Snow!

So we thought we would go out and have some fun tonight with a little family bowling at $1.00 per game, how can you beat that? Well there was a little sleet on the ground but that was it and when we came out two hours later to head home there was snow on the ground and it was still snowing!!!!! WooHoo!!! SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LMAO!!!! Here's hoping that we can build a snowman tomorrow with the kids. If so you all can look forward to soem pictures of us. :P

Pass the Butter

>Subject: Pass the butter>>Pass the butter ~ ~ ~ ~ This is interesting.
Margarine was originally manufactured to fatten turkeys. When it killed the turkeys, the people who had put all the money into the research wanted a payback so they put their heads together to figure out what to do with this product to get their money back. It was a white substance with no food appeal so they added the yellow coloring and sold it to people to use in place of butter. How do you like it? They have come out with some clever new flavorings.
DO YOU KNOW...the difference between margarine and butter?
Read on to the end...gets very interesting!
Both have the same amount of calories.
Butter is slightly higher in saturated fats at 8 grams compared to 5 grams.
Eating margarine can increase heart disease in women by 53% over eating the same amount of butter, according to a recent Harvard Medical Study.
Eating butter increases the absorption of many other nutrients in other foods.
Butter has many nutritional benefits where margarine has a few only because they are added!
Butter tastes much better than margarine and it can enhance the flavors of other foods.
Butter has been around for centuries where margarine has been around for less than 100 years.

And now, for Margarine..
Very high in trans fatty acids.
Triple risk of coronary heart disease.
Increases total cholesterol and LDL (this is the bad cholesterol) and lowers HDL cholesterol, (the good cholesterol)Increases the risk of cancers up to five fold.
Lowers quality of breast milk.
Decreases immune response.
Decreases insulin response.
And here's the most disturbing fact.... HERE IS THE PART THAT IS VERY INTERESTING!
Margarine is but ONE MOLECULE away from being PLASTIC..
This fact alone was enough to have me avoiding margarine for life and anything else that is hydrogenated (this means hydrogen is added, changing the molecular structure of the substance).

You can try this yourself: Purchase a tub of margarine and leave it in your garage or shaded area. Within a couple of days you will note a couple of things: * no flies, not even those pesky fruit flies will go near it (that should tell you something) * it does not rot or smell differently because it has no nutritional value; nothing will grow on it Even those teeny weeny microorganisms will not a >find a home to grow. Why? Because it is nearly plastic. Would you melt your Tupperware and spread that on your toast? Share This With Your Friends.....(If you want to "butter them up")!

Alright! So how was everybody's Christmas? Did you get everything you wanted and more? For me it has always been about seeing the joy in peoples faces when they open up gifts that I have gotten them. Thats what makes me happy Christmas morning. And I got quite a few squeals of joy from the girls so I think it went okay. I didn't make such a huge dinner this year though. Just Apricot glazed ham, mashed yams, biscuits, pumpkin pie, banana nut bread, fruit salad, and corn. It was nice that my DH's grandparents made it here. They had been sick for several weeks before and weren't sure if they would make it here and then the night before christmas thy called and said they were going to take the train out here so we got to have them after all. It was nice, I think everybody had fun.

Okay I had to show these off. Its an antique vanity set that my mom got me this year. I don't have any antiques until she got me this and its in awesome condition and its purple my fav color, well at least the flowers are, lol. So now I can say thanks mom you have peaked my interest in antiques! :) And now for some photos of my house decor from xmas including our tree which only has one stitched ornament on it given to me in an ornie exchange this year.

okay these reindeer cookies I did not do but someone in my daughters Sure start class did and I thought it was neat so I just wanted to share a pic of them.

And as promise a picture of what I got my husband for xmas. The Dallas Cowboys clock I had gotten him earlier this year. You can't really see the autograph in this picture but is there at the left side of Aikman.

