We're Up North

Just dropping by to announce to the world that I am still alive and kicking =)

We started our journey towards the new town where hubby got his new job last Sunday night. We were staying at the motel 6, spending the most boring days of my life, with what seemed to me like they only have 5 freaking channels on the tv, it also seems like they have been doing Family Guy Marathon all day, everyday LOL (I have watched every episode a long time ago but don't mind reruns...but everyday reruns...ack!!). I didn't even get a single stitch in, I have been reading books, and just recently finished one I purchased at the grocery store called "The Last Mermaid" by Shana Abe. I love it. It was so romantic, mythical and timeless. I have currently started " A case of Need" by Michael Crichton. Last night we found out that the motel overbooked and we couldn't extend our stay which we planned was until saturday, but they had told us that we had to leave this afternoon. Bummer! So we did left early, I am right now at hubby's friend's house spending half the day until hubby gets out of work, thus i got to use the internet, wee! and then we will have to go to another motel Super 8, i think is what it was called. Hope this one is going to be so much better, with atleast 6 channels on tv LOL!

I love this town, it looks rather interesting, so many options especially food! So many asian resto's and grocery outlets. Lots and lots of shopping center and a tiny little shopping district with a plethora of boutiques, resto's, bookstores and who knows what else...?

We haven't found an apartment yet, it's so hard, since you can only view by appointment and usually their offices close at the same time hubby leaves for work =( We looked at a 1 bedroom/1 bath yesterday, but it was $1700 (no utilities included) worth of stash!!! So we are still searching...searching...I may even have to go back to Santa Maria by the weekend and spend the whole week down there so hubby can stay at his friends house without having to pay anymore for motel stays because it is truly expensive and it is draining our savings from his resignation which was suppose to go towards a deposit for an apartment rent. And then he can also look while staying at his friends without having to burn anymore $$$.

I have nothing to show today...so sad.

Vent over. =)

Hope you all have a great stitching weekend.

Latest HD, A new start for a baby...sweeeeet!!

After what seemed like forever of back-stitching. Stoney Creek's are notorious for those. I had finished finally my wedding piece, the one i was making for a friend as my gift to her for being just...well, my friend. =)

This piece was...something...not only was the backstitching totally all over the place, the blending with kreinik's all over was challenging as well. I mean, Mirabilia's have blends, but its usually a mix of different ones like #4 braids or #8's. This one was mostly of blending filaments, so i cheated and used a bit of the RG PB01 on the borders, just cuz i didn't have enough to go around, was using the same thing for my PR OUAT, so I had to order more, but did not want to wait for my order to arrive. I used the BF's on both the birds though, and then a bit of ewww, yuck! DMC 282 (light gold metallic) for the rings back stitching. Whaaaat?! I totally dissed that, as i hate the dmc metallics, so i used something else that i have around. A #4 braid from kreinik that i thought is quite similar, as i was not ready to lose my mind, thank you very much! tee hee

Wedding Treasure by Stoney Creek

Once again, I made another new start. A family friend, who works with hubby had a baby girl last month. Yey!! I'm so jealous... But i have to restrain myself from that, I am not ready to have another bout of more sleepless nights yet...hehehe. They are the ones who were basically handing over their little boy's clothes to us. Their oldest son is only couple months older from Connor, so in the past 2.5 years, we only had to buy him 4-5 times new clothing, and that was if it was really necessary (like Darth Vader costume haha). I talked to them and asked if they would like a cross stitch piece for their new daughter as i had made one for their son before and the answer was "We would be honored." Don't you love it when people truly appreciates your hand-made gifts that's smothered with love before you even started it? Amazing!!!
Again, this is my own hand-dyed piece, I made it yesterday and totally colored our white sink red...So I quickly rinsed the sink out with bleach before hubby got home LOL. The fabby came out a little wilder than i anticipated, it's a monaco fabric after all, so I wasn't that shocked. I'm hoping the design would work itself out around it. I am trying to finish it quickly so I can give it to them before we move.

