Playing with Paper

I used to show a lot of paper crafts on my blog, and I have enjoyed my stitching so much lately, I haven't shared anything else. I have been doing something other than cross stitch though!  Although it has been a week, I am excited to show the card I made my mom for Mother's Day this year.

This is a card in a box. I have admired so many of these on Pinterest over the years. I made one last year for my father in law's 80th birthday, I just never shared it.  I made a card like this for my mother in law this year also, and I forgot to take any pictures before she took it home with her.  For my mom's card, I used a handful of die cut pieces that have been sitting in my stash a long time, I don't even know where they came from.  The cardstock and printed paper are from Close To My Heart, from an old collection called Heart of Winter.

The purple in the flowers really pop against this beige! The card I made for my mother in law had pink flowers, her favorite color.  Both moms have always loved to work in their flower beds, this was so appropriate.

I am happy I could send my mom some flowers this year that would not die and be thrown away within a few days.

I used a lot of dimensional adhesive between the flowers and leaves, to ensure the bouquet had the depth I wanted.

My mom was as thrilled receiving this, as I was when I sent it.  Have you ever tried one of these cards? It was very quick and easy to make, I expect I will make more in the future. Maybe a fishing one for Father's Day!

Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful day.

So Many Options!

When I sit down to stitch, I have so many pieces started now, I have plenty to choose from.  I told myself that I wanted to finished my older projects this year before starting anything else, it's just not happening that way! I have started and finished some new things.  I have stitched on older pieces and not finished them, and now I have started more!  I can't even imagine starting something new every day of May, or even the first week.  My latest start was February Word Play.

I have loved these since they first came out.  This is the first one I grabbed. I hope I can have it done by February.  It is being done on a 25ct even weave. It looks a little strange in this photo, probably because it is zoomed in too much, I just wanted to be able to see the small start!

I have also recently worked on America, America from a Stoney Creek magazine.  Not a lot of progress on this one, it is going to be slow going I think.

I have put additional stitches in A Spot of Coffee by Little House Needleworks.  I really love this!

I was working on this last weekend at the racetrack, and I ended up having to frog out a lot of what I had completed, and had to restitch it.

Stitches have also been put into Marriage Rules by Lizzie Kate.  This has been my obsession the past few days.

My son and wife have an anniversary this summer, I am hoping it can be a gift for them.  It's almost halfway there.

The last piece I have worked on has been my Life is About the Journey.  I only need to complete the bicycle and it will be done! I am just not enjoying this backstitching. I will have it done by the end of May though! ( Did I say I would have it done by the end of april too?)

So, from all of the pieces that I have stitched on the past month, I have accumulated a nice little jar of ORTS.

They are really squished down in this jar, it's hard to see how many are there.  When I combined them with all the others I have saved this year, this is what I have so far.

That's my recent stitching progress, which I am sharing for a Totally Useless Stitch A Long.  If you want to know more about TUSAL and collecting ORTS, you can read about it here It's Daffycat.

Thanks for visiting!

The Nails are Done!

I think it was some time last week, or maybe the week before, I mentioned that I was going to go out and help my son, I was going to pull a few nails in the house he is remodeling. I don't think I ever shared my pictures of the nails though, want to see? It was unbelievable how many there were!

The picture on the left gives a little better view of the number of nails that were there, so close together, in such long rows! Some had already been pulled before I took these pictures. My husband and son thought they could just grind them down, it didn't work. The picture on the right shows a strip of wood still nailed down on the far right. This is where the kitchen cabinets were.  On top of this gorgeous green flooring, there was a layer of plywood with laminate flooring on top of it. The original hardwood floors in this old house are still present under all of this.  If it wasn't going to be a rental house, I would encourage him to bring them back to their original glory. Ceramic tile is going down instead.  It took me four days, with at least 3-4 hours per day to get this floor cleaned up.  I had the biggest blisters on my hands, and my arms ached for days! I was thrilled to be able to help though.  Painting has commenced in the house, and flooring goes in this weekend. In the next couple of weeks, everything should be ready for a tenant to move in. I am so proud of my son and his hard work!

That's it for now folks, thanks for stopping to visit!

A New Month Begins!

I can't believe it is May first already! When I was growing up, and would occasionally complain because the days just seemed to drag by, my mom would tell me, just wait.  She told me that when I was older, the days would just flash by before I knew it. Well, mom was right. I think before we know it, we'll be looking at the December calendar!

It it such a beautiful day today, it feels like summer here. We waited long enough for these nice days, and I have been enjoying today.  Last week, I bought a new cushion for the glider that sits on our back porch. A nice thick cushion, to pad my still tender hip.  I have been very good to do my physical therapy exercises every day, and some days I ache. But today, it felt good to sit out in the sun. While I was sitting, our doggie was busy digging for moles, so she was well occupied. She didn't catch any today, but we got a nice big one last week. It was caught in a trap, she sure wanted to play with it!

I couldn't just sit and watch the grass grow outside, I had some stitching with me. I know today is the first day of stitchmaynia. I did not make any concrete plans for a lot of new starts. I will just go with the flow, stitch whatever calls out to me, old or new. Today, was a new start.  I spent almost two hours at the dealership this morning getting the oil changed in one of our vehicles, so that really gave me plenty of time on this.

This is an older chart, A Spot of Coffee, by Little House Needleworks, dated 2004.  I think I have had it a few years already. I don't think this will take very long to complete. It is being done on 28 ct Mushroom Lugana with all DMC as called for.

See the shadows on my deck? I was sitting under the pergola on our back porch, with my back to the house.  This summer we are moving the pergola out to the back yard, because I have asked for the back porch to be covered. I don't want another full room, just a roof so we can sit out there any time of day. By noon, the sun is cooking down, and it's too hot to sit there. We'll see if this fits into my hubby's summer plans!

I think I'm going to take a walk down to the mailbox before I head out to my Weight Watchers meeting. I hope the sun is shining in your part of the world today, thanks for stopping by!