December

One last post for 2014!

It's been a busy two weeks. Been using my time off from work to declutter, clean, organize, sort, pack up or throw away basically half the decorations and other items in the house. (I even cleaned through my birthday on the 21st! RAWRRR!) Many many boxes have been filled for good will and countless trash bags and other items have made their way off to the trash heap. Hasn't been much fun, to be honest, because it's been SO MUCH work (almost like moving) but it was very needed. I've felt for a long while that I have entirely too much 'stuff'. You go through a grieving of sorts as you bin it but then a few days later you realize you don't notice it's gone at all. And if that sounds drastic - it is............but it's also not. I still have PLENTY of stuff left! :)

(Psst. There is stuff to be given away at the end of this.)

 

It's too bad I live in too rural an area for a yard sale because I could have a FABULOUS one in the spring with the stuff currently living in boxes downstairs. Ah well. If that's the price I have to 'pay' for living on an off-the-beaten path itty-bitty slip of  a street that's hard to find even when you are looking for it, so be it. It's also quite nice when you can go hours and hours without even seeing a neighbor's car drive by. :)

So. Didn't get much knitting done for Christmas or anything else for that matter with all that going on. 

A pair of socks from November were finished and I washed/blocked the wad of blanket squares that I had finished in the last few months. (Counted this morning and I now have 82 squares completed. I think at least another 48 will be needed to make a good sized blanket. 48. *sigh*)

A new hat for Christmas.......well.......it's in progress. The lobsters are growing a little each day.

The tree finally made it up - on Christmas Eve. Better late than never, eh? 

Very nice to have it up after taking last year 'off' because KITTENS.

Said cats were nice enough to *cough* get us a present this year. (Which I generously paid for. And shopped for.)

Huh. Cheeky little buggers!

After that massive decluttering/cleaning I wasn't much in the mood for all the decorations to be put out so I kept it to the basics: stockings, various holiday candle holders, lighted pine garland on the staircase, etc. 

And I changed up my little 'stitchy' basket with a winter theme that should last until spring. :)

I thinned out my cross stitch patterns as well and have a big stack of them to give away if someone wishes to pay for the shipping on them. There is a bit of everything in there from Bent Creek, Lizze Kate, The Drawn Thread, Cricket Collection, etc. 

 There are also a bunch of Shepherd Bush patterns *without* the kit materials they originally came with. 

I've gone through each one very careful to make sure they are in order and no pages are missing, etc. It would probably be like $10.50 for a priority mailer in the US, international....I'm not sure. I would need your address to figure it but I do enough 2-3 ounce overseas packages to know it would probably be upwards of $20-25. 

You must take the whole thing though. I'd rather stab myself in the eye than have to piecemeal it, sorry! Leave a comment if you want them, if more than one person does I'll just randomly pick a name after a week or so.

Ok, I think that's it for 2014! Have a happy new year everyone! 

Bit somber here, I'm afraid, as my husband's uncle just passed this week. He had been battling cancer for a number of years and it had recently traveled to his brain. It seemed like he would have more time but he started to slip away on Christmas day. I feel so bad for his cousins who have now lost both their parents and all their remaining grandparents within the last four years. Starting the new year with a funeral means you've already gotten the worst part of 2015 out of the way, right? :(

Sadness. (Now with bonus free pattern!)

 Well, that's that. 'My' baby hawks are no more. Not sure what happened but things were fine Saturday morning - but by Sunday afternoon the nest was abandoned. After watching them intently for almost a month I can't tell you how positively morose I was all Sunday over this. Not sure what that says about the state of my mind of late (nothing good, probably) but there you go. I think I'm mostly over it now. Mostly. Other than having to stare at that empty nest while I'm sitting on the deck, year after year, as a reminder. (Seriously. The nest they had on the edge of our property two summers ago is still fully intact, though you can only see it in the winter when the leaves are down. This new one is in clear view all the time though as you can see from this photo I took while sitting where I usually sit on the deck.) On the plus side though, the adults are still around, at least for the moment. They woke me up early this morning with their squawking, just like normal. So at least they weren't killed or anything. That would be even sadder.

