Catching up

As usual, I'm running behind.  Here it is the 12th, and I haven't posted once this month.  Everything gets so hectic this time of year.  And I'm a lazy blogger, so there you are. 

So, no need to post goals...I accomplished my November ones and the only one this month is finish the last of the SanMan jar series. 

So, a couple of pics.  I stitched and put together my very first biscornu! 

The design is from a British cross stitch magazine.  I made it for my Irish tree.

I need to take pictures of the rest of the Christmas stuff and post them.  Until then, here's one last project that I recently finished as Christmas presents for a couple of friends, and amigurumi knight and an amigurumi Chuthlu.  :)

Peacocks, phoenixes, and feathers galore

I have another small HD...really small.  It's Just Nan's Keep a Little Secret, which is a tiny over one sampler that is finished into a needle keep and all contained in a cute little tin.  And since the theme was peacocks, of course I had to have it. 

I have also decided I have been doing waaaay too many ornaments, so I decided to concentrate on a big project for a while.  I picked up a few different WIPs until I decided on Joan Elliott's From the Ashes.

I've already made significant progress just in the last couple of days.  And I love the colors.  :)












And for a bit of crafting, I buckled down and made some Red Hat headbands my mom requested.  We seen some in a boutique that my mom really liked (but not in red hat colors), so I imitated them the best I could.

Ornaments galore!

Finally, I have time to catch up on pictures.  First are my three recent finishes, which are all ornaments.

This is a combination of two Victoria Sampler ornaments, Cardinal Snowflake from their freebie page and Snowman Cracker from the latest issue of The Gift of Stitching magazine.

And these are the October and November Jars by San Man Originals.  Just one more to go!















And finally, what I did this weekend...ornament finishing!  I was very productive and finished off ten ornaments!

The two Celtic ones are for me, the two snowmen are for my mom if she wants them, and the rest who knows?  I didn't sign up for any exchanges this year.  I'm doing a special Celtic/Irish tree this year, so I might have space on my big tree for a few of these.  :)

November goals (a bit late)

This month has been more than a little crazy so far, so I've been really delinquent in posting here.  But I have been stitching.  I only have a couple of ornaments done, but I'll have to wait until I'm on the right computer to post pics.  However, I can do monthly goals.

October goals:Stitch Sanman October Jar -- done!
Work on UFO RR replacement -- done!
Stitch Sanman Halloween Sampler -- done!
Finish Halloween ornaments for tree -- done!
Finish the two amigurumis that are started and start third one --didn't even touch
Work on bathroom stuff -- done!

So, not bad.  I just didn't work on any crochet projects.

November goals:
Stitch Sanman November Jar
Finish some Christmas ornaments
Finish the amigurumis!

There.  I think I'll keep it simple this month, with the holiday and all. 

Bathroom is steamed!

Well, I did want the bathroom painted, but I gave up on it ever happening.  Our apartment manager is a very nice person, but pretty worthless when it comes to getting stuff done...unless it's the kind of repair you could withold rent over, of course.  I'll probably end up painting myself, but I don't have the time right now.  And really, I'd have to take everything down to paint anyway, no matter what the decor.  I finished the last of my steampunk inspired decorations last weekend, so I thought what the heck...might as well put it up. 

So, here's a couple before pics:

Yeah, obviously the theme is butterflies.  So, now the after:

The top part is a shower curtain I bought, and then I added the brown panel to the bottom.  There are two different kinds of shower curtain rings.  The spheres I left alone, but I added to the other ones.  All the adornments on the curtain were made by me, and are actually pins, so I can take them off easily for washing.

This picture goes with the color scheme, but I wanted some actual steampunk art.  And I found some on Etsy...but I just ordered it.

I realized I should have made a steampunk ring holder.  Maybe later.  And yes, the light switch cover is also decorated.  And I've already figured out I put some sharp stuff in an unfortunate place.  I'm trying to think how to fix that.

