Ann Sandles and a late TUSAL

Wow, I can't believe that it's been so long since I updated my blog!  It sure has been a busy few weeks though!  A few weeks ago I visited my best friend Jen for a long weekend of laughs, camping and whatever we happened to feel like doing!  We even took her camper and went out to the Portland coast for a night.

Here I am at the coast with her pup who seems to think our shoes looked like fun toys!  You can see that it was very windy and we were glad we started into the wind instead of going for a long walk and having to fight the wind the whole way back! 

While traveling I worked on the strawberries in Ann Sandles.  I was able to get the border done (I left the "hats" off the tops of the strawberries) and also the house so all that is left is the A&E section.  I am thinking of making one of the dogs look like Sage since I've already strayed away from it being a true reproduction. 

And, even though I'm super late in doing so I'm still going to post my August TUSAL.  It's not too late to jump into TUSAL 2012, just go to this post in order to sign up and play along! 

I'm afraid that you won't see much change in the level of thread in the jar for next month as I haven't stitched at all since I took this picture a week ago.  Just too busy with other things I guess!

And, not that it's bad that I've been too busy, it's all been fun!  I've completed a few home improvement projects that were on my list, spent time with friends and I have my grandpa here for a visit now.  It sure is nice to have him be able to come out to visit!

The other thing that I've been busy with is Sage.  Not that it will come as a surprise to anyone but we have been super busy and our latest adventure finds us as new members of the Dog Scouts of America.  I'm sure some of you reading this may wonder what the heck that is.  Well, I will admit that I did too when I first heard about it.  I meaning earning badges with your dog?  Well, why not?  I don't have kids to do girl and boy scouts with so why not join an organization that promotes positive training and allows you to get recognition for teaching your dog new things.  Plus it is really fun!!  We've already passed 5 agility badges and last night I heard that we passed her merit badge test to become an official dog scout and add the DSA after her name.  The best part about dog scouts is spending time with other people who are into doing fun things with their dogs!  I'll post more soon about this, either here or over on my dog blog. 

So, that's what I've been up to lately!  I hope to get Ann Sandles done in the next couple weeks so I can start something new! 

 

Mary Frankenstein and May TUSAL

Meet Mary Frankenstein... OK, not really, I just ran out of white thread and decided to stitch her hair before finishing up her face. When I saw this it occurred to me that she resembled something out of the Munsters.  Forget about that teeny waist or burly arms it's the forehead I'm talking about!

All kidding aside, this has been a pretty quick and very fun stitch!  I actually have Mary finished but just need to find a moment to take a quick final picture and then I just need to find a frame for her.

I have dreams of a bigger sampler wall someday, with lots of pretty samplers framed and hung tightly together on a wall somewhere in my home for me to enjoy.  While I do think I have a fair amount of stitching up on the walls, expanding the wall that contains And They Sinned to include more samplers or starting another wall and filling it to the brim sounds like a lot of work but something that I'd really like to accomplish!  I think I have enough in my stash to do it too, just not enough time!

Speaking of time, I haven't blogged in awhile because I've been so busy with my pup, Miss Sage and doing various spring tasks around the house.  Last weekend Sage and I performed at Ella's walk which is a fundraiser to benefit the Longmont Humane Society.  We take a weekly obedience class there called the ACES class (Animal Continuing Education Superstars) and have been working toward this dance routine for about 6 months.  It took a lot of time to teach the individual behaviors and we've been linking them together ever since.  Poor Sage was a bit spooked by the speakers and the stage but held it together pretty well.  If you want to watch, click on over to my dog blog at www.merlemayhem.com. 

And, before I forget, here is May's TUSAL progress!  You too can join the TUSAL fun, just visit Daffycat's blog here. 

I love all those brightly colored threads from Mary Roe and my latest start - the BBD Peacock Pinkeep. I needed one or two little things before my next big sampler.  I haven't figured out what that will be so stay tuned! 

There's Something About Mary

Mary Little that is!  After over six months of searching since seeing the completed Mary Little on Siobhan's blog, I finally found the pattern and have started stitching her!  Here's my start on her, not much to see yet but she should stitch up quickly!
But, before I could start, I needed to do some stash diving to find threads and linen.  What started as a stash dive quickly turned into an hour and a half of stash organizing!  You see, I wanted to stitch Mary with overdyed cotton threads and hand dyed 40 count linen.  I pulled the DMC it called for but then started looking through my big bag of sampler threads.  It's impossible to find anything in that bag, let alone a specific color.  I purchased some large 5" binder rings so decided that the sampler threads needed to be organized before I could get to stitching.  Here's the floss before, just dumped out of the bag.  

And, of course I had help in sorting, my little floss thief kitty decided to supervise.  Here she is checking out the pile of floss, just waiting for her opportunity.  Sorry for the poor quality of photos in this post, I was using my ancient iPhone (which I joke with some family friends still runs iOS1).  I'm waiting patiently for the iPhone 5 to be released and then it's upgrade city!
Here she is admiring the neatly arranged piles of floss
:
And then here she is stealing the pile of "S" for her own fun!