And now just a few cute pictures of my daughters that we took over the weekend. Don't you just love the finger up the nose shot? LMAO It seems to be the only way at times that Kiley will take a picture so I can't tell you how many pictures we have of her with her finger up her nose. The doll Destiny is holding is a Baby Belinda doll that once batteries inserted says mama, giglles, cries, makes eating noises when the bottle is placed into her mouth, and yes even makes sleeping noises. The nurse at her school bought her this but we told her it was from Santa Claus since technically the nurse isn't allowed to buy the kids things like this. But she sees Destiny 3 times a day for her diabetes so they have grown to be good friends. And the final picture of Kiley I love, She justhas this lil attitude on her face that cracks me up! I am no sure why the red bags under her eyes, But she does not have them, I told my DH she looks like a druggie that way. But she has been sick lately and has not been sleping all too well. Both kids will go see the Dr. this week too. Destiny even has a throat infection to add on top of her cold but the powder medication her German Dr gave us makes Destiny throw up so we have to take her to the American clinic and see if they can give us a liquid one.

What time of day are you?

You Are Midnight

You are more than a little eccentric, and you're apt to keep very unusual habits.Whether you're a nightowl, living in a commune, or taking a vow of silence - you like to experiment with your lifestyle.Expressing your individuality is important to you, and you often lie awake in bed thinking about the world and your place in it.You enjoy staying home, but that doesn't mean you're a hermit. You also appreciate quality time with family and close friends.

What Time Of Day Are You?

I'm back! And with updates!

Yay! I am so excited to finally be back online. Thanks for your kind words everyone. Okay as for updates, I did my stress killer project as far as possible and then I ran out of white so I need to email my floss mommy in the states since she can get it much cheaper than me and doesn't have to drive three hours to get it. I also ran out of white with my chinese goddess before finishing page 8 but I did do all the rest of page 8 and started on page 3, the one above page 8. So here are the pictures.


Also on another note both my girls had birthdays in November. Destiny turned 5 and Kiley turned 2. Both went very well and they got lots of clothes and toys from everyone.


Thanksgiving was a success this year too! I didn't burn my candied yams, lol. I made a Greek Lemon turkey(no I am not greek), candied yams, carrots, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, biscuits, fruit salad, and pumpkin bread. I was expecting three addiotional visitors besides my DH's Oma and Opa. But they never showed so I had all this extra food left over which lasted another week and I still had leftovers I had to throw away. All that cooking and entertaining wore me out though and I ended up falling asleep for an hour. I still feel a bit burned out from it and so am not making a huge meal at christmas. Here is a picture of our table from Thanksgiving and (my 1st)turkey:

My DH was not happy with our 6 foot tree this year so he bought a new 7 1/2 foot tree that thankfully was prelit. It was way too tall for me to put the garland on so I had to have my DH to the top part till it got low enough for me to do. I was thrilled this year on the gift I got for my DH. He is a HUGE NFL Dallas Cowboys fan and I found an autograph picture of Troy Aikman for about $450 Its a huge picture, about the size of a painting. I am so excited just to see the look on his face when he see it! I'll post pictures when he opens it. :P

And another picture, here is what I sent for my secret santa exchange, the limit was $10 to spend. I never received anything from the lady who was suppose to send to me though...:(

And here is what I received for my ornament exchange: I love it!

Sorry I haven't been online everyone. I lost my internet connection but hopefully i should be back online by christmas and I will update you all then. I just came to the library to check my email and let you all know that I haven't been ignoring you all. Talk to you all soon.

Chinese Goddess of Mercy

Well, I finally got to work on this without a migraine and so here is what I got done over the weekend. I'm excited that I got so much done. I included the pictre of the page that I am working on so you can kinda see where I am at. It's the right side of the goddess.

My hubby finally finished painting the livingroom too this weekend. He insisted on doing it alone and so I stitched while he painted and the girls played in their rooms. Now he has the diningroom left and finally my house will be completely painted at last! He is using a water based paint so it wipes up easily from the hardwood floors if he drips (he refuses to use a drop cloth) and there are next to no fumes!

I was in this cooking mood like crazy too this weekend. I baked cookies with chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, coconut, and walnuts in them and made a double batch of those. These have always been a HUGE hit with my family every time I have made them so here is the recipe if anyone wants to make them:

Ingredients:
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) HERSHEY'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips each white and dark
1 cup chopped nuts(optional)

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 375°F.

2. Stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in large bowl with mixer until creamy. Add eggs; beat well. Gradually add flour mixture, beating well. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts, if desired. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet.

3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. About 5 dozen cookies.

PAN RECIPE: Spread batter in greased 15-1/2x10-1/2x1-inch jelly-roll pan. Bake at 375°F. 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool completely; cut into bars. About 4 dozen bars.

HIGH ALTITUDE DIRECTIONS - Increase flour to 2-2/3 cups.- Decrease baking soda to 3/4 teaspoon.- Decrease granulated sugar to 2/3 cup.- Decrease packed light brown sugar to 2/3 cup.- Add 1/2 teaspoon water with flour.- Bake at 375°F, 5 to 7 minutes or until top is light golden with golden brown edges.

Enjoy!

I also made oven baked fried chicken for dinner saturday night and handmade coconut shrimp with an orange sauce for dinner last night. It was soooo good! And I hadn't had coconut shrimp in years so I just had to make some.

On the other side of things. Destiny has wednesday and thursday off for parent-teacher conferences and she has all day Friday off for whatever reason. So she gets a five day weekend and the hubby has Friday and Monday off for a four day weekend. The nice thing is the hubby is planning a trip to Rome for us that weekend. I have never been and one of our friends is going and is looking for some people to share the expense with. I can't wait!

Chinese Goddess of mercy WIP

Okay! Photobucket finally complied to this so here is a picture of my chinese goddess so far. As you can tell I really didn't get too much done last week as I was in bed with migraines and today I have another one so still no additional progress. Hopefully I can get somewhere on this upcoming weekend. Destiny has tomorrow off from school so I am already anticipating her giving me yet another migraine and making her sister cry and scream all day.

A quick cross stitch joke and a freebie

A cross-stitcher was very naughty in this earthly life and didn't go to heaven. At the gates of Hades, she was met by the Devil. "Welcome,"he said, smirking at her. "Let me show you around your eternal home."
The Devil led her to a large room that looked uncannily like a large needlework shop. The stitcher blinked her eyes, wondering if whatshe saw was an illusion. No, it was true. The most wonderful needlework shop she had ever seen was right before her. Still unbelieving, she asked, "Is this real?" "Of course," murmered the Evil One. "Reach out and touch it."
The stitcher was worried that she would be zapped by 1000 volts, butreached out anyway, unable to help herself. IT WAS REAL! "May I lookaround?" she asked excitedly, all the while thinking, This can't be Hell! This is too good! "Of course," said the Devil. "This is your eternal reward." The stitcher began to survey the particulars of her damnation. There wasevery chart ever published, including all the ones that were out of printin her lifetime and could never find. There was a full run of each needlework magazine, including all the old ones with the historical examples -and each issue was pristine. She continued to look with wonder. Every thread imaginable was there; silks, cottons, metallics, pearl cottons,over-dyeds, hand-dyeds, rayons and twisted-rayons (Yes, maybe I am in Hell, she thought when she saw those) Her eyes lit up when she saw the piles and piles of fabrics. There werebolts and bolts of every colour and every type. An array of beautiful thimbles were hers for the choosing, as were scissors and cleverneedlework gadgets; all organised just as she would have done it on earth. And there, beside her favourite earthly stitching chair, were all her unfinished projects! Yes, she thought, you can take it with you. Ihave all the time I want now. I'm going to finish them at last. The stitchers fingers were just itching to get going! She turned to Beelzebub and said, "THIS IS HEAVEN ! ! ! " "No," he rejoined. "This is Hell. DO YOU SEE ANY NEEDLES?"

Okay so here is the freebie, its a new cardinal snowflake

http://www.victoriasampler.com/VS_Club/Free_Patterns/

Ah, I love this picture. Its of my wondrful husband and our 1 year old daughter who wanted to be like her daddy. She was the only female soldier we saw all night long. The long thing you see her holding is a green light so she could see while walking in the dark during trick or treating. And the first picture is our oldest daughter Destiny, she's four years old and she was a Harem/Belly dancer. Everyone kept asking her if she was cold but she wasn't, she was having a blast. she was so excited that she was giggling half the night. This night we saw more kids than ever before since they opened it up to the Germans off base. It was fun though. We saw so many witches though like no one had any originality. One os the Sgt's dressed in a maids costume, it was hilarious but I forgot to take a picture to show you all. The hubby and I had planned to dress up like pirates from the pirates of the carribean movie but lacked the funds this year so maybe next year.

