Happy Thursday Everyone!!!

Well the parents have flown the coop! They're off to Germany this week to experience the loveliness of Christmas time in Europe!!!! They'll be flying for quite sometime (many connections to get off this Island of mine) but this is what they have waiting for them on the other side of the Atlantic:

Excuse me while I go die of jealousy! This kind of picture makes my heart ache because it reminds me of my time in Europe and specifically of my trip to Brussels during this exact time of year 2 years ago. 

That's me in Grand Place in Brussels! Oh goodness... now I'm getting emotional! And what makes it worse is that one of my very best friends (from my university days in Italy  lives in Germany and they are going to get to see her!!! Let another bout of jealousy begin! But I am happy that they will get to see her because I got to send her some things for Christmas that I wouldn't normally get to. I wish I was going to be there to see her face when she opens it but ohhhhh well :) I keep telling myself that one day soon I will get over to Europe to see her again!

While doing up her gift I decided to polish of a cross stitch finish I had from a while ago. You remember this don't you?

Well I turned it into this!!!

A nice little ornament for her to hang on her Christmas tree! She loves Canada and has been here a couple of times prior to me meeting here. So I thought some Canadiana would be a great little addition to her goodies. I used some fabric I had in my stash for the backing and trimmed it with a little chenille I had gotten from an exchange. Sewing the heart shape proved to be very challenging but I got it done. I didn't particularly like my finishing job as the heart shape wasn't all that great and I found it tugged in some places and didn't finish even along the seam. But the chenille covered it all up and made it look GREAT! So much so I'm thinking of ordering some for future projects :)

I've also been very busy stitching up some other Christmas pieces for a couple of exchanges (1 sent and 1 more to go :) ) I cannot wait to show you what I made - it's killing me to keep it in! Let's just say I am VERY proud of myself.

Well folks, time for me to go huddle up in my stitching chair... in for our first big snowfall for the year... the day before I'm suppose to get my winter tires on... I have one thing to say .... Murphy's Law. It loves me. 

Oh but before I go I want to share some pictures I just took. This is Leia's first snow she'll really remember. While we got her when there was still snow on the ground I doubt she remembers because she was so young at the time. Enjoy :)

What's this White Stuff?

O…M…G!!!!! IT'S FLUFFY!!!

JOY TO THE WORLD!!!!

Ciao for now :)

Melissa

Happy Saturday Everyone!

I found out about a week ago that Sarah from over at Sarah in Stitches had honoured me with the Liebster Blog Award. This is not my first time having been awarded with such recognition! I remember the first time I received this award was wayyyyy back in April when I first started blogging. Back then, it was awesome to receive such an award so early on in my blogging hobby! It gave me the motivation to keep blogging knowing that people REALLY were visiting my little corner of the blogosphere, connected me with others and allowed me to spread the recognition - what more can blogging and this community be more about ?!?! 

It was a surprise then and it's just as an honour and surprise now too! 

And now it's my turn to spread the word about some favourite bloggers of mine with 200 followers or less! Just like so many of you, these bloggers put so much into what they write and into what they create. Time to celebrate all of whom you know just like these amazing peeps!

1. McKenna at Chic Crafting

2. Bonnie at Bonnie's World

3. Cami at Stitching n Bits

4. Vicky at A Stitcher's Story

5. Chris at Tot Hill Farm Stitches

I hope everyone is sufficiently filled with turkey and ready for Christmas!!!!


Have a great weekend!

Melissa

Happy Thursday Folks - and a special Happy Thanksgiving to my neighbours to the south!

It's been quite some time since I posted last!!! I've been missing you blogland!!!! Unfortunately, I've been mega busy over the last couple of weeks and just didn't get around to posting and uploading pictures to show everyone. C'est la vie!

 

Now that I've finally uploaded some pics I can now do justice to the  Fall exchange I participated in with Stitched with Love Exchanges. I've done a number of these exchanges now and not one has failed to surprise me :) I think I fall more in love with these exchanges with the more I do. Plus there's lots of motivation to get things done! Funny how that is... I always put down the WIPs for me so I can do an exchange piece. It's not that I don't love my WIPs... I just have so much fun with exchanges hehe. 

 

Anyway here we are! This is what I sent off to Kathy :) For the piece I stitched, I used a chart out of a cross stitch magazine that was fall themed... My memory must be dying because I can't remember the designer nor the magazine at the moment. Will have to dig that out later!