Here is miss Sage wondering when this nonsense will end so we can puh-lease go do something fun outside...

 

And finally, the organized floss neatly on a ring, colors for Mary Little picked:

We'll see who gets the last laugh...

I also started Mary Roe by the Scarlett House the other weekend.  I didn't do anything but stitch the border vine but boy was I happy when it matched up when I got to the last corner.  Here's a photo of my start, I'm sure you'll be seeing more of Miss Mary Roe in the near future, she's going to be a fun stitch!   She is sideways in this photo and I guess I'm too lazy to edit to make the photo go the right way!

I also want to start Mary Ann Blackburn by Blackbird designs, so see there really is something about Mary!

Liebster Award

I've been awarded the Liebster Blog award from my friend Mary.  Thank you Mary!!!

The Liebster Award

Liebster is a German word, meaning "favorite, dearest or beloved," and the Liebster is awarded by bloggers to other, newer bloggers who have fewer than 200 followers, to spread the word and help them gain wider recognition. The award comes with four conditions that each recipient must satisfy when accepting:

1. Choose 5 up-and-coming blogs (with less than 200 followers) to award the Liebster to.


2. Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.


3. Post the award on your blog. List the bloggers you are giving the award to with links to their sites. Leave comments on their blogs so they know about the award.


4. Share 5 random facts about yourself that people don't know about you.

Many of the blogs I read regularly have either already posted their Liebster award or have been named by others.  Heck, my Mom has even posted her Liebster award post!  So, I've tried to pick blogs that haven't yet received it or haven't posted yet, it was hard to choose, I have so many favorites!  The 5 blogs I've chosen are:

1. Natalia at Stitching 4 Joy (I just LOVE the stitch wallets she makes!)


2. Melinda at Merry Wind Farm (I love her house, horses and stitching!)


3. Dona at Bele Chere Needlework (I can't wait to see her completed Sarah Elizabeth Brooke!)


4. Cindy at Never Enough Thyme (I love her gardens and Maine Coon Cat!)


5. Riverspitter (I don't know how many followers she has but OMG, she finished Dutch Beauty!)
    

Now the hard part. Five random facts people don't know about me (at least I don't think people know these about me).

1. I am going to take a rug hooking class later this month!  This is breaking news as I just signed up yesterday but it's something I've wanted to try for awhile now!


2. I grew up with a Sheltie and really enjoy the quirky nature of hearding breeds


3. I was inspired to try Dog Agility with Sage after reading the book "Dogged Pursuit" - a story of a man in the Chicago area who does agility with his rescue Sheltie with not so steller results.  A fun book that I could relate to and even though his results weren't great it sounded like a lot of fun!!


4. I am trying my hand at composting for my garden.  The first time I put eggshells in the bin the Sage guarded it so I've since learned that eggshells are great but I need to rinse them first.  Oops!


5. I have more stash than I could stitch in my lifetime.  Oh wait, maybe you already assumed that.  :)  Thanks for reading!

Happy Dog-iversary!

Happy Dog-iversary to my girl Sage!  I missed posting on the acutal day but just wanted to say how much fun I've had with Sage and all that I have learned about her and dogs in general over the past year.  Of course it's been sunny and warm of late but I love this picture of her playing in the snow last winter and wanted to share! 

You can read more about my adventures with Sage on my Dog Blog!

Paradise Lost Update and Market Must Haves

Well, I was able to get some stitching time in and it was so much fun working on the bird and flowers to the right of the big tree that I'm stuck on in the middle of.  Here's another wrinkly picture of my progress.  Next will be to finish that tree and then onto the middle of the sampler.

 
I'd love to predict when I will finish this sampler but with the Nashville Market coming and so many wonderful things to be released I have a feeling that I may set this aside for a bit to start on something new.  I am especially excited to start stitching Mary Roe 1808 by The Scarlett House.  A couple years ago I stitched Olga by Plum Street Samplers and have been trying to resist Boris and Sergi ever since.  And now Paulette comes out with Maxim and Zoya so now I think I have at least three Plum Street Samplers charts to add to my stitching list!  And of course, I'm curious to try stitching in wool to work on Jane Pattison by Shakespeare's Peddler.  I'm sure that will be just the tip of the iceberg once the market reports start coming out.  What's on your must stitch list from the market sneak peeks that we've seen so far??

Speaking of stitching lists... I may have mentioned that I was doing some organizing of my stash.  I used to have an inventory of charts and fibers and what linens I had to stitch them on well when I moved 4 years ago but then things went into storage well my inventory got horribly out of date.  So, I've spent some precious stitching time over the past few weeks organizing and cataloging my stuff so I have an updated list again and won't let that happen again! 

Well, I went to IKEA and purchased some pink baskets to hold my newly organized stash and while I was sorting and updating my list, my cat decided that he wanted to help too.  What I find especially humorous about this picture is that my Halloween kitty jumped into the wrong bin, he's sorted with the Christmas stash, not Halloween!  I guess I needed to switch the labels!  These baskets will eventually go into Expedit shelving which will go into a closet, I just need to go back and buy the shelves now that I'm ready to load it up! 