This was a nice little pick me up to my mood though. :)

An amazing little stitched fob from Carol as a surprise thank you for a pattern I gifted her. Just so generous and so EXQUISITE. Her finishing is jaw-dropping perfect. I am in awe. And so thankful for the gift. I will treasure it.

The backdrop in that photo is from my latest visit to WEBS. We were way up in northern Massachusetts for something else and managed to swing by the (epic) WEBS store before they closed. This stripey goodness was part of their anniversary sale so I got it for a song so I REGRET NOTHING, even though I clearly don't need any more yarn.

Heart of America - LHN

And finally, another long-mouldering WIP is put to bed, rest, and FINISHED. Yay! I do so love getting these WIP's out of 'storage' and finished as part of my 2013 'plan'.

The last bit of stitching this was not without incident though. I did the 'land of the free' letters on the bottom last and ran out of the color for that with ONE letter to go. SO CLOSE TO FINISHING. What a bummer, right? And then I looked at the sample and realized I DID THE WHOLE THING IN THE WRONG COLOR. @@#$#

On the good side, I had PLENTY of the color I needed to do it correctly. 

On the bad side, rip. rip. rip. rip. 

Oh well. It's done now and I really do like this piece.

This pattern was originally gifted to me way, way back in, mmmm, 2011? (Or 2010?) 

So continuing with that, I'm going to pass it along to someone else who wants it. Just let me know in the comments if you want to stitch it and I'll draw a name for it at the end of the week. (Or around there.) Don't be frightened off by the size of it or anything because I can TOTALLY see stitching up these blocks individually for smalls or scissor fobs, etc. That 'Old Glory' block in particular seems ripe for a small finish, if I must say. :)

And with that I think I'm going to go sit on the deck some more and try NOT to stare at that black hole of sadness in the tree that taunts me. It is AMAZINGLY beautiful today, after a run of hot and sticky-ickies, and I intend to get out there and soak it up.

Weiners!

Giveaway weiners winners were pulled this morning and emailed but I thought I would put it here too just in case someone didn't get their email. They were Valerie, Patty C., Laura D. , Michelle R. and Shawna. Congrats and thanks to everyone who participated!! :)

(Pinterest, uncredited)

Holiday Giveaway time!

 Little bit of blogging first and then I'll get to the free stuff. :)

I haven't managed a day off from work..............yet. But it's coming!!!

Etsy shop is closed down now and I *was* going to wait until this weekend to shut the web store down but I rethought it and now that will be closed sometime tomorrow too. Three weeks without a day off and an annoying bout of dizziness the last couple days have me waving the white flag. I need time to regroup; physically, mentally and just about any other 'ally you can think of. lol

(Also: need to finish cleaning my house and Xmas decorating. The tree is up - with lights but no ornaments on it. *sad*)

I did manage to put together some stuff for a holiday giveaway though!

A little bit of everything - so something stitchy for stitchy peeps and something beady for beady peeps, etc.

The stitchy stuff is a brand-new Blackbird Designs stocking pattern (I overbought but my whoopsie is your gain!) and I made a handy-dandy fabric thread catcher to match. The fabrics on the thread catcher aren't OVERTLY Christmasy though if you want to use it year-round. (I can't promise a couple beads won't work their way into this offering too though. Heh.)

For the beady stuff I did up four different hatted snowmen and wired them up with Swarovski crystals and put them on coordinating lobster claw lariats. Perfect to put on a pair of scissors, your cell phone, etc. - or take it off the lariat and put it on a chain for a necklace! (I went with snowmen because they can work as a trinket all winter long vs. just a few weeks in December.)

So FIVE separate things to giveaway! :)

Here is how you can get them:

1. To enter all you have to do is email me. ( I will ship it anywhere in the world so everyone is welcome to enter.)

 

2. If you have no preference on what you'd like to win, no message is needed on your email. If you'd prefer one thing (stitchy) vs the other (beady) then feel free to put that in your message.

