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..