A finish & more stash from a mouseless thicket

I have been an unusually snarling beast lately. I was asked to trade days off with 2 different team mates at work. My usual 3 days off were separated and that didn't allow me the luxury of a mini vacation in my work week. Plus there were other stressful situations going on at work and I was miserable! So, here I am on my Day of Mourning, yes Friday's are a day of mourning as I prepare to go back to work tomorrow. My 3 days off were restful and not particularly productive!

The above scan is of the project I started yesterday. This little design was offered to recipients of Barbara Ana's Newsletter. There were 5 little designs, each $2.50. This was the only one I liked, there is something about Witches Shoes that I like. I think it may stem from the Ruby Red Slippers from the Wizard of Oz. I wanted to stitch it on a horrible green aida (which I loved) that I had purchased some time ago. It had been ages since I worked on aida and I tell you I started stitching it and it felt so awful and stiff, I stopped. I found another horrid green lugana of unknown origin, and started stitching on that! It is much better on the hands but not as horrendous to the eye! LOL!!

So this means I did finish the Mirabilia B Fairy on Wednesday. It just needs to be washed and pressed and it is ready to go to CC & Co for framing! It really is very pretty and I am glad it is finished!

More stash was purchased at the Creative Poppy! I purchased 3 Barbara Ana Designs!

• Be Thankful--An ear of corn with an Indian head dress and a pumpkin with a Pilgram hat
• Thanksgiving Biscornu--Darling Pilgram girl and boy with pumpkins, crows and ears of corn
• Haunted House--A very busy, colorful and whimsical spooky looking house

I purchased 2 Helga Mandl designs!

• Blood Donors Wanted--Such a novel design with ghosts, skulls, webs, candy corn and blood dripping from the words "Blood Donors Wanted"
• Halloween Ornaments--Complete collection of Halloween ornaments from the free SAL from the Yahoo Group Wonderful XS World that Helga contributed. There are 33 designs, some of my favorites are Frankenstien baby in a cradle, Stinky Witch Sock, Bats against the moon, candy corn square and on and on! There are 33 designs if I counted correctly.

I received my stash in the mail from Just Needlin'. I felt let down, don't know why, maybe because it took so long to get.
Yesterday I met 2 co-workers and Ron who was my beloved Supervisor that Caremark fired. I won't go into how poorly Caremark treats good people! Anyway we met at Jason's Deli and sat and talked, laughed and ate. It was 2 hours of great pleasure! Ron is a big guy, he has played Hagrid in a community play 4 years in a row. I sure do miss his face at work but another company has wisely hired him as a manager of an Auto Zone! He will do them proud!
I have no more mice! I am so glad! The last one was caught last Sunday and it wasn't pretty. It screamed and screamed. It made me cry. I just wanted to be rid of it, I didn't want to torture the poor thing.
Oh, here is a web site that you must visit if you long for the sweet gentleness of days long gone! It will bring you peace and a wonderful smile to your face, yes a fresh sweet attitude is what you will find at Button Willow Cottage! http://buttonwillowchronicles.typepad.com/my_weblog/
The links she has on her blog are equally as enjoyable too! There are some wonderful recipes and images to peruse!
This has been such a wonderful post for me and so sorry to sign off but I want to get to the stitching part of my day. I will be lunching with my little sister and dear mother later! Please remember to keep the peace and love of God in your heart today and always! Love always from My Lilac Thicket

Stash and Stitches

So this is my progress as of Saturday evening when I went to bed. On Saturday I had stitched 199 stitches and have done the back stitching on the flowers. I am SO close to being done. I have the back stitching of the vines on the upper leaves, the beads that enhance the upper group of flowers and leaves and the right half of the upper wing and associated back stitching with the krenik. I am so excited to be so close to done. The scan is not much better than the pictures. The colors aren't true. The fabric is really a blue violet!

The second picture is of some stash I received in the mail yesterday (Monday). I received from Stitches 'n Things my fabric of the month which is 28 count linen in the color Country Blue. The true color is a light blue with a hint of gray. The Sheep's Silk is a surprise gift and the color is Salmon Falet. Plus I received the freebies of the month "By the Light of the Moon" from The Primitive Needle (I love this one), "Free-bee Alphabet w/Hare" from La D Da and "Haunted Acorn" from Handblessings.

