Happy Wednesday! :)

First off I want to say thanks to everyone who commented on my last post. I really try and get back to all of you, even if it's a simple thank you :) I may have missed a couple because I've been so crazy busy, and honestly I have a brain like sieve. It hearten's me so much to have your constant support. So Thank You ALL so very much.  

As you have probably guessed by now, I haven't really been around to write many a blog post lately. This is primarily because we're finally getting into the final stages of completing our house!

I'm beginning to think I should have called this the St. John's Stitcher and DIY blog!

On the stitchy side of things I have surprisingly been able to stitch quite a bit over the last few weeks. I'm not sure how, but it seems that I'm fitting way more into one day than 24hrs generally allows. I don't have a picture for you but I did get a huge part of Santa's sleeve stitched.

To be totally blunt, Santa is probably going to stay untouched from here on out, at least for the next few weeks. It's now looking like we're heading for a late May move-in for my house. PEWF! I'm seriously getting butterflies just thinking about it. Both excited and terrified!!!!!

I mentioned this in my last blog but the last few weeks have been ALLLLL choosing the finishing touches for the house. Hardwood, tiles, trim, lighting... paint. I basically live at Home Depot now. In fact, I was in there with my better half not so long ago, made it 10ft into the store when an associate walked passed us and said "Back again!" There's something comical yet pitiful in this scenario I swear.

That day we were looking for doors. Lots and lots of doors.

In this pic we're prepping the doors to be spray painted as our plasterer offered to do it as he was also set to prime our walls the next day as well. Killing two birds with one stone? Yes please. I'm thankful that these are one thing that I will not have to paint and they'll look so much better spray painted with and even coat than if they were painted with a brush and roller by yours truly. 

I started painting the upstairs little more than a week ago and the first order of business was to get the bathroom done. My parents may live just up the road but I think I'd prefer not having to jump into my car with dirty clothes all in a hurry to make it to the bathroom!

Saturday was a busy day in particular for painting. I'm thankful that I have friends who will spend a Saturday painting when they could be off to the mall or watching a movie. All much more entertaining than getting full of paint. But they made the day more exciting than most day I've spent down there. We all did lots of work but had tons of fun doing it together.

At the end of the day who can complain when you get to have a feed of fresh of the grill steak and an ice cold beer. 

My very own art niche! Perfect home to highlight my finished cross stitches I think (when I get around to framing them that is ;) ).

 Current workshop / future dining room!

Now! I know what you're thinking... "Jeez, that looks unsafe/precarious". While yes it is rather precarious, we've got supports on the bottom of that ladder. Believe me when I say it's not going anywhere! That being said... there is no way on this earth that I'll be getting out on that board LOL! 

The Master bedroom. I only have the ceiling and the accent wall painted so far. But the walls are going an off white colour so it won't look much different than it is here right now. Just much more polished.

Room #1 is my master ensuite and that room at the very end is my walkin!

I got out on that thing. Not as scary as it looks, but still not fun when you're looking down 12ft to the first floor!

This is the first spare bedroom and WOW it looks lime green here! In actual fact it's a yellowish celery colour. Of all the rooms in my house this is the brightest. I'm still not sure if I'm in LOVE with it but meh. It's not my room haha. 

And last but not least is the final spare bedroom. This is my favourite colour out of all the colours I have picked for this house. LOVE IT!

The one place that won't have as much painting as the other rooms is the dining room! I've decided to do wallpaper. Here's what I picked up the other day on yet another trip to yet another hardware store!

I may have no clue how to wallpaper a room, but I seriously love this to bits! So cannot wait :)

Anyways folks that's all for now! I'll be back with another housey update or two before all is said and done for sure :)

Have a great day!

Melissa

Happy Friday!

***Warning, this is a picture heavy post... but then mine always are aren't they ;) ***

While I've been posting about my crafty progress of late, I've been neglecting the real progress that is literally happening in my backyard! 

Some of you may recall that I'm on my way to home ownership - an adventure that started back in June. Much blood (yes blood), sweat and tears later we're now in the home stretch! There have been bumps, scrapes and bruises, sweaty blistering hot days and bitterly cold days, and tons upon tons of wood and basically any kind of construction material you can possibly think of. 

I've been spending weekends, public holidays and vacation days doing this and that for the house. 

A couple of weeks ago, it was insulation, last week it was spray foam and over the last few days? Picking up gyprock and cleaning up the plastery dust that now covers the floor. So long golden wood, hello grey rock dust!

I've also just finished picking out paint colours!!! I love this part :) It took a few days of playing around and looking up ideas but here they are!

I think the last time I posted a housy update the house looked like this:

Boy! It has been a while since I last updated you all about the house!

Now she looks like this :)

Yup we've still got snow... and more on the way. Feels like a never ending winter!

Brother and newly minted Fiance on hand with ze dogs.
They're in what will be my living room!

Kitchen

Office

Front Entrance

Bonus room! To be a crafty hobby studio :) Don't tell the hubby lol.
Cleaning up this mess it what I have to look forward to tonight!

Dining room after the gyprockers... lots of mess.

Front hall yet to get some gyprocking love!

Living room disaster area after the gyprockers!

