Finished Christmas project

Here it is! My friend Kae knew NOTHING about it, although everyone at work and even some of our clients (hi Margaret!) did know about it! I am very pleased with the finished product and Kae just loves it.



Now I am on to another project, another surprise one for someone who is not expecting anything.

Proud new owner of an OTT light!!!

I am so very excited... a friend of mine knew I have been watching Michael's and Joann's for a fabulous sale on the OTT lights, and she came across an online sale PLUS she had a coupon for free shipping, so long story short, I now have my very own OTT light!

My DH does not bug me any longer about "turn off the spotlight" that seems to shine right in his face - the OTT light only shines on my stitching!

It's a medium sized one, number 508 I think. Just perfect for what I need.

I'm a happy stitcher again!

What's a "ya-ya?"

Someone asked me what that means... my grandbabies (and now my husband and nearly everyone in my family) call me that. It is actually the Greek name for grandmother (although we are not of Greek descent). When my son informed me that I was going to be a grandma, he stopped and said, "ooooh that sounds funny." And we began searching for the perfect "grandma" name for me. Everyone thinks it fits me, so there you go.

Weekend with the in-laws

We went and we survived... don't get me wrong, I love my DMIL, but the FIL, well, I really have to work it with him. He is very opinionated and if you don't share his opinion - we all know someone like that. I took my grandbabies and bless their little hearts, they kept us busy so we didn't have much else to do.



So glad to be home and able to stitch in peace. Since I have finished my two "must-finish" Christmas projects, I am working on a smaller, "if it gets done it gets done" project - a bread cover for a friend. She commented that she thought mine was pretty, so you know what happens - off to Joanns and buy one to do for her!! LOL...

Also working on a birth announcement for the oldest grbaby - she'll be three next Saturday but that's okay!!

Back to work.. TTFN!

OMG where has the time gone????

I am just not dedicated, that is my story and I am sticking to it!

So rather than make excuses, I am just going to pick me up and keep going.

UPDATE: I have been stitching some, and crocheting some, and we've all been sick off and on, but better now. I have one project completely finished:


This is a gift for a good friend of mine.




I am also finished with another gift for another friend but I haven't framed it yet. I was going to wait until it was framed, but it came out so good I can't wait!


This is called "Eloquent Christmas"


Close-up of beadwork

I dyed the fabric myself. It is 28 ct evenweave, dyed with Rit red. It is the first time I have used beads and I am just so very pleased with how it came out. My friend has no idea that I have stitched this for her! When it is framed I will post the final outcome.

Guess I had better get back to work. I am going to really try to stay on top of this going forward...

Hope everyone is having a good holiday season, getting your shopping done, and staying out of the way of the crazies that seem to be out in very large vehicles!

Laura
aka Ya-ya

It's been awhile...

It's been a busy time for me at work. Crazy things happened at the office (layoffs) and since then we've all been trying to adjust and they've moved us all around and it's been a very stressful time. Looks like we're getting back to normal....

And then my mom ends up in the hospital. She has COPD, a very nasty disease that basically robs her of her breathing without help. It's getting worse and last night she was admitted to the hospital again. Please send up prayers for her.

Just wanted to touch base with those of you who follow this. I will try to be more active here.

I am still stitching off and on, and trying to finish a scarf for my friend Jennifer. I will post pictures.

TTFN!

SFAC quilt square completed

It's done. What a quick, easy stitch! I hope my little contribution helps!

Had a good weekend

Got the house cleaned, got some stitching done, got some crocheting done. Not much else to update you, so here are a couple of photos.

Here is the quilt square for Stitching for a Cure:



and this will be a scarf for my friend Jennifer. I ride with her to work every day and she does not charge me for gas. The Fun Fur color is called Raspberry.

whew - glad last week is HISTORY

We had a major upheaval at work last week in the form of VERY unexpected layoffs - thank goodness I still have my job. My heart goes out to those who do not. It was the most awful Wed, Thurs and Friday in my recent memory. Lots of tears and hugs; I am not going to dwell on it... need to move forward!

I did not get any stitching done over the weekend. I had planned to devote Saturday to my WIPS, but DS and DDIL let me know that the car had died (again) and she was stranded on her way to work. They only have the one car that works (most of the time) so he had no way to go rescue her. Fortunately DH of a friend of mine was willing to help out so I kept the grandbabies while DS and friend's DH went to take DDIL to work then try to get the car started. They were able to get it back to friend's house where he looked and looked and did this and that - could not find a thing wrong with it. Girls finally went home at about 8pm Saturday night. I took it to Firestone on Sunday and THEY couldn't find anything wrong with it. We have decided the car is possessed and/or does not like DDIL. It only seems to die on her, on her way to work.