  3. If you are a follower of this blog, let me know and I will enter your name in twice. I do so appreciate my followers and the comments I get here so of course you guys get extra special attention. :)
(If you are not a follower but want to be, just click the 'follow' link on the right side bar. Everybody has a Google account at this point................right?)

4. I will draw the winners names next Tuesday, December 18th using the random number generator. and contact the winners by email for their mailing addresses.

And that's it. Easy-peasy, right? :)
GOOD LUCK!

Happy May Day!

 In my usual scan of various news sites and blogs this morning,  I've already come across that May is the National Burger Month, National Mental Health Awareness Month and National Masturbation Month. Sooo..........yeah. Busy month, it seems! (One of those came from Bobby Flay's twitter feed............I'll leave it to you to guess which one it was. lol)

Things have been busy busy the last week! Not much time for projects and that sort of thing I'm afraid. I did manage to grab The Most Awesomest Sneakers in the world though. I'll show them to you but, first, put on a pair of sunglasses.............ready?..................

Oh yeah, baby! 

The color isn't *quite* right there though...........

Yep. That's more like it. 

If you think I don't plan on wearing these with my equally-eye-searing neon orange capri jogging pants..........YOU WOULD BE WRONG. (That's me - standing up for the unloved colors with PRIDE.) They are light as a feather - literally. Just 7.6 ounces! I've already put about 12-15 miles on them and it's two thumbs up all the way. Sorry to be so EXCITED but I literally can't remember the last time I had a pair of 'regular' sneakers. Ages and ages and AGES. I usually go more for the hiking/trail type shoe or sandal. Plan on wearing them out with the walking. Zoom, zoom, zoom!

Got those when I was SUPPOSED to be shopping for wedding clothes. My bad. Easily distracted shopper here. *waves arms* Did manage to get an outfit though and be properly dressed in the end. 

The wedding was in Boston, which was a treat as I haven't been to that city in yearsssssssss. Easily over a decade! The ceremony was at the Public Gardens by the Swan Boats which was pretty but, New England being New England, the weather wasn't ENTIRELY cooperative. (It was about 50 degrees and SUPER windy. Brrrr!) Strangely enough, I have *ANOTHER* thing to go to this week in Boston as well. Funny how that works! Haven't been there in ages and now I'm going twice in one week! 

 I managed to score three tickets for a Red Sox game this week so we have that on Friday. FUN! I've been to a ton of 'farm team' games (grew up within a stone's throw of McCoy stadium) but I've never been to FENWAY. I don't actually watch baseball or, uhhhhh, know any players names or anything but I always LOVE going to see something live regardless. I'm weird like that. There's something about the 'realness' of it that I find  immensely entertaining, while on tv it just bores me to death. lol 

HUGE THANKS to Carol and Lori for the gifties that I received from them in the last week!!!!

 I won this adorable little bunny chart from Carol..........

And the yarn was a wonderful surprise from Lori. (Which I immediately caked up and started working on, as you can see.)

THANK YOU BOTH and *MWAH*

Winnah Winnah, Chicken Dinnah!

Here are the winners for the December Giveaway-palooza:

My super scientific method to picking names is to sort them by name/date/subject, click click click click the sort randomly, so they are sorted differently each time, use the the random number generator to grab the winning number and then count down (or up) and there you go. I figure that way it won't matter if you entered in on the first day or the last because it's all mixed up and different each time. 

 

There was only one person who specifically requested a particular item so I put the other 3 items on a slip of paper, folded them in half, tossed them around like a carnie running a racket game and randomly picked them 1, 2, 3 to match the rest of the names. 

Congrats to the winners and thank you to everyone who played along. I do love a chance to give back. I've had a great year with the blog and the shop and that wouldn't be possible without all of you so *MWAH* for that. :)

It's a Harry Potter Day Giveaway!

In celebration of today being a worldwide holiday for everyone for reveling in all things Potter-related ...........or not............ok, maybe this holiday 'thing' is just in my mind. 0_o

Ok, so who is going to see it this weekend? 