Animal Baby Oval Birth Announcement

Ellen Maurer Stroh

As to hubby news, yes he got the new job, wooohooo!!! Can't believe they offered him 60% more raise than what he is making now. Finally, he is getting what he deserves to be paid. He is to start on the 23rd, so we are anticipating to move out of town by the 21'st. We are still looking for a temporary place to move over there, since it's so far, it's impossible to just drive down and sign contracts, so far we can only find studio's that allow pets, and God knows I can't live without my P-chan. I have no problem with living in a studio or in the car LOL. But a studio probably won't let you stay if there is like 3 of you. So we will have to see how things will go. My birthday is also coming up and I don't have any plans on what i want or to do yet. Usually I go like "baby, I want a year's supply of FOTM." heheh
I know i have been bad with not updating my blog often. But as soon as we get settled in at where we are moving, I will try as much as i can to update.
Finally, I leave you with pictures of my son who like all of us, loves the wii fit. LOL

The sun salutation

Sporting in Wii Fit Yoga.

Thanks for taking a peek. May you all be blessed with stash, stash and more stash then more stitching time.

I got me a new toy!

Awesomeness, hubby bought me Wii Fit last night!!! I told him when he got home that I want a Wii fit, actually eversince it was announced at E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) I had been saying to him that when it is released in the US I would like one. It became so popular that people were lining up outside the game stores for it. We drove to Gamestop, Target, Best Buy and finally at Wal-mart, they had one left, and some1 else wanted it but I was lucky that hubby got it first! Woohoo!!

I gave it a try as soon as we got home and it was so much fun. =^-^= I love it!

Hmm, wonder if it will help me maintain my figure LOL. Although it screamed at my face that i was underweight. LOLOL

You gotta get one! It is a fun way to exercise! I hate to exercise but hell yeah this is more like playing than exercise being a task!

A Wedding Gift

First of all, thank you to those who greeted my mom a Happy Birthday. I believe that our Mom's are angels sent from heaven to watch us no matter where we go, no matter how old we get, and no matter the circumstance. They are amazing! *^-^*

So, how's everybody's stitching going on??? I need to catch up on some of you guy's blogs. I have been stitching a little bit, here and there. Two weeks ago I met this wonderful lady, her name is Tiffany. Both our hubbies work at the same place and when hubby was called in for that job interview which was literally an 8 hour trip back and forth, she spent the whole day with me and my son. She was so nice and sweet, we went out to lunch and then spent the day talking about babies because she is 6 months pregnant!

So as a thank you I decided to make them a wedding announcement since they don't have one. I asked her of course if she would like a cross stitched piece and she was excited about it, so i started one a couple of days ago. I really love the saying on this design. And the fabric is fab as well, it's a silkweaver opalescent, called Coral. I think it may have been discontinued. It has whites and soft peachy pinks. It's really pretty, too bad I looked at SW site and they don't seem to have it anymore.

Design from: Stoney Creek Collection Two Hearts Together
Title of the Design: Wedding Treasure

TFL!

Happy Birthday!!!

Happy Birthday to my most beloved Mom.

You're my inspiration. I love you so much!!!

Been a while...

It's been a while since my last update. Alot of things had been going on in my side of the world. First, we had to move to a new house, we are now moved, but we still have a few things left to pick up at the old house we were living before. It's only a few blocks away but having a small child while doing the move can really take forever. And we also found out last week that the old house has been infested with fleas. There were alot of stray cats in that old neighborhood, and remember that doggy door? I wonder if they were going inside the house through that since i used to leave some cat food out the front door while we were still living there, which meant i was basically feeding the homeless cats. So hubby decided to bug bomb the place last weekend before we bring in more stuff to the new house so that it doesn't get infested here as well.