DS has a second car that is currently not running, so friend's DH came over to see if he could get that one running. I had to babysit again so they could focus on car (DDIL works and for now DS is stay-at-home dad). So bottom line is that I was not able to stitch.

Tonight I have decreed NO EMERGENCIES unless they see bones or blood. I so hope that I get to work on something, anything!

My prayers go out to xs friend Terry!

TTFN.

Got another HAED pattern

I am starting small, I know.. I used my $5.00 GC to buy a storykeep. I stumbled on this one and I do not know where. It is not in the regular list of SK's.

I have a friend who reads a lot and "envies" all my cross-stitch goodies, and since I have never made her anything, this will be a good something.

Flower Fairy Rest

Another finish - this one is all mine!

I finished the crocheted scarf for my friend's granddaughter. I hope it's long enough, but Kae says it will be since she is only six. I told her I can easily add more length to it if necessary. I used Lion Brand Fun Fur in "Tropical" because she loves pinks and purples.

Trying to RECUPERATE!

I had the girls on Friday and Saturday nights - and the younger one is waaaay off on her sleeping schedule. Or something. She went to bed at 9:30 pm, then was up and wide awake at 3:08am!!! We sat in the rocker and every time her breathing would start getting even like she was going out again, she would sit straight up in my lap and say DAAAA! and wake herself up again. I crawled back into my bed at 5:48am! Had to be up by 7:30am, not much sleep. Then we did it all over again on Saturday night. I have already told mom and dad that Yaya is old now and can only do without sleep ONE night per weekend. I was a total zombie most of Sunday. Coffee did not help much.

I did, however, find the energy after they went home to sit down and at least get seven stitches in my HAED Butterfly, and a bit done on the Stitching for a Cure quilt block for Donna. It is going very quickly; it's a very easy stitch!




I have figured out something of a rotation schedule for all my projects. Mindy's Never the Same on Monday eves, Brotherly Love on Tuesday (I get home later on Tues and Thursdays so less time to stitch), Madi's birth announcement on Wed eve and Kryssie's chinese characters on Thursdays. I will save the SFAC quilt square for the office at lunch and work on my butterfly on the weekends.

Now let's just see how good I am at keeping the plan working! LOL..

Back to work now...y'all have a wonderful day!
TTFN!

Sort of First Finish

I started these, then a friend finished them, then I added the names and dates. So I am counting it as a "shared" finish for 2010.



Now to frame them, simple 5 x 7 frames, and get them in the mail. You can see this also (bigger) in my Photobucket album.

Proud of my Small Accomplishment

I am happy to say that I was able to stitch Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights all three in a row! I didn't get a whole lot done, but five stitches done is still five stitches done! Okay, so I did more than five stitches, but you know what I mean.

I worked on Brotherly Love and Never the Same. I also have two birth announcements that quite frankly I had forgotten about, mostly because I started them and someone else finished them for me because I ran out of steam... really fell "out of love" with them. I am now in the process of adding the names and birthdates to them, then I will post a picture. They are really very cute and they are for someone again associated with my Mom in the nursing home. Her therapist is Michael and they are great friends, so she asked me to stitch something for him. Since he is married, it would have been awkward for me, so I picked the two birth announcements for his two boys. You'll see...

Anyway, I feel like I am getting somewhere on a couple of pieces that have been gathering dust, so I just thought I would share.

TTFN!

Is it Monday already!

Wow, that was some fast weekend! Seems like I spent most of it in the car driving somewhere. Yeesh!

I did not get any stitching done at all, and very little crocheting. I managed to get a few rows done while sitting in the church nursery. Oh well, there's always tonight.

So I got a fortune cookie that TOLD me to start something new! It said "A good time to start something new." Right! And the other one that nobody wanted said "Versatility is one of your outstanding traits" which tells me that I can do more than one thing at a time. It's karma!

I am thinking about this one:



I do love purples, but I am not crazy about the florals and bunnies etc. I may find a different Serenity and give this one away. We'll see.

Back to work for now. Y'all have a great week!
TTFN.

I need some CHEESE for my WHINE

I am just so jealous. Seems like everyone but me has time to stitch. I work M-F 8-5 with a one hour commute each way, so my stitching time is limited to after dinner when I get home and on the weekends in between cleaning the house and doing laundry on the weekends when I don't keep the babies. That isn't much time. I see all you guys just zooming along and I have to be satisfied with a few stitches here and a few stitches there...

waaaaah! Can I clone me or something! LOL... Now that I've got my stitching bug back I can't find much time to nurture him.



Oh well, I will do the best I can to keep up with you guys! One stitch at a time, right!

TTFN

Is it already Thursday!!!

Yes it is... and that means tomorrow is Friday then Stitchday - uh, Saturday for most folks. I am looking forward to a nice quiet day to work on Brotherly Love and Madi's announcement and even my ASM project if I feel like it. I will try to get that list of items to get rid of out here, too.

