Nature's Beauty - Finished

It's 2:20 am for me...and I'm up waiting for a work meeting that starts in about 10 minutes.

Thought I'd make a quick post while I'm waiting.....to keep me from falling asleep!


I finished my LHN piece, Nature's Beauty!  I'm so happy with it!


This is my first time finishing a piece as a pillow, and I think it turned out perfectly.   I used fabric from my stash and made up the pattern as I went along


Here's pictures of the front and the back:

My thanks goes out again to Bekca for this wonderful pattern :)


Happy Friday to everyone!



-lesli

My Late April TUSAL and My On-time IHSW Update

I'm lazy.....so I waited to combine my TUSAL and IHSW update together!

My April TUSAL:

I found the cute birdie material as a remnant...only cost me $0.25 for 1/3 of a yard!   I'll make something with it....eventually...right? :)


What a wonderful weekend I had!  I spent most of Saturday with girlfriends...with the intent of working on my stitching, but of course I spent more time snacking on the yummy goodies everyone brought, watching movies and chit-chatting it up!  I did manage to get a few X's in......but the bulk of my weekend stitching was done on Sunday.  I also did some shopping at some craft stores and  I found an outrageous deal on these Thomas Kinkade Disney kits!

I've seen these before, and they are usually around $40....but I think these 2 were mismarked at $8.99!  Only the Tinkerbell and Pinocchio ones were at this price.....but I had some 50% off coupons....so I got them for $4.50 each!  My niece is working on the Cinderella chart so I'll give these to her to add to her collection.

I worked on 2 pieces for IHSW, my LHN piece Nature's Beauty and also a small HAED piece that I'm doing for someone special that is also in blog-world...so I won't post those updates until I'm done and have given it to her.

Here's my IHSW update for Nature's Beauty:

BEFORE IHSW -

AFTER IHSW -

This means I get to mark off task #6 from my rotation schedule!!  I started into task #12 and just might finish it off today....to finish off the entire piece.  


What else did I do this weekend?  Why.....I took part in the HAED half off coupon sale...of course!!!  

I know some of you out there did too!!  If you did....what did you get?   

I decided to keep my purchase small....I already have so many charts I've purchased and a good handful of them are already kitted up and ready to go!!   So I only purchased 3 ....I'm such a good girl (though, the coupon is good until the 24th!)

I just had to get Middle Earth...my husband glanced over my shoulder one day when I was reading through blogs and he saw the WIPs Ewa has...one of which is Middle Earth.   He then shouted, "I want you to stitch that next!"    He also threw in a, "I'll help you on it, I'll do some pages and you do the rest...it looks like there are only 5 or 6 shades of brown, right"?    Right honey.....5 or 6 .........  I will probably never get to it, at least not anytime soon.  But I bought it just in case it became retired.

Here's a pic of it:

I also purchased 2 charts from SPML's tarot series.   I've always wanted to finish a piece for mine and my husband's zodiac signs, but I haven't found one that I liked for both of us that were from the same artist.   But...I ran across a tarot site that tells you your tarot card based on your date of birth, so I entered ours in and mine is the Queen of Swords and my hubby's is the Knight of Swords....and you know what...I LOVE both of these charts by SPML, so ka-ching....I bought them!

Knight of Swords:

Queen of Swords:

This of course gave me the opportunity to let my husband know that I'm the QUEEN and he's just the Knight :)

If anyone is interested in looking their tarot card up, here's the site I went to:  Raven's Tarot Site


I'm starting to get a non-cross stitchy itch....so I'm thinking after I finish Nature's Beauty I'll work on a quilt for my son, or some knitting/crocheting.... then come back to my cross stitch rotation plan.    This doesn't help me get more of my HAED's done, but it will help me make a dent in my crafting stash!

Sorry for such a long post.....hopefully I didn't put anyone to sleep for the start of the week!! 


Can't wait to play catch up today on everyone's blogs!



-lesli

Happy Hump Day!!

(For anyone who is thinking, "what the heck is Hump Day?"..... Definition:  The middle of a work week (Wednesday); used in the context of climbing a proverbial hill to get through a tough week.)

Only a few more days until the weekend....and it is an IHSW no less!  I also have a crafting "girl's day" planned for Saturday, so here's hoping I have some hard work to show on Monday!


I finally brought Coral home from being framed.  I was so quick to give it to my sister in law, I completely forgot to snap a good picture.  I snapped a quick one at her home, but it's not the greatest (ignore my reflection in the glass!).  I love how it turned out....the frame is so beautiful!

This past weekend was Prom for my step-son Brandon.   Here's a quick picture of him and his girlfriend.

They look so darn cute together, don't they?


I did manage to get some stitching in this weekend, but not nearly as much as I had hoped for!  I wanted to get task #4 done from my rotation schedule, which was to complete Page 2 of Cathedral.   Unfortunately, that didn't even come close to happening!  I did manage to finally complete it last night!   Here's a full picture, it's so HUGE!   (lighting was bad..it was 1am when I snapped this picture!):

 And here is a closer look at just pages 1 and 2 (in daylight!):

I'm fnally able to make out the tree!!  The first page felt like blobs of green and gray everywhere...I couldn't tell what I was stitching!

I had a few folks ask me about the charts I recently kitted up, when I went through my piles and piles of floss!  I completely forgot to share that information, so here are some pictures of what I have ready and waiting to go!