Okay Stitching talk, I did decide to start my chinese goddess but didn't get too far since a migraine hit me, itwas so bad it decided to stay all week long so when I wasn't caring for my little ones I was laying down in the dark thankful for the silence and lack of light in my bedroom. Thus, I have not touched one project all week long and most of last week but just so you can see what I have done, here is a picture of it. You can't really tell but there is white and a pale grey. There is 20 pages to this and I haven't gotten too far on page 8 which is where I started since it seems to be the center page.

I went to the post office today and mailed out my ornament exchange from SWC. I am only the second person to mail out but everyone still has 9 more days before they have to send out. I also sent out two postcards to people from postcrossing. I picked up some other postcards that had some different scenes of Germany. So I am going to post a few here if I can get them to ever load for me. Both blogger and photobucket are refusing to load my scans of my postcards and my stitching WIP so when i get those loaded I will then try and post them.

Halloween Freebie

http://www.koolerdesign.com/freechart.asp

Isn't it adorable? I just had to share this!

Kanzashi

Okay I saw these another another blog called My Little Mochi at http://www.casacenina.com/catalog/products_new.php?cPath=24 and she had made some little flowers called Kanzashi and if you go to this link http://www.vivcore.com/kanzashi_core.html you can see some other things this lady has made. Its amazing I think and it makes me want to try it out but I have to dig for some material here. There is a neat little tutorial on how to make these flowers too. But not on how to piece them together so that will be interesting trying to get them to hold together....

I also wanted to show you this real quick. It's my exchange for the ornament exchange. I decided to stick with the snowman theme and am sending as rewuired one stitched and one bought ornament. Added bonus: my iris folded snowman card and a ornament/pin with a cute little scarf and hat. :-) Its going to Australia. This lady doesn't read my blog so its ok to post all this. I hope she likes it, it's all in her christmas colors.

I have been Tagged!

Books, Books, Books

I have been tagged by Gaiarose

1) One book that changed your life:

I can't really say that any book has changed my life

2) One book that you’d read more than once:

Say You Love Me, its so romantic and heart renching. I love it.

3) One book you’d want on a deserted island:

Laughing upwards, its a book of funny poems and always makes me laugh

4) One book that made you laugh:

Laughing Upwards, I laugh everytime I open it up

5) One book that made you cry:

Say You Love Me

6) One book you wish you’d written:

Don't think I have one

7) One book you wish had never been written:

Any Steven King books, I hate them with a passion

8) One book you’re currently reading:

I'm not. I have been stitching and haven't picked up a book since I finished my last one. I know its terrible, I really should read more.

9) One book you’ve been meaning to read:

7 for a secret.

10) Tag five people:

1) Dawn

2) Stitchornostitch

3) Eileen

4) Nita

5) Sharon

New Project

Okay just a quickie. I have started a new project but it is in crochet and I am afraid I will not be telling you what it is or have any progress pictures for you since it is a christmas gift and the person it is for reads this blog.

On the stitching side, I am very tempted to start this:

The Chinese Goddess of Mercy. I was at hobby lobby awhile back before I moved here to germany and they were having a huge discount sale on leaflets and so I got this one for $1.00 originally priced $11.66 I also found a few of the others in the collection. I had gotten the floss for it about a month ago but couldn't find the color i needed except a few weeks ago I found it and got two yards of it. 1 yard for this one and another yard for another one of them that I had bought with it. So now here it is calling to me 'stitch me!' Even though I know I still have to finish the stress killer, its just the border left but I am dredding all those white stitches. So I will end up jumping inbetween projects right now I think.