I, ummmm, kinda saw it last night..........at the 12:30am showing. I haven't been to bed before 4-4:30am in at least three months now so why not go for it. WHY NOT I SAY!?!?!? It's only fun and games until you're crawling home at 3:30am. Hell, we got there early enough to go see another movie FIRST just to up the ante. (Horrible Bosses? One of the funniest movies I've ever seen in my LIFE. The entire audience was ROLLING around laughing from start to finish. Though it is a 'hard' R so stay away if that kind of thing doesn't appeal to you. Heh.) Gosh, this movie is the best book adaption yet - they really did save the best for last. 

Here is one small clue as to my favorite bits:

 But anyhoozle-doozle, I thought I would have a proper HP giveaway to send things off in style:

Just a boy and his owl (though let us not speak of what happens to the owl), wired up here on a cell phone lariat but you can easily remove that to put this on a chain, etc. if you'd like.

The deets:

1. To enter the giveaway all you have to do is email me. ( I will ship it anywhere in the world so everyone is welcome to enter.)

2. If you are a follower of this blog, let me know and I will enter your name in twice. I do so appreciate my followers and the comments I get here so of course you guys get extra special attention. :)
(If you are not a follower but want to be, just click the 'follow' link on the right side bar. Everybody has a Google account at this point................right?)

3. I will draw the winner next Wednesday, July20th, because it's summer and it will give more people a chance to enter. (I know we're not all on the computer 24/7 once the sun is shining.)

And that's it. Easy-peasy, right? :)
GOOD LUCK!

ORANGE you glad it's almost the weekend? (Small giveaway at the end.)

 It's been an orange kind of week, thanks to my finishing my BC Uber Jack and the newest sock club yarn from Cookie A. I know orange isn't for everyone but I think it's kind of dreamy when it's peachy/Creamsicle in tone. Or an autumny pumpkiny kind of orange. Ok, basically any orange except for traffic cone orange is cool with me. (What can I say? I like color.)

Thank you, Cookie, for your adventurous spirit and eye for color. I *love* this yarn!

Jack is none too shabby in the orange department either though. Did you catch how close I am to the edge of the linen in the first pic? Heheheh. I was determined to use this piece of scrap linen for some reason (me = stubborn idiot) and it was close. REAL close! I figured I could just leave out the vine if I needed a little more room at the end there. I'll definitely have to measure for a frame verrrrrrrrrrry carefully though if I go the framing route. :)

I don't see myself using this pattern again (I only redo smalls) so if someone wants it, leave me a comment and I'll pass it along to you for free. I'll pick someone randomly in a couple days if there is more than one of you who do. 

Note: please make sure your email is EASILY found though, either from your profile or by typing it out in your comment. Hunting for contact info on the internets makes me a grumpy bear and you can't make me do it. Nope. I'm a princess/brat that way. :)

Winnah Winnah Chicken Dinnah!!!

The all-knowing random number generator has picked the winners for the bead giveaway and *drum roll*.......

Krista gets the first bag...

And Gracie from Needles Pins and Dragonflies is the winner of the second bag!

Thanks so much to everyone who participated. You all make these giveaways such fun and I love to do them! I won't have anymore bags of extra beads to give away now for a little while but I'll be sure to wire up a little sumthin-sumthin to give away before the summer is out. :)

WHO'S SPOILED ROTTEN? WHO?

Oh, that would be YOU. Well, that is if YOU entered my giveaway. 

I've already gotten so many entries I thought it would only make sense if I...............

.......pulled another scoop of beads out of the nether regions of my bead boxes so I can draw TWO names. :)

It's not quite as big a bag as the first one because I honestly don't have any more filler beads to throw in there *but* I did manage to find a few more fairies to giveaway. 

That's it for REALS now though. I won't have any more 'bagged' extras to giveaway probably until the end of the year or so. I need time to build them back up again. :)

New beads and a new GIVEAWAY.

First things first, I posted a few new things up today including a couple 'new baby' sets. 