Heaven and Earth 2012

 

Checkmate - for my son Sebastian

 

A Princess is Born - for my daughter Kella

Moonlight Immersion - gift for someone special

Now...to figure out an updated rotation plan to get some of these started!


Hope everone is having a wonderful "middle of the week" and you have grand plans for this weekend!



-lesli


p.s. - Did I mention there is another floss sale this week?   $0.25 per DMC skein?  Why do they do this to me!?   <sigh>  I'll probably end up buying floss for yet another chart!!   :)

Floss Winners!

I'm about an hour late on my schedule today (I'm never ever early!)......so here we go!

The list of names entered:

I used the ever so handy "Random Generator" online.......

Winner #1:

#12 = Shanda at StitchCrazy (I so completely love that she has a girl cave!)



Winner #2:

#22 = Lesley at Lesley's Stitching Diary 2012  (She just finished the most beautiful rose stitching with a very sweet poem)




And I figured, what the heck, I'll draw a third winner! 

So...Winner #3:

#4 = Nia at Caixinha de Pirlimpimpim  (Scroll down on her site and you can see the most adorable little girl's sewing machine ever!  I want one!)


Congratulations to the three winners and thanks to everyone that entered! 

This was fun for me....it was a short and sweet giveaway!   I'll have to have another one (anything to give me a reason to go buy more floss!)


Have a wonderful stitchy weekend everyone!


-lesli

Fabulous Friday Floss Giveaway

If you read my last post, you know....I'm a floss-hoarder!

I vowed to make one last run to the craft store to purchase the last bits of floss I need to complete the kitting up of 5 HAED charts.

Since I'll be there picking out floss anyway....I thought.....

Why not give some away!?

I'll be drawing for two winners!  I'll send each winner 20 skeins of DMC Cotton floss in the colors of their choice (please read the info below to ensure you get your colors!)

This will be a VERY SHORT giveaway, since I'm going shopping tomorrow!   I'll draw the winning names at 10:00 am EST on 04/14/2012 and will announce the winners shortly thereafter.

To Enter.....Just post a comment!  

You will need to include the following information:
          ~ An email address for me to contact you
          ~A list of the 20 colors that you'd like 
                If you don't list any choices, I'll pick some out for you!

*all color choices need to be the regular cotton floss...I wish I could afford buying 20 skeins of the specialty stuff!

This is open to anyone anywhere, as long as you can receive mail!




-lesli

Hello, My Name is Lesli and I am a New Start Addict

After finishing Coral, I sat down and decided to sort through my piles and piles and piles of FLOSS!

Why do I have piles of floss you ask?

So.... the local craft stores near me often have sales where I can purchase a skein of DMC floss for $0.25-0.28 cents...who can pass that up?  Each time they have a sale, my mind goes crazy thinking, "I must get the floss for such and such chart!"

I had pack-ratted away enough floss for 5 or 6 charts.   I decided to actually sit down and kit some of them up and make sure I had every color I needed, then make one last floss run to fill in any gaps....and then VOW NEVER TO BUY FLOSS AGAIN (unless I needed it for a current chart but ran out). 

What is it they say about the best intentions?  :)

Well....I kitted 4 of them up...and then what happened?  Sam from the HAED BB RAK'd me one of the charts on my wish list!!  Here's a picture of it:

Tarot- The Lovers by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law 

How could I not want to kit this one up!?  I've gone through the rest of the floss I have and made my list for the remaining that I need (which I'll get this weekend)...then I PROMISE....I think I promise?  that I won't get any more floss again, until I finish at least one more chart!

So I leave you with....a picture of my 4 kitted charts and a bag of all the floss I have left for the other 2 charts I decided not to kit up....yet!

Yes...I'm a new start addict and I love it!  :)



-lesli

April WIPocalypse

I only worked on one piece since the last WIPocalypse update....Coral 

And I am delighted to report, she is FINISHED!  :)

Here she is:

 I've washed and pressed her and dropped her off to be framed yesterday.   This is my first official HAED finish.  I was worried I couldn't take on a HAED, but I loved every step of the way.  The confetti was a nightmare in the beginning, but I've come to actually like it and stitching with the metallics is still a little iffy for me, but I'm better at it!

This means I can mark off item # 3 and #5 from my rotation schedule.  I skipped #4 because I couldn't put Coral down until I finished her. 

I've had some wonderful things happen to me since my last update!  Holly at Holly's Crafts Blog awarded me the Liebster Blog Award!  Thank you, Holly!  I'm honored! :)

I also had my name drawn by Nancy at Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe to win her new sampler chart giveaway.  The sampler is Teach Me to Feel Another's Woes and I love it!  The verse she chose is by Alexander Pope (1688-1744) and her design brings it all together beautifully.  Here is a picture:

Today I've decided to take on the task of sorting through all my DMC floss!  Like a mad-stashing woman, I've gone on various trips to the craft store to buy floss for this chart and that chart, but then leaving it all aside to work on later.  I'm going to officially kit up 5 HAED charts, just to make sure I have all the floss I need, then make a final floss run tomorrow for any missing colors.....and then cut myself off from buying floss for the rest of the year!  (yeah...riiiiighhhhht, lesli!)   :)

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter holiday weekend and you get to spend some time with family and friends...and of course, some time with needle and floss!


-lesli


Edit:  Ooops!  I lied!  I also did a little work on Wings since the last WIPocalypse update!  I was laser focused on Coral that I completely forgot.  You can see my progress on that piece here