Tea Bag Folding

Well, here is what I accomplished today. It's called tea bag folding. The frames are the sunshine, the blue and purple is a rosette and the other two are kite medallions. I got all the instrutions and all from www.circleofcrafters.com in case anyone is interested. I had never dne any of these before and had a sudden interest in it yesterday and today. Let me know what you think. I thought it fun to turn the sunshines into frames and add magnets to the back to put them on my fridge. The girls are my daughters and the boy is my only nephew Rowan. He lives in Wyoming with his mom, Aunt, and Nana. I am lucky if I get to see him once a year and his mom is bad at atking pictures so this way i get to see him everyday. LOL

Also, is an updated picture of my stress killer. Its getting there but I slacked it yesterday and have today too. Not sure I will get to it anymore today but I am hoping to make some serious progress over tomorrow.

We have decided to paint our hallway, livingroom, and diningroom this weekend too and then finally be done with painting the inside of the house. Mike wants to do all of it since he complains about the way I do it, but he is a perfectionist and I am not. I'm not a bad painter, its just I don't use globs and globs of paint like he does.

Tonight the hubby and I are getting a babysitter and going out to the movies for the first time in almost a year. The last movie we saw was Ice Age II with both kids in our laps because they couldn't see in their own seats. Kiley also decided halfway through the movie that she was done with it and wanted to try and run up and down the aisle. I was thrilled when the movie ended. So tonight we are going to see the new movie with John Cena called 'The Marine'. Has anyone seen this movie? Is it any good? It looks like it will be a good movie.

I was in the baking mood too today and baked from scratch some pumpkin bread and tomorrow I am planning to make chocolate chip cookies with walnuts and coconut too.

My first Iris card

DMC Shopper checklist

Great way to check off what you need when you are off to the store.

http://www.dmc-usa.com/mjRS/1/doc/US_colordesc/DMCShopperList.pdf

Happy mail day!

I got in the floss I had ordered! 210 Skeins! I know its alot but I go through a lot too and I have to order it all online isnce there is no store here in town. I only paid about 10 cents for each skein so I ordered these 2 packages. I am sooo happy!

I Was Tagged

I was tagged by Dawn !!!

The rules; List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether or not they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they're listening to.

Okay here they are and in no particular order:

1. Unfaithful by Rhianna
2. So Cold by Breaking Benjamin
3. Vampires by Godsmack
4. I F**king Hate You by Godsmack
5. Hips don't Lie by shakira
6. Pump It by Blacked Eyed Peas
7. Call Me When Your Sober by Evanescence

And now I tag:

1. Patternuts
2. Tracy
3. Nita
4. JerWife
5. stitchingKorner
6. AngelSan
7. tirefils

I am sooooo happy! I had been looking for these snowmen for awhile now but had no idea who made them. Well, yesterday it hit me, why not search www.patternsonline.com? I typed in snowmen and there it was, the very last one was them! And so I just bought them right up. (shhh don't tell the hubby)

Now I do plan to finish up my Stress Killer picture before starting them and so today I will be working on it along with finishing cleaning up my house. I am hoping by next week to be done with it especially because there is so little back stitching done on it.

I almost had to redo my snowman ornament too, while I had my back turned my youngest, Kiley got a hold of an ink pen and colored his face! I was mortified! I tried to use shout to get it out and nothing seemed to work so I soaked it in some cold water and some laundry detergent for a few hours and luckily it worked, so he is as good as new. I rinsed him out and left him flat on a towel to dry overnight and then this morning I put him away in a safe place away from her. Now I just need to find an ornament to send with him since the exchange is for one made and one bought. I signed up thinking that would be easy to find and buy but we were at the store yesterday and there were NO ornaments! I am hoping they get some in before the mailing deadline or I will have to dig mine out of the basement and send her one from my collection, though her colors are red and green and mine are blue and silver so that will only be LAST resort.

Okay now for the purpose of the Ballerina Bunny pattern: I bought this as a kit a few years ago with the intention of stitching it for my oldest daughter to hang in her room. Her room is now Disney Princess and I no longer have any interest in stitching it. I did start it so a little bit is done. Anyways, I was looking to see if anyone was interested in trading for it, maybe some cross stitch magazines or something. If your interested please email me at Poohcorner1114 at yahoo dot com and we can work something out.

