Some very late pictures & F&S Exchange

First I want to say I'm so sorry Carol and Cheryl for posting these pictures so late. For the past 5 days I have had two little ones throwing up and very cranky. More cranky than usual since their daddy and his entire unit are on total lock down until further notice since Tuesday.

I received the postcard from Cheryl from our exchange. I thought it was pretty cool so I wanted to show it to you all, its all the way from Scotland:

And then I also received this beautiful birthday gift from Carol. A cute little fob, the charm says laugh which I definitly could use more of. Thank you so much Carol!

I also received my squares from Ulla for the F&S exchange so here is what she sent me:

She still hasn't received her blocks so you will have to wait to see what mine looked like that I sent to her.

And lastly here is what I have gotten done so far on the first sweater. The front and back and one sleeve which are all attached so far and what you see attached to the hook is what I have done on the second sleeve.

Bday gift from Dawn And Selina And some Crocheting

Sorry its taking me so long to post this. I received Dawns wonderful gift on Wednesday. Unfortunately thats also the day our computer completely crashed. It said windows was no longer there and so we had to completely re install windows and am now working on re installing everything else. Dh finally reinstalled the camera software last night but I was too tired to post anything. Okay enough yapping heres her wonderful gift:

The orange and brown thing is a bobbin potholder, its so cute! I want another, lol. And do you see the adorable needleminder? It has my initials on it and its my favorite color, purple! And she included 2 adorable kits. And she cross stitched that cute Happy birthday fold. Thank you Dawn!

I also received a generous gift certificate from Selina to linabear and so I ordered three biscournu patterns:

Autumn Flowers

Bellflowers

Shared Love

Thanks again Selina!

And in the meantime my cross stitching has slowed a bit. I'm not working on anything though it all nags at me to stitch something. Instead I have been crocheting these sweaters for my girls in Red Hearts Plum pudding. I know its still summertime. But I plan to give the sweaters to my DD's in November for their birthdays. One is on the 14th and the other is the 24th on Thanksgiving. I wasn't sure how long they were going to take so I wanted to start now. Their going pretty fast though. I started on Destiny's first and I already have the front and back done and am working on sleeve #1. Heres a preview from a few nights ago. I'll try and take another picture tonight. And Hopefully I will have some stitching to show you too soon since I have a charity square due Oct 1st and I haven't even started it yet! Yikes!

Heres a close up of the squares. The front and back are made entirally of little 2 inch squares. I had to make something like 72 squares for Destinys sweater. And heres what pattern I am doing so you know what they will look like when finished:



This is from Hooked on Crochet magazine August 2005 in case anyone wanted to know.

Exchanges

Just posting that yesterday afternoon I mailed out my monochromatic colour exchange and also my squares for Ulla for the F&S Exchange. I'll post pictures of both once they are received.

Birthday gifts, exchanges and a new finish!

First of all I have to say a HUGE thanks to Jenna and Michelle.

Yesterday I received a gift certificate from Michelle for Down Sunshine Lane. I was thrilled and heres what I got:

Romance In Bloom by dragonfly stitchersAnd San Man's Winter square. I also bought some beads and some Krienik floss and some beading needles since mine are too big for the beads I have. Again Thanks a ton Michelle! Its okay that you didn''t get a chance to send something stitchy. :)

And Jenna had my name for the xmas/bday club. She heard I really wasn't doing much of anything for my bday so she sent me 2 packages full of wonderful gifts:

Notice anything? Look at what she stitched. That's Right! Its part of the set I ordered last night! LOL She made a sachet, scissor fob with scissors, Altoid tin made up beautifully, and a biscournu. The scissor fob she stitched over one on some very tiny count, maybe 32 or higher. She also included 3 hand towels to stitch on, 4 fat quarters, some awesome cross stitch fabrics from silkweaver, some french cards with a matching journal. And a bunch of floss, which Jenna I can tell I didn't have. Theres some DMC including a Precious Metal effects, The Gentle Art threads a couple of carries creations, and some six strand sweets. I feel so spoiled these last two days. THANK YOU SO MUCH JENNA!!!!

And now onto stitchy finishes, I completed the second and final picture for my older sisters bday, now thy both needed washing, ironing and framing which I will get done this week.

Sorry for the dark picture. This fabric really is much lighter.

Brittercup Designs

Kitty with Mouse

16 Count Mint Aida

5 x 7 Inches

Also since my partner for the May Flowers Exchange flopped on me and didn't send, Judith who was running the exchange was oh so sweet as to send me a replacement, which I recieved the other day. Its just beautiful and I plan to fill it with lavender.

Thank you Judith!

HAPPY BDAY TO ME!!!!!!

Here is the second one I have decided to do for my older sisters bday. Though I haven't really gotten much done of it. I had migraines for nearly 3 days straight. No meds were working for me. So here is the little bit I of what I accomplished last night, before I got to talking to my lil sister on the phone till 430 am

As for my bday so far it hasn't been much of anything. Carol and Dawn both emailed saying they have sent me something. What sweethearts! I'm also in the bday/xmas club thing Becky started but I guess my partner is late sending out, though no email, so I guess I will email Becky so she can email my partner and see whats going on. Though the mail has been slow getting here lately so it could just be that. My family is also sending me gifts but I won't gt them for another month since thats about when they'll remember to mail them out. DH is still asleep, he got off work at 0600 so he'll be up in another hour or so.

Well, I guess I am just going to relax on the couch and stitch the hours away. Chores can wait for tomorrow. :P

Finish!

Kitty with frog

Brittercup Designs

16 count Mint Aida

DMC Floss

5x7 inches

Well, this was a quick finish. It only took me a little bit of last night and today. It was so much fun, I think I will do another for her too. This will fit into a 5 inches x 7 inches frame. I also completed the finishing for my monchromatic exchange but don't want to post pictures since I don't know if my partner reads this so as soon as she receives it I'll post piccies!

Britty Kitties

Okay so I have finished the stitching on my monochromatic exchange. I just got into this groove last night and kept going till I was done. So tonight I will do the finishing and package it up. And since my older sisters bday is September 11th and she loves cats I decided to make my next project her bday gift. Its the top one in the frame:

Okay so I have ben working on my monochromatic exchange, but can't really show it to you yet. The mailout date is August 15th and I have ben dragging on this one. Not that i dont like it, I just feel like I am going through a 'I don't feel like stitching' thing.

And even more disappointing. My birthday is coming up on the 12th of this month and I doubt that the family and I will get to do anything at all for it. We have hit a snag in the money for at least the remainder of the year. I won't be participating in anymore exchanges until our finances are better and that also means no more stash buying for me either.....

The DH is now on 12 hour night shifts and comes home at 0600 and sleeps half the day and is useless the rest of the day till he goes to work. So I now have his extra duties it seems like. I still have PIF gifts to mail out too but it seems like they will be waiting a bit longer to go out. So since I have no real progress pictures to show you of anything I will leave you with this picture of Ruby. I found her this way when i woke up in the morning a few days ago. This is our bathroom.