November 2009Monthly Archives

Awesome Stitchy Giveaway

Jennifer of Feathers in the Nest is having an amazing Christmas giveaway on her blog. There is a gorgeous photo music box, a couple of beautiful stacking boxes that would be lovely for stash and/or stitching tools, a couple of strawberry pin cushions, and the On Travel with Jane Austen sampler chart from Tanya at The Sampler Girl. As if all that alone weren’t enough, she is also including THREE pair of scissors from Paula at Kelmscott Designs. Be sure to head over and check out all of the details.

Until next time …

30 November 2009

Misc.

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Giveaway

Autumn Leaves

Contrary to popular belief, we actually do get a bit of Autumn here in southern California. I snapped a few pics of the tree outside my home. By this time next week, I’m sure the last of the leaves will be gone. The first of these photos will satisfy PhotoHunt #177 which was the theme of Orange.

PhotoHunt | PhotoHunt

Here are a couple of others I took as well:

In stitching new, I’ve been working today on Fa-La-La from Little House Needleworks. It’s the first ornament in Diane’s ornament of the month series that will run until next November.

I’ve signed up for the automatic from Drema at Needlecraft Corner. Her kits include the chart, recommended fabric, and beads. Since they are stitched using the regular DMC line, the fibers aren’t included.

I also picked up a couple of pieces of new fabric from Lauren at Sassy’s Fabbys. If you aren’t familiar with her fabrics, you should definitely check they out. They’re wonderful!

The large tan piece is 36-count linen in her new color called Snickerdoodle. The smaller piece is 32-count Lugana in Witches Brew.

Until next time …

29 November 2009

Photography, Stitching

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Autumn, Fabric, Little House Needleworks, Ornaments, Photography

A Day at the Beach

Since we are going to be heading into our chilly/rainy season soon, I decided to head down to the beach today. There was a bit of a Pacific storm off-shore, so the surf was supposed to be a bit larger than normal this weekend. I figured this would be a good opportunity to play around a bit with the camera I’m test-driving.

I took a TON of photos (over 300), several of which were pretty good, but most were just so-so. After sorting through all of them, there was only one that I would really say I loved. In fact, it brought a huge smile to my face the moment I saw it. I’m calling it “Joy” because that’s the emotion I imagine he’s feeling. I would highly recommend clicking on the image to see the larger version.

Here are a couple of other random photos from the beach today that I thought were pretty good.

Power

Solitude

When I got back home from the beach, I noticed that the moon was so lovely as it was rising. It just popped out so much against the bright blue afternoon sky. I switched and put the telephoto lens on the camera and snapped this shot off my balcony. I was pretty amazed by the detail it captured. Again, I would high recommend clicking on the image to see the larger version.

Rising Moon

Ok, I’m off now to stitch a bit for the rest of the evening. Until next time …

PhotoHunt 189: Technology

In my high school and college years, I was a bit of a photography buff. I took photos for my high school and college student newspapers, and even won an award at an amateur photography contest once.

Recently, I’ve been very inspired in seeing the photos Anne and Dani have been posting on her blogs as part of the PhotoHunt blog project. It’s given me the itch to start getting back into photography. I’ve not ever really left it as I’m constantly taking photos of my stitching and such, but I really want to try and start taking more artistic photos again.

So, in light of all this, I’m tossing my hat into the ol’ PhotoHunt ring as well. There are weekly themes for the photos that start each Saturday. All photos must be one’s original work, and not something found using a Google image search or something. The theme for this week is Technology.

PhotoHunt | PhotoHunt

I’ve actually used some of my older technology (a Samsung S1050 point & shoot digital) to capture this image of some new technology that I’m currently taking on a test drive. This is the newly released Olympus E-600 D-SLR. The lens mounted on the camera body is a 14-42mm and the second lens is a 40-150mm.

As some of you may remember, I had planned on doing a 365 photo project this year meaning that I would post a photo on my blog each and every day of 2009. As you may have deduced, I did about as well on that as I did on my no-stash diet. Who knows, perhaps with this new rekindling of my photo bug, perhaps I’ll accomplish it in 2010.

Given that the PhotoHunt project has been going on since 2006, there are 187 old themes archived that I’ve never done. My goal is to stay current with the weekly themes as they are released, and perhaps go back to try and catch up on all of the old archived themes as well. I’m making no promises on that second part though.

Until next time …

A Finish & A Start

I hope everyone here in the US had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday yesterday. I had a nice day and got to spend some time with the outlaws (my former father-in-law and sister-in-law) which was really nice. We went out to Mimi’s Cafe for a traditional turkey meal, so no one had to do any cooking or cleaning. It worked perfectly for us. I think the funniest part of the day was that my FIL, and not me or my 30-something SIL, was playing on Facebook on his cell phone while we were waiting on our food.

In stitching news, I did get in another finish for the year. I finished this piece on Wednesday night and love how it all came together. The design is a freebie I found on Brenda’s blog. She designs under the name With Thy Needle & Thread and runs Country Stitches. I love Halloween & Autumnal designs, especially samplers, so this one was a must stitch for me as soon as I saw it. Pardon the wrinkles, I haven’t ironed it yet.

Design: Indian Summer
Designer: With Thy Needle & Thread
Fabric: 40-count Maple Sugar Lakeside Linen
Fibers: Various over-dyed cottons
Finished November 25, 2009
Stitched 1 over 2

I also couldn’t resist a new start. It’s one of the designs from my recent stash haul that I posted about earlier in the week. I did make a couple of color substitutions. Instead of using red & pink for the dress and flowers, I opted to go for Indigo for the dress and Spring Violets for the flowers. Everything else, including the fabric, is as charted.

Design: One of Those Days
Designer: Miss Crescent’s Crowne
Fabric: 36-count Strawflower Lakeside Linen
Fibers: Belle Soie silks
Progress as of November 26, 2009
Stitched 1 over 2

That’s it for now. I hope everyone has a great weekend! Until next time …

27 November 2009

Misc., Stitching

2 comments

Cross Stitch, Family, Finishes, Miss Crescent's Crowne, Thanksgiving, WIPs, With Thy Needle & Thread

Happy Thanksgiving!

For those of us in the United States, today is Thanksgiving Day. I know it can become so easy to get caught up in all the craziness of the day in prepping the big meal, watching all the football games, etc. However, it seems only fitting to really stop and take a moment to think about the things we are all thankful for today.

In that light, I just wanted to take a moment to let each of you know how very thankful I am to have you as readers here on my blog. Even though I’ve never met most of you in person, some of you have definitely become dear online friends over the years for which I am very grateful.

I also wanted to share with you with one of my favorite gratitude quotes:

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”
~John F. Kennedy

As a way of living my gratitude today, I’m off to volunteer with prep & cooking to help provide a nice Thanksgiving meal to some of those less fortunate in my area. I also want to encourage/challenge each of you to reach out and give back to others, either physically or financially, as a way of expressing your own gratitude for the good things in your own life.

Until next time … Happy Thanksgiving!