8 pm.....YAY!!!!! My hubby found and xmas shop here on base that just opened today! They were still stacking the shelves when we were there, thats how new it was. Anyway I was able to buy some ornaments for my exchange and a center piece for our table PLUS a cute little couple from Holland that are kissing. It was just too cute to pass up. :-P

Okay I finished up my snowman ornament this afternoon and used the sewing machine to put a decorative stitch all around it but the machine hated the thread I used for the hanger and messed up the last 2 inches so I am going to
find a thread puller and see if i can remove the stitches and redo them. This is my VERY first ornament I have ever made. How does it look? I hope she likes it. But I also hope I can fix the messed up part too.

Okay so finally I can show you my progress from Stress Killer from last weekend. Between blogger, aol, and those dang sun spots I am going crazy trying to use the internet for more than two minutes at a time.

Also I can show you my progress on my ornament exchange. I love snowmen and so thats why I am making one for the exchange. The colors I picked out turned out to be perfect for my exchange partner too. Her xmas colors are red, green, and gold and I picked out red and green for his outfit. I will probably use some red felt to cover the back and of course add the string on top for hanging. This will be my very first ornament so hopefully it turns out right.

This past weekend I made a wonderful discovery! We drove to Graffinveire and discovered they had a craft store there. At first i thought it was like ours, you had to be a scrapbooker only. Anyways, I walked in and it was like going into Hobby Lobby! I saw some beautiful quilts hanging there and then when you go all the way in, they had DMC floss, yarn, material, scrapbooking stuff and they even hold classes there and every Friday the women can come in and crochet or knit with the other women for 2 hours. It was like I had died and gone to heaven! LOL, you realize I haven't been in a craft store in over a year except that one here which you can hardly call a multi craft store. Now Graff is about an 1 1/2 hour drive from here so I will only get to stop in before we reach the hubby's grandparents about 10 minutes from Graff. Lucky me though that we have to go back this upcoming weekend because Destiny forgot her girl baby at their house. As long as the hubby doesn't spend all the money this week I can splurge on a few items for my stash. :-P

Okay non stitching talk.....I finally helped destiny clean her entire room this past weekend. It was driving me crazy. I had tried removing her movies, her Disney princess kitchen set, and even grounding her for days and to no avail it never got cleaned. So I crumbled and helped her out. The hubby also painted our bedroom finally too. I hate white walls. He picked up an Oyster White color to match with our bedset. Its more an oyster color than a white color and it makes the room look a lot better. It was also a good excuse to rearrange the furniture so we would have more room in there too.

Well I wanted to show you my progress over the weekend. I had never done anything on such a high count of linen or aida before so I thought this would take me longer. But, once you get going on it its pretty easy. I think I may start using the higher counts now. Anyway, once blogger wants to be nice and upload photos I will post progress pics.

But things on this project have to be put on hold as I have an ornament exchange I need to get working on. The mailout is November 10th but if I wait until last minute I won't want to do it and then it will drag as I do it. Hopefully I can finish it this week and get it mailed out shortly after.

How was everyones weekends? Mine was pretty good. Mike and I finally got Kileys room painted pink. She was squealing with excitement the whole time. It matches her Hello Kitty room and yesterday we also found a good room size rug to lay onto the floor for both girls but it will have to wait until we have some money.

Destiny is getting even more stubborn than ever lately. Last week she trashed her room. I had asked her for days to clean it and even grounding her to her room didn't work. I took away all her movies and even removed her beloved princess kitchen telling her she could have it back when the bedroom was clean. I even was nice and removed all her dirty clothes from the room, asking her to just put the toys in her toy box. But still her room is not clean. She has been spanked several times and still nothing. I don't know what to do with her...

Stress Killer

Okay so I chose this as my new project, Its called Stress Killer and its a freebie by www.cross-stitch-board.com This has been in my to do list for awhile now. I am stitching it on 32 count Belfast Linen called 'Boo!' Kinda fits this months theme, huh? I didn't pick it on the color name though. I just liked the thought of it on this color and I am doing it on 2 over 2. I'll post a picture later this week on my progress.

