really lucky that she slept until 7:45 this morning.  We had a real lazy morning and it took us til almost 10:30 to get showers and breakfast.  I received a Belgian waffle maker for Christmas so David made us waffles and scrambled eggs with ham for breakfast.

We spent the rest of the morning putting boxes in bags, playing Doodle Bear on the Fisher Price website, watching Strawberry Shortcake and generally annoying the cats. We did manage a two hour nap and then had a late lunch (peanut butter and jelly with cheese sandwich, of course).

David went to mail packages (Q4OC, Binky SD, a welcome baby present for my nephew's new daughter and the return of an eBay purchase) and birthday card and floss to Australia.  And Kyleigh and I walked to the store to get milk, bread, raspberries, broccoli, hamburger, cat food and Tinkerbell gummies for her mommy.   On the way home, she decided she needed her picture taken.

This is our next door neighbors front yard and Kyleigh has been fascinated by these statues.  I took the first picture and she came and looked at the camera (on my phone) and decided I needed to take the second one.  BTW, that's my Mickey she's holding.

She went home with mommy after dinner, but she'll be back about 7:00 tomorrow morning.  Now I'm off to stitch.  I'm working on a Precious Moments design for Q4OC.