Yesterday was really a crazy-busy day at work. I usually have a teammate who shares the workload with me, but she was off having a grandbaby (welcome to little Alex!) so I was flying solo. It was very busy! I enjoy those chaotic days but boy was I ever glad to see 5:00 roll around.

Today, on the other hand, is sooooo slloooowwww... too bad that baby could not have waited one more day! I am actually sitting here working on the crochet scarf! ssshhh...

Guess that's all for now. Hope you all are having a great day!

TTFN

Happy Monday 1/25

Wow last week just flew by! Good grief...

I have not finished anything yet since the last post. I had my grandbabies on Saturday and you know it's impossible to get anything done while they are running loose! Well, at least it is for me.

I do have the biscornu almost done. I brought the stuffing with me to work today to do that, and I have the buttons. Hopefully tomorrow I will have a picture of a finish!

I have also started another scarf. I had made one for Christmas for my friend here at work and her granddaughter just loves it. So I bought some yarn and am making one for her. It is going fast and I will provide a picture of this one, I promise. :)

Other than that, I am still plugging away on Brotherly Love and Madisyn's birth announcement. They are both coming along.

Must get back to work! TTFN!

UFO Tuesday update

Since ALL of my projects are UFOs because I have not worked on anything in so long... I just picked up a couple of things to do. I had to go and buy a new pair of clip-on magnifiers and they are sooo helpful!

Even though I just started it so it is definitely NOT a UFO, I worked on the "1st biscornu." The corners are hard to do!



I was able to see Brotherly Love again so I worked on it a while:



I had to laugh at my friend - she said "sorry, I just don't see kitties yet." Of course not! Give me a couple of days. I think I found the paw print fabby at Sassy Fabbies but I'm not 100% sure. I do like it though!

Back to work.. too bad I have to earn my paycheck! LOL..

TTFN.

Happy Monday 01/18

Yesterday was my "baby's" 19th birthday. I am so getting old! LOL.. I really do not feel my age, and my DH says that might be a problem (he claims I am in denial) but I believe that you are only as old as you feel, and I don't. Let HIM be old.

This past weekend was restful. I went through my stash, trying to find my magnifying clip-ons but never did find them. I suspect the grandbabies know EXACTLY where they are! :) Anyway, in the process I managed to separate the keepers from the swaps, and now I know what I want to trade. Among other items, I have a few cross-stitch magazines that I got from an ebayer some time ago. I also have some charts etc. I will make a list to post here during this week.

I got DDIL's quilt almost finished. I only have a little bit left to do, and probably would have finished it but for the biscornu that was calling my name. :)
I am looking forward to getting it completed so I can mark it so on my list!

Back to work.. slow day, but I am not getting paid to be HERE.

TTFN!

My first Biscornu

Here are the almost-complete squares.



As you can see, it will be a smallish one. But I am quite pleased so far. I have no idea what I will do with it when it's done, but I am sure that I will find a use for it.

Onward!

Happy Monday

Sigh - I had Thursday and Friday off last week, plus the weekend - now it's time to buckle down and get back to work. Fortunately, I love my job and the folks I work with, so that's not hard! :)

Over the weekend I was able to nearly finish DDIL's quilt and got a few stitches done in Madi's birth announcement. Did not get as much done as I would have liked, but I had the girls on Saturday for mommy's birthday and only had a few hours in between morning church nursery and evening church nursery (I am the nursery lady for one of our local churches).

I think my Tuesday UFO will be the one for Mindy. Maybe working on it will light a fire under me to get it finished.

I brought the crocheted scarf with me to work on during lunch. I want to get THAT done in the next couple of days just so I can say it's done!

TTFN...

A Sad Discovery

So last night I picked up Brotherly Love, which I am stitching on 28ct evenweave - and I found that I could not see to stitch. My eyes nor my little light are not good enough to see with. Sigh. I will be purchasing an OTT LIGHT sometime soon, I can see that!

So I went looking for something else to do, and found a birth announcement that I started for Madi last summer, called "Sophie."



Here is where I am at this point, after stitching some last night.



There is a "sister" piece called "Deep Blue Sea" which I will be doing for Marleigh as well.



I also wanted to share the special one for Mindy, mom's nurse aide friend. The multicolored pink frame/border around is done in variegated tapestry yarn rather than regular floss. It is coming out very pretty, but I have to be careful to stitch so that the colors come out in "blocks" of color. The hearts are done in regular floss, by the way.



Today I will be spending quality time with DDIL's quilt, especially since today is her birthday.

Off I go, to quilt a while. I will post a picture of it later.