Mom's cleaning helper...
or hindrance depending on how you look at it ;)

Kitchen

Future home owners... scared as hell but we put on a brave face :)

Lots of work done and lots more to come :)

Happy stitching everyone!

Melissa

Happy Thursday Everyone!

I don't know about you but this whole Daylight Savings switch over has got me bushed. My eyes are stinging, I've been chugging coffee like it's gasoline for an empty car. Seriously, I'm just trying to get through this day...

I love you daylight and the fact that I no longer have to drive home in the dark... And I know that with the longer days that means we're just one more step closer to spring! But why oh why do you have to rob me of that one extra hour of sleep?! I'm actually shocked that I'm feeling this so much. I don't remember losing that one hour of sleep hitting me like truck so much ever before!!!! Gahhhhhhhhh. Here's hoping I can trick my body into thinking all's normal tomorrow!

This past week, before the time change went and played havoc with my internal clock, I made lots of progress on my next quilty project. As you may already know, in my last post I announced the opening of my Etsy shop The Wayward Needle :) This quilt is destined to be another addition very shortly if all goes well!

I spent 2 nights last week sewing together the backing fabric and basting this beauty. I haven't quite decided yet but I may just scallop the boarders. The colours, while from the same collection as my last quilt, are much more dainty. I think french country, spring mornings and Easter eggs when I look at it. So I think scalloping the boarder may just be the way to go on this one! 

Let me know what you think!

Ciao for now :)

Melissa

Happy Tuesday!

As you can probably tell I've been head to toe deep in quilting lately. Well I'm finally ready to announce why I've been utterly neglecting my stitching in favour of this 'hobby'. A hobby no longer, I've taken the plunge and opened an ETSY shop!!! 

I present to you the Wayward Needle!

I decided to call my shop the Wayward Needle because you never quite know what you're going to get when you put needle to fabric. Quilting is much like a journey. There are plenty of times that I had a plan for a project, got it all together and when I finished at the sewing machine, voila! it's not quite what I was expecting, yet just as lovely and exquisite. 

The sewing process always manages to find some way to surprise me. Whether it is an unexpected challenge or that just the slightest alteration can change something to make it awesome. I can honestly say when I am finally able to take a step back and look at my finished quilt it's almost like magic. From tiny pieces of fabric, to the thread in the needle, it all comes together to make a finished product that is ever so cool. 

One of my goals this weekend was to finish the quilt I've been working on over the past number of weeks to get my new business started!

Here it is!

While stitching will continue to be my first love (gotta get some of those WIPs done!), I'm going to keep on chronicling my quilting adventures here. I have another couple of projects on the horizon, and I cannot wait to continue sharing it all with you!

Ciao for now!

Melissa 

Happy Monday! AND Happy March :)

Today is a true milestone, it's my 100th post! Unbelievable! I've said it before and I'll say it again, I never imagined when I wrote my first blog post that both the stitchy world and the blogging world would become so important to me. I am so very grateful to able to write here every week and get to know my fellow stitchers of both the cross stitch and quilty variety! 

I'm also happy to say that the drought has ended on the stitchy front! Thanks to my contracting the cold and being quarantined for a few days last week. However, I'm on the mend! Feeling much better :) I was the last in my house to get this bug, which I had thought I had successfully escaped. Nope. I wasn't quite so lucky.

In any case it wasn't all bad. Being couch ridden, I decided to pick away at my cross stitching, considering that, besides moving your head to look at a pattern every now and then, no physical activity was needed. That meant no uncontrollable sick sweats, or exhaustion, or plain yuckyness ensued! YEY for being able to be at least a little productive while sick. Is there anything worse than feeling like a complete vegetable, laid up for days because you can't bring yourself to move a muscle????

I have finally managed to finish off part 2 of L*K's Holly and Hearts Sampler. Which has been tthhhhhissss close to a finish for just about forever.

The only thing that bugs me about Part 2 is the spelling of "honour." Not that I have a problem with Americanized English, but I've grown up with the British spelling. So things like the no "u" in honour drive the anal retentive side of me up the wall. I thought about changing the spelling having seen some people modify their's, but it always looked a bit too squishy. It was like two obsessive halves of me battling it out, one - the need to spelling things correctly (which given that I used to be a horrible speller would shock some of my childhood friends) and the other screaming that things need to look symmetrical.  In the end, the more symmetrical - artsy side of me won out, much to the chagrin of my spelling side. 

I also fished out Santa's Magic from my all but empty WIP bag (no stitched words in sight). I'm actually pretty proud of the fact that I really only have 2 WIPs. Santa's magic and LHNs Mystery Sampler (on which I also need to finish part 2... there's a trend here). Just before Christmas I had put tones of time in one Santa and needed a bit of a change in scenery if you know what I mean. But now he's strapped into the qsnaps and ready for some flossy love.

As you can see from the picture I've been using some lovely sparkly thread... At long last I have met Kreinik floss! Or can I say Kreinik sandpaper. As beautiful at this stuff is... it's horrible on the fingers. The tips of my fingers were near rubbed raw after only an hour of stitching. Ohhhh the trouble we go through to make things extra beautiful!

Anyway, I'm going to keep Santa on the stand and will myself to plug away at him for the next little while. 

Until next time!

Melissa