The earrings in the picture are beautiful handcrafted earrings I purchased on the web site Etsy. The small pair are cobalt blue beads with copper findings and the long pair have pink, clear and pale green beads bronze colored findings. Gosh I love both SO much! The long earrings are much bigger than I usually wear but here I sit in my PJ's with them in my ears feeling like a mermaid princess, swinging my head hither and yon, feeling the earrings swinging to and fro!

I purchased a new Barbara Ana design. In her newsletter she had 5 designs for special purchase for subscribers. I really liked just one and it is called "Bootscornu". It has 4 witches shoes in the corners and 4 ghosts in the center. I will be printing it off as soon as I am done with this update. It was only $2.50 and I sure do love it. I have the perfect fabric for it.

Oh yes, I have trapped 2 mice. I believe I have 1 more to go. I feel so much better now. I have a ridiculously large quantity of traps sitting around the malingerer's hide out, SO it is just a matter of time!!!

Today is young, I am off, traded with a team mate at work so I will work her Friday. I am going to trip on over to Momma's for a bit of breakfast and pick up more mouse ammunition she purchased for me at Dollar Tree. Then I will stop and get more Stitching GO-GO juice (Diet Pepsi) and come home and work some more on Beverly's B fairy. Have a wonderful Stitchy day and give rubbie do's to all poo's in your life!!

128 Stitches so far today...

Yes, 128 stitches, which really doesn't cover much when you look at it. But more stitching will be done this evening. I took my stitching outside and laid it on the stoop to take a picture. The fabric has a hint more blue to it than shown and the beads don't really show up.

We started out the day with some rumblies and rain. Oh, about noon the sun came out.

Good news is my supervisor called and asked me if I would be interested in trading my Saturday schedule with a team mate's Wednesday schedule. It gives me 4 days off this weekend but I only have 2 days off next week. I said sure.

The girls sat in front of me and I knew what they wanted but I told Rose to show me. Sure enough she gets up and walks over to the bag of Benefil! How cute! My 2 little stomachs on 8 legs!

I started sorting through all my piles of stuff in this computer/craft room. There is so much, that it is overwhelming thinking of doing it all at once. Little bits at a time, that is the key. I found my DMC verigated floss, 2 colors of which I needed for the Barbara Ana's. I found some cute buttons I had purchased and a lunch box which I promised to my team mate Tracy since someone stole hers.

I am disappointed as I won't be getting my stitching stash that I ordered last weekend until maybe next week. The supplier to Just Needlin' won't be getting "Something Wicked" until next week. I guess it has been very popular.

Well I have been a Stitchy Poo Gal today and hope ya'll have enjoyed stitchy poo stuff for yourself.

Unstitchy Poo Stuff

Nothing stitchy to report, not really. Last night I pawed through a basket of unsorted DMC and found all but 5 colors of floss that I need for one of my Barbara Ana designs. Today I thought about stitching but that doesn't constitute stitching, now does it.

I did get up pretty early and did some grocery shopping at HyVee and then bought an order of biscuits and gravy to bring home and eat. I stopped at the post office to redirect a package which was mistakenly sent to me by an Etsy vendor. I ran up to the bank and paid a couple of bills. Where did my day go? I laid down and took a bit of a nap.

It was delightfully crisp and cool this morning but the sun was definately full and bright all day. It was supposed to be about 80° today but don't know if it made it.

I have purposefully not listened to the news. I am so tired of the presidental election. I made my decision a long time ago and nothing can change it. It would be great if campaigning were only allowed a short time previous to the election, don't you think?

The dogs were out of food and I decided to try a different kind, Beneful. Wow, that was gobbled down in no time. I will have to see if they continue to gobble it and if they do, I think I will change brands.

Well I think I want a can of Diet Pepsi so since I don't have stitchy poo stuff to discuss I will pray for stitchy poo days for you.

