New Years Days 10 & 11/15 and Finish #3 'Gingerbread Girl and Peppermint Tree'

Happy Tuesday! I hope you all had a relaxing stitching weekend! Friday night we got together with my husband's sister, BIL and the cousins. Just a fun night with Pizza and Wings! I'm loving this stitch maynia challenge to start or work on 15 or 31 new starts for the New year. It gives me that push to start projects I've been meaning to stitch in my stash or that I've had my eye on, that really called to me.

Finish #3, CCN 'Gingerbread Girl and Peppermint Tree'. I started her on the 1st, and I would have had her finished sooner, if I had finished 'Gingerbread Train' before January, but with Christmas and New Years, I was working to finish them both. Now I'm back on track to start #3, 'Gingerbread House 1' on February 1. I also bought to stitch for my husband's client who loves 'Fleur de Lis',  Ink Circles "Fleur de Orleans' to give her and if I have time stitch for myself too! Aren't the colors gorgeous??

Continuing on with 15 days in January for New Starts. Here is Day 8

from Country Cottage Needleworks 'Beach Cottage'.

It was ages ago that I tea stained my first fabric, and I thought I'd give it a go again.

I took 28 ct. White Monaco, and covered it in a stock pot with a pot of freshly brewed coffee.

Let the fabric soak in it for 10 minutes and pulled it out. Wrapped it in a towl to dry.

I ironed as much of the wrinkles out as I could, and I absolutely love the color!

Here is Day 9

from The Praire Schooler 'When Witches Go Riding'

I'm no where near Finishing Ink Circles 'Mistletoe Stained Glass Ornament' by the end of Januar, but I'm going to give it a go tonight and see how far I can get!

Until Next time!

Have a Happy Stitching Day!

xo, Christine

New Years Day 6/15

Happy Monday! I hope you all had an amazingly fun stitching weekend! On Friday, I picked up some overdyed floss for my Chatalaine Desert Landscape, one of them happened to be called 'Stormy Sky', reminded me of how dreary and rainy the week had been. Then later today, I looked up and all I could see was never ending blue sky!

I'm hoping to finish both, Gingerbread Train and Gingerbread Girl and Peppermint Tree, this week!

I'm this close to finishing 'Pierre Penguin'.

Even my husband commented on how pretty a design Ink Circles Stained Glass Mistletoe is. I've been thinking about picking up Ink Circles 'Get Kraken' for him for a Christmas Gift, since he says I haven't stitched anything for him. 

This weekend, I also started stitching Stoney Creek's Paradise Banner. I'm stitching it on 14ct Aida, which I haven't stitched on in ages. It's a nice break from linens and evenweaves. I'm loving these tropical colors, and such fun to stitch!!

Here's to a great stitching week!

 Until next time, 

Christine

New Years Days 5/15

Happy Friday! It's hard to believe it's Friday already! This week has just flown by! Even my girls were wondering where the week went! It poured all day yesterday, and today it looks like another cold, dreary day, threatening of rain again! Living in Arizona we'll take all the rain we can get! I'm just not used to it raining all week! Makes for great stitching weather!

Just catching up, my daughter had a school project and presentation to work on yesterday, and my son had a doctor's appointment on Tuesday, that got me behind a little, but I'm making great progress on Desert Chatelaine; Part 4 is a joy to stitch. The colors are gorgeous, and the pattern and stitches are fun and easy to stitch. Part 3 has some Queen stitches which I'm going to practice on before I actually stitch them on it!



Pierre Penguin is just about finished, as is my continued stitching on the snowflakes of Gingerbread Train, both of these should be finished by the end of the weekend! Continuing on with Gingerbread girl and Peppermint tree, I bought some new Krenik #4 braid #32, and I don't like how it looks, so I'm going to go with blending filament #32 and white, then after this one, I'm going to switch to the recommended fabric.

Working on Ink Circles Stained Glass Mistletoe, I am starting to love the colors. I already love the design, it's just the muted colors of gold and yellow-green that were dragging me down, but the mint green picked me right back up!!

For Stitch Maynia's 15 in 15, my new start for the day is Joan Elliott's Stardust Fairy. Purples and neon greens are a couple of my favorites, so this one is starting off fun! The colors are gorgeous!

New starts this weekend, include Stoney Creek's 'Paradise Banner', and Country Cottage Needlework's 'Beach Cottage, which I am excited to start!

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!
Happy Stitching!
xo, Christine

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day4

New Years Day 3/15

Happy Monday! Today, I am enjoying a wet and cold, rainy winter day with a cup of hot tea, and working with silks, always puts a smile on my face!

I'm making some good progress on my 'Summer' Celtic lady from Lavender and Lace, and I'm finding the border of part 4 on Desert Landscape not only fun, but the colors of the silk combinations, absolutely gorgeous.

How cute is the Gingerbread Girl with her peppermint tree??!! I love working on Gingerbread Village series by Country Cottage Needleworks.

Tonight, I should have Pierre the Penguin's face completed. It's wonderful to see my daughter happy to see my progress on her Penguin ornamet from Brooke's Books.

Also, tonight, I'm working on finishing up Page 1 of Ocean Unicorns, for my Day 4 WIP. I'll have the stitch count on that for you tomorrow, but I can't believe I actually finished a whole page in a full stitch chart.

Wishing you a great week!
Hope you have a fun stitching day!
xo, Christine

New Year's Day 2

Happy Weekend! I hope you are all enjoying your Holiday weekend! I'm a little sad to say that today is the last day of our Christmas Vacation. The ornaments and decorations are all packed away, and I'm just getting ready for back to school tomorrow. Last night my husband and our son had a bonding night, so the girls and I made cookies whilst I stitched away, watching House reruns and Pirates of the Carribean on Netflix.

