Crazy January 15 Challenge~Day 2 and I got something framed!!

First of all here is my start on Noah's Stocking by CHS. I am stitching it on 36 ct pearled barley using a Vickie Clayton HDF conversion. This is something I have had kitted up in my stash for quite some time. I am not sure about the HDF conversion-some of the silks may be too light for my taste. I may end up substituting some NPI as I continue to work on this. I WAS stitching right along at a good clip and then the family decided to watch Horatio Hornblower(which was a Christmas gift-the whole set of 6 movies!! Yippee!), and I got caught up in the action and kept catching myself not stitching at all! For shame! LOL!

And in other exciting news! I finally got around to finishing the framing on This is the Day!! I had the frame made at Joann with a 60% off coupon so it only cost me about 20 dollars. Then I followed the tutorial on framing by Vonna at The Twisted Stitcher and Ta-Daa!! It turned out great! Thank you Vonna for so generously posting your tutorial!

And this morning I hung it in my living room along with a punch needle piece done by Lori Brechlin of Notforgotten Farm. I am so happy! These peices are hung directly across from where I sit in the morning with my coffee and Bible.

I bought this piece from Lori a couple of years ago on ebay. I just adore the way she did the frame! One of my goals for this year is to learn to make and paint my own primitive frames. It is a punch needle heart with the words "Wahre Liebe" in German, which means "true love". I adore this piece. My grandparents were both immigrants from Germany, and my father spoke fluent german. So whenever I look at this piece I think of my Dad, who I miss so much! Its a really special piece to me. And I just love Lori's work-she is so talented.

Today I will be picking up one of my WIPs for the challenge, not sure which one yet. Come back tomorrow to see which one and what progress I have made. Isn't this challenge fun!

Crazy January 15 Challenge~Day 1

I started out with Happy Hearts by Birds of a Feather. I am stitching it on 35 ct. cappachino from Weekes Dye Workes, using my own conversion from GAST to Crescent Colors because I have a lot of CC threads in my stash.

This is what I was able to accomplish in one day. Not much but I was interrupted quite frequently. I really really love this design and would love to keep going on it. It might be the first one I come back to on Jan.16th! We'll see...

Now onto the next start, which for me is going to be Noah's Stocking by CHS. Tune in tomorrow for an update on that one!

Workes by hand in 2010

Well it was really fun to go back over my pictures and look at all of the things I created in 2010. I really made more dolls than I realized, as I didn't really begin to focus on cross stitch again until about September! 

Here is my collage of needle workes:

And here are all of the dolls I created:

So I feel like it was a productive year.

I have so many more things planned for 2011. I want to work some more with wool, and hopefully even get my rug hooking out again. I actually have 2 more cross stitch pieces finished that I m making into charts right now. I didn't want to include them in the collage as they are not yet published. 

So I feel actually a bit ahead of the game for 2011, something that I can assure you has NEVER happened before. I have to attribute it to the fact that most of my kids are grown and I actually have a little more of that most sought after commodity, 

"TIME"!!!

New folk doll for sale at the TDIPT Mercantile

Please visit "the Merc" to see my latest handmade folk doll "Jane". She is one of a kind and will come to you signed and dated. 

I am also offering FREE SHIPPING!

She also comes with a punch needle valentine cupboard hanger!

Thanks for looking!

Click here to go to the Merc!

Sledding Party

We held an old fashioned sledding party for Isabel and a few of her friends. We live right next door to a park with a big hill that is perfect for sledding. We had lunch and then sledding and then hot cocoa afterwords. I t was lots of fun! Unfortunately my camera battery died while we were out on the hill so I didn't get pictures of everything.

Some of my decorations...

The pretty bowl of punch...

 Out on the hill...

Carmel enjoying the fun... she's a cold-weather dog!

It was super fun!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday full of love and happiness!

Christmas decorating

I have been trying to get some decorating done, but I have also been battling a little bronchitis-yuck! So I don't have as much done as I usually do by this time of year. I took a few pics of what I have so far, but I still have another tree to put up(I love trees and wish I had room for more!), and my nativity, and lots of garland. I also have my TDIPT deadline to think about at the end of the month(haven't started anything yet!), and my daughter Chelsea and I are planning a sledding party for my youngest Isabel and 6 of her friends for next week. The fun never ends! hehe!

This is my doll cabinet which resides in the dining room right now. I have most of my santas and some of my snowmen on top.

And next to the cabinet is my pretty little white tree which I like to decorate with glass ornaments and glass icicles. I love this little tree!

On the other side is my china cabinet where all of my crystal goblets that I got for my wedding live, and also the beautiful rose plates I inherited from my mother-in-law, which came over from Japan with her when she came to this country.
  On top is our American girl doll collection-all dressed in either Christmas or winter attire. My daughters and I collect them. I have Felicity's complete collection except for the new gala dress, which I hope somebody gets me for Christmas!! Chelsea and I especially like the historic dolls, but Isabel likes the modern girls.

And here are the rest of my snowmen, and my cross stitch Christmas stockings.

And last but not least my tree which is on my sampler wall. We had to put the tree up on a table this year to keep it out of the reach of our new puppy, so the star is actually wired behind the tip! Otherwise it just wasn't going to fit! LOL! Its always something! I have many more samplers to add to this wall, but they are not all framed yet. The tree I let Isabel decorate-which is why the ornaments are all kind of close together and not exactly balanced. For years I let the kids put the ornaments on and then while they are in school I usually rearrange them because it really BUGS my design sense. But this year I have been sick, so I haven't rearranged them yet. Do you do that, or are you able to just let thm hang where the kids put them? hehe!
  Next I will be putting up my 3rd tree, which has all my cross stitch and more primitive ornaments on it. More pics to follow...

Merry Christmas!