 

I've done speciality stitches before, but the stitches in this were insane!!! The pumpkins in particular were VERY difficult. But I think they turned out great (some how)!

I decided to try a different finish this time too. No help from mom other than threading the sewing machine through. For some reason I find setting up the sewing machine to be an impossible task. First off the thing is ancient, any wrong move and something could dislodge and I'd have no idea how to put it back... and second - well it's sooooo darn hard to remember how and where to thread the floss through other than at the needle. I think Mom has shown me this a hundred times now and I still can't understand when to put the floss through the leaver and in what direction!!!! HUMPH! 

 

 

I think I lack some serious ability on the sewing machine... I can't even sew straight lol. So it's a miracle that this finish came out like this at all.  

Then there's the magnificent parcel I got from Fiona! 5 skiens of floss and 4 trimmings from Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe, 3 rolls of ribbon, buttons, a tape measure, beaded needle, 2 pieces of fabric from silkweavers,  and the most gorgeous box finish with a Blackbirds designs  xstitch :)

And as if this wasn't enough - when I opened the box the inside was beautifully finished and with little goodies too!!! Some fine tapestry needles and the cutest pair of embroidery scissors EVER!

 

So a big huge thank you to Fiona for this wonderful exchange package!!!!

 

Until next time!

 

Happy Stitching

 

Melissa

 

 



Happy Tuesday Folks!

I've been a busy bee lately - in life and stitching!!! 

But I'll post more on that later :)

Today's a quicky post!

While checking out some of the Facebook groups I'm in I discovered that Country Cottage Needleworks released their new Santa's Village series!

For the next year CCN will release a new chart every month.

Here's a peak at the first chart Santa's House available today (hasn't been put up on 123stitch yet though):

SO I thought it would be great to start a SAL!!!

If you're interested please join me at Santa's Village SAL on Facebook. 

IF you don't have Facebook but would still like to participate in the SAL please leave a comment here and if I get enough interest I'll create a new blog especially for the SAL :)

Merry Stitching!!!

Melissa

Happy Friday Folks!

Halloween has finally come and gone. We had a few trick or treater's come to the door in the CUTEST costumes ever. All small kids and just so adorable.

Next up... I know you don't want me to say but I will... Christmas! Halloween has really become the boundary that Christmas doesn't past (unless you're Costco).  So here we are 2 days after Halloween and the decorations are put back in their little cubby holes for another year... and now it's the Christmas dec's turn. I'd say we have about 500% more Christmas decs than we do Halloween decs... which is not a hard thing to do considering they consist of a few pumpkins, a mummy candy stand and a witch with a broken nose (poor witch). 

The next couple of weeks will see the house slowly turn into a winter wonderland with Christmas Trees and garland around every corner. Every surface in our house will be subjected to the wonder that is Christmas. AND I LOVE IT! 

I don't really get all wrapped up (pardon the pun) in all the commercialism of Christmas and only buy gifts for those closest to me. No endless shopping trips for me NO WAY! Instead I choose to steep myself in the feeling that this Season brings. My boyfriend especially LOVES walking in downtown St. John's. Hot Chocolate and lazy evenings spent in downtown's cozy cafe's are calling my name.   There's something about watching the hustle and bustle on the street, and seeing people wrapped up in plush coats and wooly mittens and scarf's that just makes my heart warm. I long for this feeling even now as I type up this post! 

This morning I also heard my first Christmas song on the radio... I feel that it's still a little early for the x-mas tunes - it takes forever to put of our Christmas decs so that is justifiable :) See I'm not entirely crazy ;) But boy I cannot WAIT to pop in those Christmas CDs in the car's CD player!!! I'll hold off on this for another couple of weeks if my willpower holds out. I remember one year I started playing x-mas music super early and by the time the big day finally rolled around it didn't really feel like Christmas at all - I had worn out Christmas!!! I won't be doing that this year!!!! 

In stitchy news (that is a bit Christmas-y admittedly), after some excellent advice from all my lovely peeps (aka: devoted followers hehe) I've decided to keep my L&L WIP on the hoops. I've actually put in about 7hr's of work in on just the bottom half of the tree already - and this is what I have to show.

'Slow going' is the best phrase to describe this project. Not much to show for so much work... BUT I SHALL persevere! 

Have a great weekend everyone!!!

Ciao for now :)

Melissa