Is a 6 toed footprint bead weird? I think it is but I couldn't squeeze 10 toes on a 15mm lentil very neatly. Or consistently. (AND I have to do it on both sides of the bead!) So I took a little creative license and went with the more aesthetically-pleasing-and-easier-to-make-but-clearly-alien-baby route of 6 toes. Alien babies for the win.

Now on to the giveaway part.......

I have a bigger and bigger pile of 'extra' beads growing on my work desk here and it's getting ridiculous (or has been ridiculous for a long time and is now becoming RE-DONK-U-LOUS) so I pulled together a big bag of them to giveaway to whoever wants them.

It seems so unassuming in bag form, doesn't it?

Oh, but when it spills out.....................hello beady glassy shiny goodness! These are extras, a couple are plain ole wonky but most are what I would call 'pretty good'. (There are 4-5 Fairies in here too! AND a sterling silver cored Pandora bead!!)

Don't feel you have to have a PURPOSE for them to enter the giveaway either. Out-and-out bead hoarders just for the sake of hoarding are always welcome. :)

The deets:

1. To enter the giveaway all you have to do is email me. ( I will ship it anywhere in the world so everyone is welcome to enter.)

2. If you are a follower of this blog, let me know and I will enter your name in twice. I do so appreciate my followers and the comments I get here so of course you guys get extra special attention. :)
(If you are not a follower but want to be, just click the 'follow' link on the right side bar. Everybody has a Google account at this point................right?)

3. I will draw the winner next MONDAY because it's summer and it will give more people a chance to enter. (I know we're not all on the computer 24/7 once the sun is shining.)

And that's it. Easy-peasy, right? :)
GOOD LUCK!

Best. Weekend. EVAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

 Firstly, I won Sonda's LHN chart giveaway. Sweeeeeeeeeeeeet! 

Seriously excited over this!! I've never won a blog giveaway so excuse me while I do a happy dance. *dance* (Which isn't to say that I don't like HOSTING giveaways, because I honestly do get a kick out of that too.) Thanks so much Sonda! YOU ROCK. :)

Secondly, who is Edward James Olmos' new bestie? OH THAT WOULD BE ME, THX.

He added me to his Twitter feed *AND* sent me a private message that ended with SO SAY WE ALL. *sqeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee*

Frakity frak frakking frak, the Old Man added me back. Do I care if he possibly does that with all BSG-tweet friendly fans? NOPE. When ADMIRAL FRAKKING ADAMA gives you a direct SO SAY WE ALL, you die and go immediately to sci-fi fan girl heaven. The details are IRRELEVANT, ok? 

Now excuse while I go enjoy my BSG contact high and my chart win for awhile. :)

Valentine's Giveaway Winner

....is.....

Terri of Dixie Samplar Designs!

Congrats on winning your own bag of teeny buttons. :)

Can you believe there are over 120 buttons in that little bag? 

I had a grand old time sorting them out,  let me tell you! I made sure there was at least one pair of every color I had, with extra pairs of colors/things I thought might be more generally useful like black/white ones, stars and hearts. Oh, and there are plenty of polka dotted ones too, just because! Have fun with them!!!

So I clicked and sorted...

..sorted once more...

...used the Random Number Generator...

...and counted from the top....

And the winner for this week's giveaway was Margaret!! Congrats to you and thanks so much to all who entered!!

That concludes my holiday giveaways but I'll have a big one sometime after the holiday. I'm already squirreling away extra beads for an 'extras, misses, and flat out ugly' type giveaway. Should be fun!!!! :)

And the winner is of the beady giveaway is...........

 Random Number Generator picked #59, I sorted all the entries by subject (to mix them up randomly) and counted from the bottom (instead of the top for something different this time) and the name I came up on was ..............Luann!!

Congrats on winning!!! I will have this out to you ASAP.

Thanks to everyone who participated! I will have a stitchy giveaway up tomorrow, I believe. (Or maybe Tuesday as I still have to stuff it and take pictures of it. Heee!)