Happy Friday!

And happy-start-of-the-long-weekend to my fellow Canadians!!! HURRAY! 

I am pleased to report that winter has, at least temporarily, been kicked out of my neck of the woods. HURRAY AGAIN! With the weather forecasters predicting 17C this afternoon and double digit temps all weekend I truly hope I don't have to share any more depressing icy pics with you until November. Hope I'm not getting too optimistic here...

Now if I could just kick this little cold my brother kindly gave me, I might just be able to get out for a weekend hike and (dare I say it) enjoy the weather????

I do plan to spend some quality stitching time on Santa this weekend as well. Yup, we're taking a much needed break from home construction. We may be thhhhhhissssss close to finishing but boy are we ever burnt out. 

So just because I am committed to putting in a TON of work in on Santa I thought it would be a great idea to show you how far along I am right now. 

I'd say I'm a little better than 1/3 of the way through on this chart so far. The really difficult parts are now coming up. I'm also leaving all the beading until last because BOY is there ever a lot of it. I figure the glass beads and my q-snaps may not make a lovely combo. 

This will be my first time ever really beading. YIKES! I'm actually kind of scared because not only have I never really done it before, but I have also never seen it done before. Sure, I see lots of lovely pictures out there with cross stitch and beading wonderfully mixed, but it's not really helping me with HOW I go about beading.

Some burning questions I have are:

• What kind of floss do I use to bead? 
• Do I even use floss?
• Will the bead cover-up the fabric so it's not visible so that the design will look complete and not "holey". 
• Am I suppose to cross stitch the spots where the bead is suppose to go in a similar colour floss to prevent "holeyness"?
• Do I attach a bead and then tie off or do I do bead after bead?

So please, my dear stitchers, if you have any tips you want to share please leave a comment! I need your help :)

Wish me luck!

Have a great weekend,

Melissa

Hello again Folks!

First off welcome to my new followers and thank you to all for the lovely comments I've received on my previous posts these last couple of days :)

I think I'm going to have to drag myself away from the plethora of cross stitching sites out there... I am officially going STASH CRAZY! I don't mean picking up the occasional chart or piece of fabric here and there... I mean checking places like 123stitch.com almost everyday to see what's new and exciting. I have lots of projects waiting for me but I just want moreeeeeee. For instance... silkweaver fabrics weekly facebook sales of its fabrics... well I'm the person screaming at the computer screen screaming 'MEEEEE', yet some how managing to keep my fingers from hitting the enter button and buying those marvellous, delicious, divine fabrics ... 

When I'm not in buying mode I drool over the stash I have thinking 'soon my pretty, soon...' 

SOMEONE HELP ME!!!!!! How do I cure this itch???

AHhhhhhhhh!

This message was brought to you by cross stitch nut Melissa... now back to our regular programming.

This past weekend was a BLAST. Lots of friends, family, fishing and stitching! I'd definitely qualify May 24th weekend and IHSW a success. Here's some photo's of the May 24th weekend festivities:

My man being foolish! 

Brother fishing with is freezing little pup... 

The May 24th Gang!

And now another weekend is upon us!!! YEY. I have a concert I'm heading to tomorrow night - another YEY. This particular concert I've been literally waiting for forever. I'm not kidding... I bought my tickets back in November for the show in March which then got postponed to MAY! YIKES! Now I'm not what you call a fanatic... but it's rare to get concerts this big in such a small place... so you take what you can get. Of course it helps that I actually enjoy the band :) 

Besides anticipating another weekend full of activities, this week I've actually managed to achieve LOADS of stitching in... I just can't update you on much seeing as one of my stitchy projects is top secret. But I did get a little progress in on my Friendship Sampler - che bella no?

Also, here is my May TUSAL jar for this month - as you can tell I've been busy! And these are  only the threads that I managed to catch from other sneaky fingers/paws.

These being the mischievous buggers... 

They are not as innocent as they look I promise. You just have to get past the pile of cuteness and I swear you'll see that they would like nothing more than chew-up every shoe in the house so that you never leave again because you have nothing to wear on your feet! 

Until next time!

Ciao tutti!

Melissa 

Hello my stitchy friends!

It's finally the 24th of May long weekend (aka Victoria Day). But isn't May 24th on Thursday next week you ask??? Why yes it is, but May 24  is always celebrated on the Monday before the actual day. Victoria Day here in Canada is technically a celebration of the Monarchy and Queen Victoria's b-day. That's Queen Victoria of England I'm talking about. Some of you may be surprised to learn that formally Canada's Monarch and ruler is the Queen of England, Queen Elizabeth. Now mind you we do have a Prime Minister just like the UK who actually calls the shots, but Canada is part of the commonwealth countries. There's your fun fact for today :) 

Now onto the more serious business! The May 2-4 weekend would not be complete without a couple of things, mainly a trip to 'da cabin' or 'around da bay' or 'up in a gravel pit' with your trusty camper. One must also be equipped with copious amounts of grub and booze to entertain all those that might pop by for a scoff (aka - a feed, a kitchen party, etc etc etc). I would even go so far as to say that the May 24th weekend is THE most anticipated long weekend in Newfoundland. It symbolizes so many things, good times with friends and family, start of the fishing/camping season, and most importantly May 24 weekend is the unofficial start of spring/summer... despite the fact that I can remember waking up to snow on the tent at times during this weekend. But as for this upcoming weekend... well I don't want to jinx it but... it's looking pretty darn fine. A few showers on Saturday but temps are suppose to be in the teens all weekend. I'm headed to the cabin this weekend with some family and friends, so here's me crossing my fingers and hoping for a good weekend. 

One other thing that we lot like to indulge in during this highly anticipated weekend is MUSIC. Specifically traditional Newfoundland/Irish Music. Below is a song I've linked that you must ABSOLUTELY listen to. It's called '24th of May' by Buddy Wasisname and the Other Fellers. This group has been around for years here in Newfoundland, so this song will give you a feel for what May 24th is all about and also a bit of traditional music. 

In mentioning Buddy Wasisname I also have to let you have a listen to 'Salt Water Joys'. My all time favourite Newfoundland Song. I would often listened to this when I lived away... it always made me a little homesick, but nevertheless I love this song.

As many of you already know it's also IHSW this weekend. I've signed up in the hope that I'll get plenty of stitching done. Wish me luck!

This week also saw bit of work put into my Friendship Sampler. Here's were I'm at currently.

I also got some stashy things to report on! I received some new patterns in the mail the other day AND Bronwyn also sent me here Peter Rabbit Charts that were in an old magazine of hers. So a BIG thanks to Bronwyn, especially since her offer came to me just as I was entering the blogging world. Couldn't have asked for a better experience :) A couple of weeks ago I received some new fabrics from Silkweaver Fabrics and 123Stitch as well and am only just getting a picture in of them now... shame on me... hehe.

That's all from me for now! Have a great stitchy weekend everyone!!!

Ciao!

Melissa