Secondly, hubby received a job offer in San Jose, and went for a job interview last friday. If he gets this job, looks like we will be doing another move, San Jose is close to a 4 hour drive. He really wants to get this job as it pays alot more than what he is paid now and I'm hoping and praying that he will get the job as well, cuz I am planning to go back to school and study nursing. The earlier notice the better, as registrations end by June.

Anyhoo, I do have some stitching updates.


I have been slowly making some progress on OUAT. Not very much as of late due to the move. But this is my only accessible project so I did get some stitching done, I didn't even bother unpacking our stuffs incase hubby gets the job and we will have to move again. So here is what it looks recently.

I also ordered some SMF fabric during Mindy's spring sale. Took 2 months to receive but well worth the wait.

I ordered Cursus in linen and Angel Kisses in jazzlyn both in FQ. Love them!

Thanks for stopping by everyone.

Lover's progress

I have quite a bit done on my WIP. They are really coming along nicely, I am just loving every minute of this. Our internet was down all day yesterday and i worked on the bouquet she is holding. I can't believe how much we can get done while there is no access to the internet LOL.

I only took a picture of the lover's as I am too lazy to unroll and re-roll the piece. You know what the arbour looks like anyway. =)

Mel asked "can I ask, what are the clips on your stitching for?"

Hi Mel, they are my take on stitch clips which you use to tighten the side of your fabric. One day I was stitching Ivy and i couldn't get the fabric right (the way I'm comfortable with). I took clips and rubber bands and used it to pull the fabric sideways.
Also I find that the bigger the fabric, no matter how much pulling you do to tighten it, it will eventually start to sag esp. in the middle. So I thought the paper clips and rubber bands will do the job and sure enough, they did, they've helped me alot in my stitching, I have been using them for quite a while, I also use them to hold my pattern LOL. Hope this answers your question.

Thank you guys for visiting and for all the lovely comments. It sure keeps a stitcher happy enough to pursue her stitching career. hehehe

Proud Mommy & some updates

Very long post...So get your oxygen tank ready..

I am just so proud *big grin*. My son Connor never ceases to amaze us. When he turned 2, his grandma (my MIL) gave him one of those $5 magnetized writing board for his 2nd birthday, couple of weeks later he started writing ABC's and the numbers 1-10 on it. I thought it seemed pretty normal, until I noticed that even my nephew who was past 3 can't even write yet. While we were in the Philippines for our vacation, Connor started saying all the colors in the rainbow, simply from identifying them out of fruit loops. LOL. I was so impressed! And then we got home and a couple weeks later he started to count and write from 1-20. He also learned a few sign languages like please, thank you, help, sleep, eat, drink, mommy, daddy, hat, baby, shoes (he thought me how to sign shoes LOL), socks, potty and a couple others. Anyways, he used that board, and for being $5 it broke after a while, he got a new one and the other day he did this...

Big tada!!! How awesome, he wrote his own name! and then he would run his index finger over and pretend (?) to read and said "Coyer" (with silent 'r' hehe) he can't pronounce his name very well yet. Okay, he kept missing an 'O' but still, he's only 2 years and 6 months. Not bad!!! Maybe in a couple of months, he will start reading to me LOL and do a better job at reading than his mom! LOLOL. Just so proud I am!!! =^0^=



Now onto stitchy updates...


I owed a close friend in college a stitched piece, she asked me a long time ago when she moved to New Zealand to make her a pooh cross stitch, now that had been like 2 years ago, I'm so bad, that she stopped talking to me LOL. Recently, i talked to her again, and i told her that I have been trying to find a pooh design for her (I wanted to stitch one where I don't have to spend my whole life stitching it LOL). I went to my stash and i remembered I had 2 booklets one was of pooh baby designs and then this other one that I picked up from a yard sale. I decided to rechart that and I ended up with what is now a wedding announcement for my dear friend (who got upset LOL). The fabric was a RAK from my friend Ericille, it was a one of a kind lavender fields from stab & stash. Thanks Ericille.