For Day 2, I started with my Brooke's Book SAL, Pierre the Penguin, her Animal Advent Freebie. I also bought Dorthy for her Wizard of the Oz, she's on her way, and my 12 year old daughter decided for next month to do her Grumpy Merry Christmas Cat, another freebie. That's 3 down, 9 more to decide on.

As much as I am having fun stitching Gingerbread Train, and believe you me, it is a quick stitch, I'm loosing steam, so to say! All I have left is half a peppermint wheel, and snowflakes. I just have to keep plugging away.

Now this is funny, and I don't know how it happened, but I figured out why I stitched the wrong colors on Desert Landscape, my printer somehow inverted two symbols, and I just stitched the  wrong colors. C'est la vie! Yesterday, I really wanted to pick up Mediterranean Waterlilies, but apparently it was a Waterlilly Kind of day at my LNS, they were all out, so I picked up Grape instead. When I finish the band, I will post an updated pic, but the color combination of Emerald, Grape, and Periwinkle is gorgeous, along with the turquoise cabochons of Delicate Teal, and I am loving Part 4.

My New Start for the day was Nora Corbett's 3 French Hens. In my kitchen nook, it's decorated Italian Rustic with Roosters and Hens, and I absolutely love this chart and can't wait to hang it in there. Although I'm not a huge fan of golds and browns, this was a fun and easy new start.

For today, I'm going to continue working on all the 3 WIP, if I have time I'm going to start Joan Elliott's freebie for my younger daughter, if not, I'm going to pick up Summer Celtic Lady from TIAG. I started working on the border, and I love the Green's and Golds.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Have a fun stitching day!
xo, Christine

Day 1

Update Ocean Unicorns Week 3

 Happy Monday! Hope you all had a fun weekend! 

Have you finished your Holiday shopping yet?

I need to finish or else I'm going to need to get my 

hustle bustle on, and not wait until the last minute!

Last week, was an unusually busy week. 

My daughter had a field trip and my son had a doctor's appointment!

All I have left on the first page is one more column!

My husband was teasing me that if I stitched 2 squares a day,

I'd be done in half the time.

I tried to explain to him, that I am rotating my projects, and would 

only have time for this, which really wouldn't 

be fair to my other WIPs, they'd start to feel neglected.

I do have some frogging to do, in one square,

 the top and bottom are not meeting up quite right!

I'm plugging away!

I'm loving all the shades of aqua, and

I'm still not too thrilled about the White.

I'm thinking of working around the Unicorns and saving them for last!!

Here is Day 3 of my CCN Gingerbread Train. I love working on this,

 I can not seem to put it down!!

Wishing you all a fun stitching week!

Until Next time,

Update: Ocean Unicorns Week 1, an almost finish, and New Stash

Happy Monday! Hope you had a beautiful weekend! It was a busy one around here. Saturday was a really fun day! It started Friday night when I baked 4 dozen Cherry Blossoms for Katelyn's Rummage/Bake Sale. For the holiday's it's my tradition and a way to remember my father who passed away when I was in my early twenties, that we would enjoy a box of Queen Anne's Choclate covered cherries, and this recipe didn't disappoint. It was almost as if  I was biting into one of those chocolate delights.

After the rummage sale, Lindsay and I went to go see the 'Peanuts' movie. Love Snoopy, and Charlie Brown and the Whole gang. It was wonderful to see a cartoon I grew up with continuing on for the next generation. 

In the afternoon, I spent several hours at my first Rose Convention at the Pacific Southwest Rose District, which included  Southern California, Arizona, parts of Nevada, New Mexico, and 

West Texas. I found myself surrounded by the most gorgeous blooms I have every seen.
One rose, that I found particularly beautiful, especially for this time of year, is named
'Hot Cocoa'. It is the loveliest shade of brown, that looks just like a cup of hot cocoa.

source

'Hot Cocoa' is a  floribunda rose, with a burnt orange. The rose I saw was more on the light brown side with smoky edges. 

I worked everyday on 'Ocean Unicorns', and here is the first week completed. I am loving the gorgeous blues and aquas so far. There was a little white, I stitched, and am wondering how I am going to like stitching white on white. Hopefully with all the blue, it won't be as bad as I imagine.

Last night I tried to finish CCNs, 'Be Joyful', but I couldn't keep my eyes open. It will be finished today! I just have two of the flowers to finish and the last half of the border flowers.

Also Saturday, I picked up CCNs, 'Gingerbread Train', for Stitch Maynia '16. When I am finished with 'Be Joyful', this will take it's place, and a couple of Weeks Dye Works the chart calls for, Pecan and Hazelnut!

Isn't this Extremely Blingy Sea Horse Needleminder gorgeous?

I found it at Cassie's NeedleMinderz etsy shop!

You can also find her Facebook page,

Cassie's NeedleMinderz FaceBook

Wishing you all a fun stitching week!

Until Next time,

2015 Ornament Exchange

Happy Weekend! It been a beautiful and gorgeous weekend here in AZ!

Today I wanted to share with you, an ornament I finished for an exchange I am in!



It was luck that I found this pattern, I wasn't even looking for a deer pattern, but as

it happened I've been obsessing with white deer busts, I just had to stitch one for Keala {and one for me}! I've been cross stitching for about 25 years now, and this is the first time I've ever stitched on linen. 

For a complementing back fabric, I went with small red buffalo check with mini white Christmas trees.

For finishing the ornament I chose this Tutorial on how to make a Flat Ornament!

You can find the Free chart HERE!

Wishing you all a fun stitching weekend!
Until Next time,
Christine