 
I even found a way to disguise the light that is completely removable.  :)

Yes, this is a vase of steampunk flowers.  I just wanted to see if I could make some.  Of course, I'm seeing how long it takes the cats to trash them.










So that's my bathroom!  The color scheme is a bit darker than I'm used to, but I like it.  And I can always change back to butterflies or my other theme, giraffes if I get tired of this.  Or if the cats trash everything...and I'm sure they're thinking of it.

Craft Craft Crafting Away

Another weekend gone!  I had some of my stitching friends over Saturday, and I started Nora Corbett's Thanksgiving Fairy, but alas, we spent more time talking and eating than stitching.  So very little is done on that project.  Sunday however, I decided to do some crafting.  I used to belong to both Creative Woman and Creative Christmas kit of the month clubs, and I have a pretty impressive amount of kits in my closet that need to be done.  Every so often the mood hits me to pull 2 or 3 out and go into a crafting frenzy.  I managed to get one project completely finished on Sunday and the other I had to work on last night and a little today to finish it.   

The first is an angel tree topper:

The second is a memory board:

I may give the board to my niece.  I think she'd like it.

I also have a HD from last week.  This is a freebie from the SanMan board.

Now I can get back to the replacement round robin I'm supposed to be working on.  :)

More weekend projects

I saw a post on the Sanman board yesterday about fabric painting.  It sounded pretty easy, and I had everything needed, so I thought what the heck?  So, here's the results:

 Here they are, hanging up to dry.  The yellow, purple, and orange are dyed with acrylic paint.  The brown fabric is tea-dyed.

Here they are, dry and set by ironing.  With Penny keeping watch.  I think I like the purple best, although the orange isn't bad.  The yellow was too uniform...it just looks one color, not hand dyed.  The tea dyed ones look better dry...I had thought they were too uniform too, so I pressed the tea bags against them in spots.  I couldn't tell if it worked when they were wet, but they look hand dyed, so yay.











One other project this weekend was this:

I took a bunch of stuffed pumpkins that I found at thrift stores or I just had (except the buttoned one...that came from Home Goods), cut off the stems and leaves, if necessary, and hot glued them together to make a stack o' pumpkins.  :-)  You can also see some of my vast giraffe collection.  Yes, that is a giraffe Easter basket full of smaller giraffes.  :-)

It's October!

So, October is here.  And it's time to post some goals.  I'm a bit behind, because I was at my mom's for the weekend.  First, last month's goals:

September goals:Stitch Sanman September Jar--done!
Do some sewing--got my shower curtain done!
Work on bathroom stuff--Yes, but still have more to do.
Finish Halloween/fall exchange pieces into ornaments--done!
Frame at least two things--Not really...I fixed a couple of framed pieces though.
Work on some Halloween cross stitches--Yes!

Not too bad.  So onto this month's goals:

October goals:
Stitch Sanman October Jar
Work on UFO RR replacement
Stitch Sanman Halloween Sampler
Finish Halloween ornaments for tree
Finish the two amigurumis that are started and start third one
Work on bathroom stuff

There, that's enough.  I'd try to finish the bathroom this month, but I'm having a heck of a time getting my bathroom painted.  I'll probably end up doing it myself.

Also, here's a couple of happy dances from last week that didn't get posted before I went out of town.

September Jar by Sanman Originals

If the Broom Fits by Lizzie Kate

















Next post will be some pics of my new WIPs.  :)

My favorite time of the year!

Amazingly, I held off until this weekend to put up Halloween stuff.  But it's up now, and I took pics before the cats destroy it all. 

The tree!  And it has even more ornaments on it this year.  As you can see, Penny is already plotting its downfall.

A close up.  The ghost at the top is a glass ornament from Pier 1.  I worry about that one.

The entertainment center!  With some new finds this year from Home Goods and garage sales.  :)

I even decorated the top of the DVD shelves this year.