Lions and Tiger and TUSAL, Oh My!

Lions...  I've been busily stitching away on Paradise Lost since my last post.  I finished the motifs along the top so I jumped down and stitched the lions.  I've been dying to stitch more animals so rewarded myself.  Take a look...

And, here's a shot of the total progress:

I am so excited to get to this point!  Next I think I'll take a break from the tree and finish the motifs on the far right which will let me pick a frame whenever.  Then, I'll finish the tree and then I'm on to all the fun animals and Adam and Eve in the middle! 

Tiger... Nicola is having a contest on her blog, Stitching by a Cornish Sea Shore to share the cutest pictures of our animals sleeping.  Well, I think all my animals are cute when sleeping but one of the things I've been getting a kick out of over the last year is how the cats have completely taken over the dog's beds.  In fact, she has several on the chance that she might get one but usually there is a cat on it instead.  Here's Tiger on the dog's bed...
Granted, I woke her up trying to take this picture.  I had stacked the dog beds up to vacuum the family room and then later in the day found Miss Tiger cuddled up on top, kind of makes me think of Princess and the Pea and believe me, she is definitely a princess!  But, this is one of my favorites.  This is Mr. Scooter on the dog bed and Miss Sage on the floor.  You can definitely see who is the boss in this relationship...

TUSAL...

Lastly it's time for my February TUSAL report.  Here's my jar as of today, I squished it down recently and am now wishing I had waited until after I took this photo.  Oh well!  It is sitting next to a star shaped basket that I recently picked up at Pier One thinking it would be great for all my smalls.  Hmm, I suppose I should get busy on finishing those smalls!  LOL!  I'll take a photo of the basked when I have something to put into it I suppose.  :) 

I hope you have a wonderful week! 

 

My Mom is Blogging!

That's right, my mom took the plunge and started blogging!  Hop on over and check out her blog at http://stitchinginmygarden.blogspot.com/.  I love her Anniversaries of the Heart and how she personalized the last block!  I really need to get started on mine! 

For those of you with cats, does this ever happen to you?  You're stitching along and all of a sudden your thread catches your cat's eye and boom... you have a tangle???  Sorry for the blurry picture but this little kitty just loves to steal my floss and play with it but I am forever trying to pry it out of her grubby little claws without tangles.  :)  She cracks me up! 

Check back soon for an update on my Paradise Lost progress! 

Elizabeth Sheffield Finish

Here she is, my Elizabeth Sheffield all finished!  I finished her last weekend just in time for the Sampler Guild of the Rockies meeting.  I brought her just to show a few friends who have been following my progress on her and ended up getting lots of nice compliments on her and showed her during the show and share portion of the meeting.  I've already ordered a frame and will post another picture when she's in her frame and up on the wall. 

I just love the bright colors in this piece and for those who don't know, I stitched her using 35 count WDW Straw linen and the called for DMC threads.  I did make one minor color change but don't have that in front of me at the moment.  I changed the centers of the pink flowers under the brown bird to just mute it down a tad.  I haven't decided where to hang this yet.  I do have another Rhode Island samper that I stitched and was contemplating stitching Anne Anthony by the Essamplaire but I need a break from over one stitching.  I would love to hang a collection of Rhode Island samplers someday but for now I think she'll be pretty hanging in my guest room with other pieces with pretty colors.

It's been nice here today so I've got the windows open for the kitties to enjoy.  Why is it that whenever the weather is great, my black cat sits in the sunniest spot to soak it all up?  I think this would be hot but he seems to enjoy it!  That's all for now!

Jen

Introducing Sage!

Wow, it's been awhile since I've been on here posting, but I'm back!  I've had a busy few months!  First and the "thing" that has kept me the busiest is that I adopted a dog back in March.  Her name is Sage and she's a 2 year old Aussie.  She's a sweetie and I'm having a great time giving her a better life than she had with her first owners.  We started by taking obedience training at the Longmont Humane society, this was a great way for her to learn some manners and me to learn how to teach them to her and was a great bonding experience!  In fact, we will be graduating from our Advanced Obedience class today!

 

Once we were well on our way in obedience we started to take Agility classes at the Zoom Room in Longmont which has been so much fun!  We've built on the obedience foundation and have so much fun zooming through all the obstacles!  Sage is such a high energy dog that it's great to have an outlet for the physical energy and to give her mind a job to do.  It's been a great fit!  We're about halfway through Agility 2 and will start the next in the series in a few weeks.  It's a lot of fun for both Sage and I!

When I was on vacation last winter I read a book called Dogged Pursuit by Robert Rodi, it was such a hilarious read!  It is about a man who rescues a Sheltie and trains it to do agility.  I grew up with a Sheltie so it was even funnier because I totally "got" what he was talking about when it came to the dog's neurotic behavior.  Not that an Aussie is that different...  Anyway, I had met Sage before my trip and then reading this book I knew that I had to give agility a try.  When I found out that my friend Marnie was opening the Zoom Room close by I knew that it was meant to be.  Check out the book if you have time, it's hilarious!!!

That's all for now, more soon... :)

Jen