Time for TUSAL!

I can't believe the month of February is almost a done deal, where has it gone! When I was growing up, mom used to say, the older you get, the faster time will fly, and now I get it. I also see that the older I get, the smarter I think my mom was. I didn't appreciate her as much as I should have when I was growing up, and now that I am a thousand miles away, I wish I was with her more, for fun though, not just because she has a need for my medical knowledge.

Well, as quickly as the days have gone, I have been managing to squeeze in some time for stitching. It may have been only a few stitches a night, but I'll take it whenever I can get it! I tried taking my stitching on the road one weekend when we were moving my son, but I just can't seem to keep track of the little holes, and not stab myself a million times when working in the car. Ten hours in the car, time wasted.

Here is my TUSAL update for February. I have been working on a little piece by Abbey Rose designs, To Thine Own Self Be True, it is a pincushion that came as a complete kit, backing and all

There aren't a lot of threads remaining. Since this was a kit, with hand dyed floss, I am trying to be so conservative, in case of a mistake. This piece is so easy to stitch, and I love the way it is turning out. Pink is not one of my favorite colors, not something I usually use, it will probably end up as a gift at some point.

 Little by little my orts are adding up. If you aren't familiar with the TUSAL or ort's, you can find more information here.

With all the patients I see that have had pneumonia and upper respiratory yuck, I have made it almost through the winter untouched, until now. Seems I have finally become a victim. I have my mug of hot tea, a nice warm blanket, and a comfy couch calling my name. I think this is a good weekend to get a little more stitching done, and enjoy watching the birds at the feeders.

Have a great day, thanks for stopping by!

A weekend at home

I have to admit, this is the first weekend that I have been home, for the entire weekend, in months. I have spent weeks in Texas, taking care of mom after surgery, weekends following my son's new Air Force career, weekends with son in TN, and any weekend not mentioned above, I have spent with my dad, weekends I will cherish.

If you've followed my blog, you may have read at some point, that my dad fell last year and broke his hip. Maybe I talked about it here, maybe I didn't get around to it. We didn't think dad would pull through the surgery he needed, but we had to take a chance. We almost lost him, but he's a tough man. His health has continued to decline since the hip, but he was on hospice care before he fell, so we knew he wasn't healthy to begin with. I spoke with his nurse last week, and made it known, when he needs me to move in, my husband, and my employer know, that's where I'll be.

So I have really, really needed a weekend at home, to catch up with stuff, maybe do some long overdue cleaning. With so much to be done, how did I prioritize? I can't wait to show you!

This is my "scrapbook room. " When we bought our house 15 years ago, this was a wet bar in the basement, by the pool table. We aren't big drinkers, so we didn't need a wet bar, and out it went. It has been a perfect area for all my papercrafting supplies. Over the past year however, I have pulled the products I needed to use, carried them to the kitchen table in the basement to work, and just dropped them back in this area, to put away later. As you can see, later just never happened. As it turns out, other things get dropped here too-for instance, see the stack of tshirts on the floor in the bottom picture? That is a collection of shirts from all the motocross tracks we travelled to with youngest son. In my spare time, these will become a tshirt quilt for him. I washed them, counted them, and sorted them according to color and how many pieces I could use from each shirt. Then they were restacked, and haven't been cut yet. My biggest goal for the weekend, to just be able to get to my desk and actually use it!

Over the years, I bought and loved the cubes by Crop In Style. I don't know if they even make them anymore, I haven't been able to find them. I bought some by another company, and was seriously disappointed. The Recollections brand I bought at Michaels craft store were not the same size, nor were they the same quality. I spent hours building them, only to find out I had wasted my money, lesson learned. Now i have a pair of useless wooden cubes sitting around.

I made some progress cleaning my zone, not as much as I hoped for, see paragraph above. But I now have the ability to use my desk! And I was so happy at having made some clear space, I was able to play a little. I am member of a 4H group of papercrafters, and we are hosting a crop for cancer in April. I fiddled with projects for that, so more paper, cutters and punches were brought out. I had time to play and create, something I haven't done in a while. My zone remains, a work in progress.

Thanks for stopping by, hope you had a great weekend!

TUSAL update

Hello my blogging friends! I'm excited to share an update of a few things I've been up to lately. Believe me, I've been busy with a LOT of stuff, but I'm really only interested in sharing the fun stuff, some stitching! I haven't had much time for stitching in the past year, but I've been squeaking out a few minutes almost every day this month, and it's made a difference in my unfinished projects.

Last year, I saved my ORTS, and since I didn't have much stitching time, and no time to post my TUSAL updates, I pitched everything. I've started saving them again, and have a little bit to show this month. In case you aren't familiar with the TUSAL update, or why anyone would save their thread pieces, you can find info here.

I have what feel like is a million of the Crystal Light plastic containers, and the smaller one is perfect for saving my threads!  I have a lot of fall colors in these threads, since I worked on, and FINISHED this project, yeah! This piece is Autumn Tree by the Trilogy. I've had it in my basket for years, never finished. Unfortunately, when I bought the chart, I didn't buy the buttons. On a good note, when hubby and I went to Northern Indiana for our 30th anniversary this month, he was so sweet to go check out a needlework shop with me, and I was able to purchase the shop's very last package of the required buttons, how lucky was that! One unfinished project checked off the list.

I have another very small project I started last year, and was able to finish this month

This is a very small Christmas ornament, I hope to finish up for my granddaughter, before her parents get their tree up at the end of the year! I found a book of Christmas ornaments at my local library, and this was a quick stitch while I was sitting in a hospital waiting room, while my husband had surgery.

Another project I completed after many, many years. From the magazine, For the Love of Cross Stitch, 1993:

This is too funny, I have changed the direction on this photo a dozen times in my photo library, and when I upload it here, I can get it to go every direction, except the one I want! I think it's been a little too long since I've played on blogger, and not being very computer savvy in the first place, I give up. Don't look too close, just laugh at my lack of ability, and let's move on.






Believe it or not, with my limited stitch time, I had one more piece that I completed! I have so many projects that recommended being stitched on linen, but I have always been so intimidated by it. I have purchased several pieces of linen with my charts, and I was determined I was going to master stitching on it. The first piece I attempted was by Little House Needleworks, but I got scared so quickly, and never quite got the first stitches in. I tried again on this chart. It's far from perfect, but I was excited to attempt something new with my stitching. I still find linen a little intimidating, but I think I will continue to work on it. I don't remember the name of this piece or the designer, but I really enjoyed working on, and completing this one.

I have a couple of first year anniversaries later this year, and if I can get this "finished" finished, it might make a nice anniversary gift.

Several pieces completed off my works in progress! I feel like I've really done a lot, with the limited time I've had to work on anything.

Thanks for stopping by to visit!