A new find from Home Goods.  And I love it!  I do have a cross stitch pattern for a Halloween countdown calender, but it's not even kitted up, much less started.

The dining room and kitchen!

The fridge!  The pirate magnet is new.

Some more of my living room and the hall.  Not Halloween, but I just got that corner shelf at a thrift store for $10.  :)

Even the cats got into the spirit of Halloween.  Well, kind of.

And finally, a HD!  I finished the San Man Original ornament from this year's Halloween issue of JCS.

Some finishes

Wow, the weekend kind of flashed by there.  But I did accomplish my one goal, to finish up some ornaments for exchanges.  As a bonus, I even did a bit of organizining my bedroom and spare room, so at least my apartment looks a little better.  :)  And tomorrow I am off to Alabama for work, whee.  So, before I leave, a picture of my finished ornaments.

Oh yeah, I also crocheted a little trilobyte amigurumi at work on Thursday:

I got the pattern on ravelry.com, and it was pretty easy and very quick.  I might try another in a really cool/weird yarn that I have in my stash.

I spent the past weekend at my mom's, so I didn't get to work on any of my projects.  I didn't even get to stitch!  But this weekend is all mine.  :-) 

I do have a new stitching project though.  I had started to stitch it, but changed my mind on how I wanted to finish it, so I started it over. 

This is what it'll look like.  I decided I want to finish it just like the original project, so I can use it for my Renaissance and steampunk costumes.  But my first start didn't have enough fabric.  So I found some more fabric and started again.













I am changing the colors though.  Here is my WIP so far:

The fabric is light gray, with dark gray and black silk.  The inner most stitches will be a metallic (pewter), and the leaves will be 3 colors of teal silk.  I've already found a gorgeous pewter key charm to hang from the cord too.  :)  Now, I just need to get it done before the Steam Expo next May.

Well, I spent my holiday in a creative frenzy.  I did go out shopping a little, to thrift stores mostly, but the rest of the weekend was spent working on my bathroom accessories.  I got my shower curtain sewn (yay!), and got a lot of little accents made.  There's still a lot to do though.  No pictures yet...wait until I'm done! 

Today was a good day mailwise...I got the JCS ornament issue and my Herrschner's order!  I think I liked last year's ornament issue better.  There's a few I like but not many.  Ah well.  The stuff from Herrschner's is latch hook kits, one Halloween and one autumn.  I plan on starting the Halloween one tonight.

As for other current projects, I worked a bit on A SamSarah Studios design called Witch's Hat last week and then I stitched a San Man Orginal ornament called Paisley Pumpkin.

  I got this in a grab bag from the designer...it came with a tuck as well for finishing.  I should probably start the September jar this week as well...maybe I'll take it to my mom's this weekend as it's a nice portable project. 

September goals and a HD!

It's September already?  Although I am ready to be done with the heat!  And of course, that means Halloween is getting closer!  And I love decorating for Halloween and fall in general.  I'm already itching to put out my pumpkin collection.  I'll try to resist for a couple more weeks.  *l* 

So, I plan to post my monthly goals and how well I followed them.  I used to do that on a needlwork board, but I let it slip.  But I'll try to be good. 

September goals:
Stitch Sanman September Jar
Do some sewing (definitely working on my new shower cutain, maybe some quilting or costuming)
Work on bathroom stuff
Finish Halloween/fall exchange pieces into ornaments
Frame at least two things
Work on some Halloween cross stitches

There.  That should keep me busy.  I plan on spending my Labor Day weekend working on my shower curtain and other bathroom stuff.  I talked to the apartment manager today and tentatively scheduled to have my bathroom repainted (it needs it badly!).  Let's see if it happens.  I've scheduled stuff before and some "emergency" always seems to happen.

And now on to my happy dance.  I finished Tiger Lily!  She looks so elegant with the beads...they really make the piece, I think.

Well, now I have to go decide what to work on next.  :)