I also have a picture update of OUAT, can you see how i modified her again to suit my taste? Now, what the hell is this? (encircled in red) I know it's part of her dress but i think it makes it look so busy on the right side, with her wings and all...I can't help but think...tentacles!!! So i continued her arms, and hair and will be eliminating that part of her dress because i don't see why it should be there. There will prolly be a change or two coming soon, her necklace just looks wrong to me, an inverted cross??? I'll have to fix that one as well...creeping me out!!! LOL

Here is not much of an update piccy:

Whew! That was a long one, literally took me a long time to write, so sorry for the novel, but I haven't updated in a while and had so much to blah about. hehehe. I hope you are still breathing!!! j/k!

Thanks for coming down and visiting. Hope you have a nice day!

Funny story

I had a really funny experience yesterday, being hubby's 28th birthday, I asked if we could all parade to Cold Stone ice cream shoppe, it's my fave, it's quite expensive though and it's erected over at the other side of town, so it's really special for me. So anyways, we all started hitting the car, but realized we locked the keys inside the house!!! I didn't even carry with me my ever so reliable diaper bag that contains the spare key argh!!! I left the keys on top of the dresser after we got home from spending easter at MIL's. So we were stumped. I said, let's go to the backyard and maybe i could fit through the doggy door, LOL! we have a cat, and a miniature poodle by the way, so you can imagine how big a door that would be. I tried to squeeze in there while hubby was getting frustrated about how to get in. My shoulder wouldn't fit, i said "i don't think i can fit!" and hubby said "one shoulder at a time baby." I said, "i can't..." but then he said "get out and let's just walk to the mall." haha fat chance, like i would walk all the way to the mall. So i squeezed myself in harder, and yes! I got half my body through, now my hips are stuck! I said, "my hips, I can't get out!!!" (Thank's to pregnancy!) LOLOL Hubby said "haha, do you need me to push you?" So he put Connor down as he was holding him the whole time as our backyard, i think is a land mine LOL, i catch all types of allergies there. So hubby put Connor down and started pushing at my legs, and thank God, Jesus, flying spaghetti monster I fell in, and crawled my way in and up and opened the front door. Then we grabbed the keys, and went happily following the yellow brick road LOL. Hubby said "now, we know a 5th grader can come in and steal our stuff" and i said "we know now what to do everytime we lock our keys in haha." and he said "well, that was really funny, but it would have been funnier if you were stuck there, i would have to call 911." Hahaha. I was wearing pencil skirt too!!! By the way the opening of the doggy door measured 7x12 inches. LOL. I probably would have just slipped through the doggy door before I had a baby, i was the size of a skewer LOL But anything i can do, just for a bowl of ice cream!!! (i know you can relate. hehehe)

The doggy door to salvation! LOL

Oh, I am also happy to report that I placed an order for a silkweaver grab bag when i had the chance. They sell like hot cakes, anyways, i received them last saturday and boy, I couldn't be happier, they are all gorgeous, although the biggest size was 13x18, and most are odds but what better way to add to my small collection.

Ain't they all gorgeous? Love 'em!!!

Thanks to everyone who commented on my framed Nimue design, I totally adore it. And I'm happy to know that others think it's wonderful as well.

Framed & Hanged

I finally decided to frame my Nimue's La Balancoire. Hubby and i visited for the first time a local framer shop last weekend, they have a nice selection of ready to use frames and the prices aren't going to break the bank either. I got this 9x12 frame for $21.95 (awesome! even cheaper than Michael's!) and the glass was like 85 cents!!! I think I found a new shop worth driving for. It is not that far either. It's at the end of town, so it's not that bad.

I present to you...(drum roll)

I just love the frame and it fits the design perfectly, It has a rustic look to it, well sort of. I just love love love the way it came out. I am so happy!!! *jump jump* Hubby and i finished framing this last night just for that "instant gratification" feeling LOL. Here is a close up photo of the frame.

Have a happy Easter everyone. and TFL!