So the hubby finally remembers to go check our PO box yesterday and I was wonderfully surprised! First of all the Pin Cushion Dawn had sent to me finally arrived and also inside she had sent me two skeins of floss, some winnie the pooh patterns and a winnie the pooh pez dispenser. You see I absolutely love winnie the pooh and collect it too. She used heart buttons in the corner and a little cat charm with another charm that says made with love. I absolutely love it! Not to mention purple is my favorite color.

My second surprise was that finally me new tablecloth and placemats finally came in! It only took a month to get here but I love it! The hubby and I had been looking for a longtime now for the perfect tablecloth and placemats and finally we did online and it felt like an eternity for them to get here.

And finally my third surprise was that the floss my floss mommy had sent me had finally arrived! Now I have the floss for my next three projects, though there are 5 colors missing but most likely my fault when I made the list so next week I will probably just order them online. she also found some felt for me so I can make the needlebook I wanted to. Finding supplies here in Germany is like finding a needle in a haystack. Unless you are a scrapbooker person then, you can find supplies everywhere!

It's done! I finished all the stitching last night before I went to bed and I put it all together this morning! I am so glad its finally finished. I am putting it on my front door. Comments are welcome.

On another good note, Dawn got her pin cushion in yesterday. That went fast to her, I mailed it on Friday so....3 or 4 days to get to her? That's the fastest I have seen mail get delivered. Anyway so since she received it, I have published my WIP posts and pictures of it, so if your interested, have a looksie in the September archives. Or more for your convenience I have reposted the final picture of the pin cushion. She said she loved it and she loved the way I had put the colors in the design. I'll admit I think it came out better than I had expected. I also love the smell of leather so it was fun to finally get to work with it. My mom use to work for a company that made leather so when they got pieces they couldn't use my mom got to keep them and thats where I had gotten this particular piece. Theres nothing wrong with them, they were just too small for the place to use.

Okay as for non stitch talk, the mandatory meeting yesterday at Destiny's school was retarded. There was a physciatrist there talking about how kids and there reintergration goes. It took an hour and a half before the teacher mentioned that the babysitters that were watching our kids for all of us parents had to leave. The good thing is it counted toward our required volunteer hours and since both the hubby and I went, it was 3 hours counted towards us, now only another 57 hours to go, lol. These meetings are quartely though so thats another 9 hours we will have to go to, between the DH and I.

Well, just wanted to give you guys an update. Surprisingly between the weekend and yesterday I got a lot done. This is my progress as of last night. I am hoping to finish it up today.

There is a mandatory parent/teacher conference today at 1445 with Destiny's teacher Mrs Staggs. It was so nice of them to throw this in last minute and let us know in their weekly newsletter.

Tomorrow I have a doctors appoinment just to get two referrels so I can schedule the surgery to have my polyp removed and also to get my leg x rayed and the metal rod removed. After that all these surgeries and doctors appointments should be done with at last. I can't wait, hopefully things will go back to normal after that.

I also decided I want to work again and want to put Kiley into daycare. I found out I can be a substitute teacher at the elementary school and make $90 a day there. I will also be off in time to pick up Destiny so it won't interfere with that at all. Talked to the hubby and he really didn't say much but I know we need the money right now to get bills paid off. We pay about $650 a month in furniture payments and thats for about another 2 years and that puts a serious dent in our money each month.

Skirts!

Got this in today, I was so excited. I am always looking for new skirts and can never really find any that I like and so I had ordered this book because the one skirt on the front cover (the burgandy one) I really liked and thought I can even change the length so that its not that long. Now I don't knit whatsoever so the two patterns in here that are knit will never be used but who cares, right? The hubby doesn't like it but he never seems to like anything I do lately, so eh, whatever. If its not short and doesn't make you look like a hoochie then he doesn't like it. But I am a 25 year old mom and can't be running around like I am 17 anymore. This though will be added to my to do pile, I am not in a rush though since it is getting too cold for skirts right now so maybe this is a good one to work on in front of the TV one day when its too cold to go outside, then it will be done for spring!