Monday, December 31, 2007

Happy New Year!!!


Happy 2008 everyone!!

I wish you all joy and prosperity and an abundance of creative muse in the coming new year!

~Annie

ATS progress and a Valentine!



Here is my progress on And They Sinned. Tomorrow I hope to get to the center angel.

And I thought I would share my rough draft of my bunny valentine design. This is just a rough. You can see I still have some spacing and colors to work out, but it is coming along nicely, don't you think? Tomorrow I will transfer it to bristol board and try to get the spacing on the left side and the lettering into better shape.

Friday, December 28, 2007

And They Sinned



Well, I have absolutely "NO" business starting anything new, but, when did that ever stop me? hehe!
Here is my very little bit of progress on And They Sinned by Examplars from the Heart. I ordered my sampler threads from Stitching Bits and Bobs, which is notoriously slow to ship, so who knows when they will ever get here, But I pulled what I had from my stash and that is enough to make a start. I have wanted to stitch this sampler F_O_R_E_V_E_R!!! So I am excited to finally begin. It is on 35 ct. elegant bean from Elegant Stitch. I am using Gentle Art sampler threads, which is what the pattern calls for.
For those of you unfamiliar with this sampler, it is 5 feet long when finished!

Sunday, December 23, 2007

I've been tagged!

I've been tagged by Sharon Stevens of Mustard Seed Originals(hi Sharon!!) to post 5 random things about myself, so here goes!

1.I married my high school sweetheart. We actually went to prom together, and I have a picture of us all dressed up and goofy lookin! We had a great time!

2.I have a severe purse fetish. I love purses of all kinds from designer to quirky. I will not count all that I have, lets just leave it at that!

3.I love NFL football. I will watch any game, anytime. My favorite Sunday afternoon activity is to watch football, drink margaritas, and work on some sort of stitching or sewing project. I usually watch with my boys and husband, and Sunday is order out pizza day!

4.I am addicted to Chai Tea Latte'! I started drinking tea as a way to get less caffeine in my life-I have been a coffee drinker since I was about 17. Now I only drink coffee in the morning and its tea for me in the afternoons!

5.I love the idea of organization. I love to read books about it, websites, flylady, what have you. However I never seem to be able to sustain it in real life!

Thursday, December 20, 2007

25 Christmas Questions

  1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Both.
  2. Real tree or artificial? Artificial. My hubby insists, or I would have real. This year we bought a pre-lit tree and it really is beautiful. I hate putting lights on.
  3. When do you put up the tree? The Sunday after Thanksgiving.
  4. When do you take the tree down? After the feast of the Epiphany-Jan.6.
  5. Do you like egg nog? Love it! Especially with a little Bailey's! "wink!"
  6. Favorite gift received as a child? Victoria! A beautiful Madam Alexander baby doll.
  7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, of course!
  8. Hardest person to buy for? My brother who is a catholic priest.
  9. Easiest person to buy for? My two daughters. I could buy stuff for them all day!
  10. Mail or e-mail Christmas cards? Handmade in the mail.
  11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I love everything anyone ever takes the time to pick out for me. However I always do really badly in grab-bags!
  12. Favorite Christmas movie?It's a Wonderful Life, followed closely by Meet Me in St. Louis.
  13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? After Thanksgiving.
  14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yes.
  15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? One of my brother's parishioners always gives him a tin of the absolute best cookies ever made, anywhere, anytime. I can't even describe!
  16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Colored this year, I have done both. I actually prefer white, but my kids have protested and my cute little primitive tree and ornies have been put aside in favor of the traditional.
  17. Favorite Christmas song? "The Christmas Song"
  18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay in town.
  19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comit, Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen, and of course old twinkle -nose!
  20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star
  21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? With my extended family on Christmas eve, and at home with the immediate family on Christmas morning.
  22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? This sounds really bad, but its the people who come to church who never come the rest of the year. They are noisy and disrespectful, and make it very hard to concentrate on the mass. But I always try to be nice and welcoming anyway. Last year there were 3 teenagers in front of me, one was reading a magazine, one could not stop whispering and bugging her sisters and one was knitting!
  23. Favorite ornament theme or color? I have an extensive snowman collection!
  24. Favorite thing for Christmas dinner? Whatever. I never cook, so I am happy with whatever my family makes.
  25. What do you want for Christmas this year? For a couple of peaceful hours with my family to enjoy each others company.

Also, I was the lucky recipient of a hand stamped Christmas card and old willow thread from Belgium! Thank you SO much, who ever you are!!

Long time-no blog!

Oh I've been a bad bad girl! I haven't posted or read my blog(s) is so long! I have been so busy with all of the activities of the season, and both my sons sport schedules have really heated up in December. Also my mother has just gotten over a horrible staff infection-which lasted for weeks and involved many trips back and forth to the doctor. So its been busy, busy, busy! But I am done with my Christmas shopping and just have this little half day before my youngest is off for Christmas vacation for the next 2 weeks.
I have been busy this season making hand made cards-what fun! I have a good friend who is a Stampin up demonstrator and of course she got me addicted. (it wasn't that hard, I am an easy target!)




I have also been slowly working on my next model. I say slowly, as I just don't seem to be able to sit down and work on it. Too much stuff going on. But I am nearly done, and then I will have 2 new charts to release in January. Here's a sneek peek of "I love Ewe"!



I am hoping in the year 2008 to really start cranking out some stuff. I have learned punch needle now pretty well, after a couple of Punch and Cookie sessions at my LNS.(I didn't really need more than one session-it is that easy to learn, but I found I enjoyed the company). So I hope to produce some cute punchneedle designs. Also, I hear the wool calling to me, so I think I will be doing some wool applique and some rug hooking in the fututre.I am hoping to release some designs in January and then concentrate on some new stuff for the April Online Needlework Show, and in between sell some handcrafted stuff on ebay. As you can see, what really plagues me is my desire to have my fingers in dozens of different pies! But it keeps me busy and excited!

Merry Christmas to all of you who are of that persuasion, and Happy Holidays to those of you who aren't. I hope you all enjoy the warmth of this season as I am lucky enough to do with my family and friends!