A day off just for ME

Aaaah... took two days of PTO today and tomorrow, and I declared a "mom's off limits" day!! That means do not call me unless you see bones or blood. Do not ask me to babysit or give you a ride anywhere. Do not ask me to cook. I AM OFF.

Feels good! I have been crocheting all day, watched Harry Potter #5 and a really sweet movie called Serendipity with John Cusack. Fought the cats off the crochet project - I'm using Fun Fur and they really love to mess with it.

It's time to put down the scarf and pick up Brotherly Love for a while. I have to get everything set up to watch Texas and Alabama here in a little bit... GO HORNS!!

Brotherly Love will be awesome. I found some Sassy Fabric in blue with little blue pawprints - it's going to be way cool. I am looking forward to getting quite a bit of it done tonight. Maybe even finish it this weekend! What fun...

Guess I'm done for now. Y'all take care!

Must-finish projects before I move on....

1. I need to finish DDIL's quilt - it's sewed together but not quilted yet. Gave it to her anyway - then took it back. She thinks it's lovely.
2. I need to finish repairing DS's quilt - it's 16 yrs old and was oh-so-shabby, so oldest DD and I got it nearly finished for a Christmas gift, without DS knowing what we were doing. Gave it to him anyway, then took it back, too!
3. I need to finish the afghan for youngest DD. She loves it so far...

Then and only then will I allow myself to pick up any cross-stitch.

Yeah, right!!!

Marleigh

My other grandbaby is Marleigh. She is almost a year old, and she is already showing signs of giving her sister a run for the Chatterbox championship! She is crawling all over the place, and pulling up/standing up, but she hasn't quite gotten brave enough to take a couple of steps yet. That's next week!

She doesn't giggle, she growls. Not sure why exactly, except that the growling makes her laugh. Must be the sound of it in her head? Too funny...

Goals for 2010 / WIP / UFOs, etc

Right now I have four projects going. That's not bad for me. I have Brittercup designs "Brotherly Love" started for my DMIL.



I am doing a piece for the American Soldier Memorial project called "God Family and Country." I really need to get to work on that one.



My basic goals for 2010 are to get both of those completed - shouldn't be too hard, in a perfect world! LOL... perfect world...

I have Rose of Sharon (Mirabilia) waiting in the wings for when I get really crazy and decide I need something to work on to drive me totally nuts. She's going to be beautiful, but oh my, all those shades of yellow!



I have another one that I can't find a photo of, will have to add it later from home. It is for a wonderful lady named Mindy who takes very good care of my mom in the nursing home. That one REALLY needs to move back out to live by my chair.

I also want to make Christmas ornaments for all the kids for next year. They were pretty disappointed that I didn't do that this last Christmas. I have them already picked out - someone gave me some kits to do that will be perfect.

So I have my work cut out for me!

TTFN.

Madisyn

My oldest granddaughter is Madisyn. She just turned two. She has such an adorable sense of humor already.

Last night I was babysitting because mom and dad both work late shifts and Aunt Holleigh had to work so I am the backup.

We taught Madi sign language before she learned to talk because I read somewhere that cuts down on frustration and temper tantrums etc (don't believe it - she throws some DOOZIES!). Her sign vocabulary includes Daddy, Mommy, kitty and puppy. We created a sign for Grandpa, which since he has a beard is stroking your chin like a beard.

So back to last night - I am trying to get her to go to sleep, which she is fighting like crazy. She is sitting up, playing, talking, anything to stay awake. All of a sudden she starts running through her sign vocabulary, mommy, daddy, grandpa, kitty, etc. THEN she cracked me up completely - she started making her signs on MY face! She was making the signs and saying the words over and over. It was all I could do to keep from giggling - such a cutie!

Day One

Okay, so let's see how this goes! New year, new blog... maybe this time it will take and I will actually spend some time writing.

You may be asking what is the "aka Ya-ya" for? I have two beautiful grand-daughters and when mom and dad announced they were expecting the first one, we all decided that I don't seem like the usual "grandma" or "granny" or any of those traditional names. So we went out and found Ya-ya which is technically Greek and we are not, but we figured it was okay anyway because it really fits me! It is Greek for "grandmother" for those of you who don't know. So I became Ya-ya and I like it.

Hobbies (when I'm not playing with the girls!)? I love to read pretty much anything, enjoy cross-stitching and crocheting, and I spend a lot of time petting my two cats, Monkey and Squeak, because after all that is my purpose in life, to pet the cats, right? :)

I am married to Tom, and I have three bio-kids Amy, Daniel, and Holleigh, one stepdaughter Amanda, and one "daughter in love" Kryssie. Daniel and Kryssie are the ones responsible for the two grandbabies, Madisyn and Marleigh. Those two little angels, needless to say, are the loves of my life. It really is true what they say - you seem to love the grandbabies more than your own kids!

Enough for now..