Monday, February 16, 2009
Winner of the Giveaway
And the giveaway goes to... Lee!
Congratulations.
I'll post a picture of the giveaway once Lee receives her surprise in the mail.
Thanks to all who commented, especially those of you who de-lurked.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Milestone Post and Giveaway
First, and more importantly, it's the 6 month birthday of my girls. It is amazing to me how fast that time has gone by. As someone who was unsure about the whole parenthood thing, it has been an amazing journey. They continue to surprise and delight me. I couldn't have more wonderful babies.
Second, this post is the 100th post on my blog. When I started this blog, I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, and I'm still figuring it out. I plan to continue blogging, so we'll see where it goes.
In honor of these events, I'm doing a little giveaway. I'm not sure what all I'm going to include, but there will at least be a couple of handmade cards and some edible goodies. Leave me a comment by Sunday, February 15, if you'd like to be considered for the giveaway. I'll pick a name randomly.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Post #99
My next post will be #100. I'm thinking about doing something special. Stay tuned.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Best of 2008
1. Did you discover any new (or new-to-you) designers in 2008? And your favorite was? I think the only one was Casey Buonaugurio.
2. Same question - New Fabrics? I bought hand-dyed fabric for the first time.
3. Same question - New fibres? No
4. Same question - New finishing techniques? I made my first biscournu at the end of 2007.
5. Did you have a favorite "theme" in 2008? ornaments
6. Did you try any new gadgets? No. I'm not a gadget girl.
7. Did you discover any new (or new-to-you) LNS in 2008? And your favorite was? No, but Donna just pointed me in the direction of one. The Stitching Post remains my favorite.
8. Same question: new or new-to-you online stores? I ordered from the Silver Needle for the first time.
9. Same question: new or new-to-you bloggers? I discovered a whole lot of new-to-me stitching bloggers through the Brides Tree SAL and Christmas Ornamenet SAL blogs. My favorite is Olenka's Stitches. I love her biscournu designs. For non-stitching blogs, I discovered Gov Gab. It covers a whole host of topics and points you to the federal resources available.
10. Same question: communities/forums? I really enjoyed the Brides Tree SAL and hope to be able to finish stitching my remaining ornaments this year.
11. Whose blog in 2008 was the most inspirational for keeping you stitching? This is a tie between Dani and Jennifer.
12. Whose blog was funniest in 2008? Anna continues to inspire me also and make me laugh.
13. Which blog's posts did you "star" the most in your reader in 2008? Lee's. She is always posting things that I want to go back and take a better look at when I have time.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Card Types - Results
Besides the totally preprinted cards, my other pet peeve is photo cards that only ever contain pictures of the kids. I appreciate the argument that only the kids are significantly changing from year to year, but the adults are generally the ones with whom I am friends, and I'd like to see a picture of them every couple of years too. My favorite photo card this year was one of DH's cousin's family taken while riding a flume at the amusement park. It made me wish it were summer already.
So, you might ask, what does C do for her cards? Well, for most of the years we've been married, we've sent out traditional cards with newsletters. Sometimes the newsletters have been incredibly brief - like the year in San Diego where I managed in 10 pt type to fit all of our news on the front of a quarter sheet of paper. In 2004, I switched to making cards (plus newsletters). This year, we did photo cards with a newsletter. Our photo cards had 3 photos - 1 of each of the girls plus a family shot. It's the best picture of me I've seen since our wedding.
What did you do this year? What was the favorite card you received?
Friday, January 2, 2009
Winter Sampler
While I still haven't been stitching, I pulled the following piece out as part of our Christmas decorations. I'll leaving it hanging up throughout the winter.
The design is from Little House Needleworks, called Pinetop Lodge. I completed it in 2006. It was stitched on the recommended fabric. I substituted overdyed threads for the recommended DMC colors, because I wanted varigations in the colors. The center part of the design went together really quickly for me, but the outer border of leaves took me forever.
My stitching goal for 2009 is pretty simple: Start stitching again. If I can accomplish that, I will be doing well. I have one of my nephew's samplers in progress plus I want to finish the SAL ornaments. Wish me luck.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
One Year Ago
If you look closely in the middle towards the bottom, you'll see the Washington Nationals ornament I made and showcased in that first post. What you won't see are any of the ornaments I made for the Brides Tree SAL. Ornamentification awaits.
Our tree features an eclectic mix of ornaments that were handmade by family and friends over the years and ones that DH and I collected as we lived and travelled around the world. The spire on top was my grandmother's and dates from the 1950s or 1960s, I think. I made the tree skirt a couple of years ago. (That's our cat lurking on the bottom left. Both of our cats like to nap under the tree.)
Happy Christmas to those who celebrate it and a Peaceful New Year to All.