PS--The pic is an older one, entitled "Hoggy Doggy". What is April's is April's and what is Rose's is April's!

A Pantry, A Mouse and 2 Poos

It is gray and rainy today. I turned on my lamps to chase away some of the gloom. I had a restless night sleep. I hate to admit it but I have a house mouse that I have been trying to get rid of. I have traps and poison down but so far no luck. It is really unsettling as I hear each noise thinking it is a mouse. I did read that mice hate the smell of peppermint and it will deter them from entering a home. I want to get some essential oil and place it on cotton balls and place it on the thresholds.

I had wanted to post a scan or photo of my progress on the Mirabilia Alphabet Fairy but I have got problems with my system and it isn't possible until I get this hard drive cleaned up. Ah-h the frustrations of 21st century technology.

I need to go to the grocery store. I want to peruse the ads before I do. I want to build a pantry in my hall closet which just houses vcr movies now. A nice metal rack in there and I could have a good place to store items. My guest bedroom has my excess paper products in it. I have toyed with the idea of purchasing items in bulk from Survival Acres (http://www.survivalacres.com/) I was thinking flour, sugar, cream of wheat (which I love). I was amazed at how many recipes I could find for cream of wheat! My thought is to build a pantry which I could eat from from 6 months to 1 year.

The pics of are my darling girls. Rose is the orange and white Britney. She is 9 years old and in the pic she is persuing her favorite activity. April is the black, tan and white Chow/Australian Shepherd mix. She is almost 5 years old and she is Mommy's shadow. They were both my ex husband's dogs but he abandoned them when he did the same to me. I tell you I didn't want dogs but they are really the light of my life. When my days were horrible and dark they were always there to make me get up and let them out, feed them and they wanted nothing more than that then love. I have an abundance of that and it is easy to give them.

Mom called and she is going to Wal-Mart and wanted to know if I would join her. I hate that place and declined but I did offer her a date for lunch and we are going to go get a burger when she is done.

Oh my is there a cute free design on http://gazette94.blogspot.com/ . It is 65w by 67h. A witch carrying a jack o'lantern in one hand and a sparking wand in the other. I love her shoes. It is very cute and one for my freebie notebook.

After burgers with Mom I am going to come home and stitch on the fairy. I also want to paw thru my DMC floss for the colors I failed to get at Hobby Lobby for the Barbara Ana design I want to start.

May your day be Stitchy and bright!!!

Random Stitchy Poo Thoughts

BeverlyI am dreaming of my days off as I sit here at work, listening to the rain on the tin roof. Yes Autumn is here, the trees are starting to festoon themselves in brilliant shades of red, yellow, orange and some purple also! My thoughts turn to cooking and baking and stitching in front of a good movie.

I need to finish the Miriabilia Alphabet Fairy that I stitched for my friend Beverly's birthday. The fairy is pretty much complete. I am anxious to start on a new Barbara Ana design. I haven't decided which one. Since I recently acquired Stitch or Die, Santa Paws, Holy Mud!, Olivia, The Fairy Witch, Boo to You...I am just overwhelmed with choices! I love her colors and whimiscal designs. She has great freebies on her site at http://www.freewebs.com/barbara-ana-designs/index.htm and also at http://www.cyberstitchers.com/PatternLibrary/index.asp .
I try to analyze myself and I think because we live in such dark and challenging times the bright child-like designs of Barbara Ana make me smile.

I did order some stash at Just Needlin'.com! Stitches 'n Things was having problems and couldn't take web orders. I ordered Halloween Parcheesi Board from The Primitive Needle, Winter White from Indigo Rose, and last but not least Something Wicked from La D Da. I really like the Parcheesi Board, I like the game boards but have never stitched one. Winter White is SO pretty on the blue fabric, one of my favorite color combinations, white floss on blue fabric. Something Wicked is just so, so, SO...Halloween wicked, I love it.

I don't have a photo to add to this post because I am at work, but I do want to take a pic of my Fairy and upload it in the next couple of days. I am looking forward to some Stitchy good fun the next 3 days! Hooray!!