TUSAL ~ May 2013

Friday was another new moon, so you know what that means, right?  Yup, I'm late for another TUSAL posting! 
There's not a lot...  the last month consisted of the end of tax season, and there wasn't a whole lot of stitching going on in that crazy work month!

But, there was a little, and a little more since...  I'm doing a mini happy dance, PAGE ONE IS DONE!!!

The last little bit of that wing detail just about killed me...  there was about 6 or 7 colors that only had one stitch on this page, and I found them all at the end!  Took me about 2 hours last night to finish all the little leftover confetti stitches, but boy oh boy, was I ever a happy girl at bedtime! 

Four and a half months, that's what it took me to complete page one.  At this rate, the projected Happy Dance for the entire piece is slated for Spring of 2022, wow!  The bright side is that it will be closer to my daughters 30th birthday then her 50th that she's teasing me about ;)

Pattern Searching...

I found out today that a very close friend of mine will be moving away.  Her husband accepted a job transfer to the States, she will be leaving sometime after school's out at the end of June.  I'm crushed.  She's crushed.  We cried.  We wiped each other's tears & hugged.  Jeez, I sound so dramatic, but we're sad... :(

So, I want to make her something, hopefully before they go.  So I have about 6 weeks I think.  Does anyone have any ideas of a good friendship pattern?  Ornament, pinkeep, maybe a box topper.  Smallish in size so I can have a chance of finishing it before they leave.  I'm going to dig through the crap craft room this weekend.  The plan was to work on setting that room up some, but I'm thinking this is more important!

IHSW ~ April 2013

Here we are, already the third weekend of the month again!  This weekend was IHSW and it's time to share some pics...

I forgot to take a before pic, but the picture from the last post was close to where I started.  The darker gray from the side of the wing was further down when I started this weekend. 

And this is where I ended up when I put away my needle tonight.

 

Page 1 is so close to a finish!  But I don't think it will be able to happen before the end of the month.  I realized that I'm missing two colors...  I have no idea how that happened, I was sure I had them all.  And since it's the last week of tax season I probably won't have a chance to get out and get them until the 1st. 

 

I hope the sun is shining in your neck of the woods, it sure hasn't been a lot here lately!  Yesterday when I left work it was snowing & blowing like crazy, it was so cold!  The sun was shining out today, it ended up being a really nice day, but the forecast is calling for snow next weekend again, it's just crazy!  Stay warm friends :)

TUSAL ~ April 2013

Late last night I realized that I never posted my TUSAL jar this week...  I promise I will be on time for the party one of these days!

It's hard to see much of a difference, I still need to find a different container.  But you'll see from the pic below that there has been some stitchy progress!

It's full blown tax season right now. I've been working every day, and that's likely how it will go for the rest of the month...  I've been trying to get in at least one thread length a day and most days that's been happening.  This picture was taken before last nights stitching, so there's a little more wing detail now too :)  I'm loving working on my first HAED, fingers are crossed that it stays that way!

And here's a little Sheila puppy love for all of you, I love her smile :)

Wishing you all a great Monday!

IHSW ~ March 2013

Last weekend was the third instalment of the IHSW for the year, and even though I had a really busy weekend, I managed to get a decent amount of stitching done. 

before the weekend

and after

I think the only reason I was able to make such decent progress it because all of the stitching was one color and just filling in the blank spots..  But guys, I'm really getting tired of that DMC 415! haha!

The weekend was really good, spent lots of time with my oldest girl...  we went to a concert with a group of gals on Saturday night and then to the hockey game on Sunday night.  Good times had by all :)  Want to know the best part of the weekend???  I got asked to show my ID four times Saturday night!!!  Made my day! Never mind that, it made my whole year!!  LOL

Another weekend is almost here already, I swear all I do is blink and another week has gone by.  First day of spring yesterday and you'd never know it here...  We've been hit with a snowstorm, predicting 10cm to fall today!  Yikes!

TUSAL ~ March 2013

Perpetually late, as always!  I just can't seem to post a TUSAL report on time!

As you can see, I still haven't managed to find a decent jar for my orts...  stitching all of these greys and similar colors on my HAED makes it look like there hasn't been much added to the pot, but with only doing over one stitching I don't think there really has been!
I cheated a little though, I have to admit...  the blue threads you see were found in the laundry and I dropped them in my ort pot while folding ;)

I have made some pretty good progress on Butterfly Ballerina Blue since my last photo.  I would love to be able to finish page 1 by the end of the month!

This weekend is IHSW, but according to my calendar there won't be a whole lot of hermitting going on for me...  but I'm hoping I can squeeze some time to sit in my comfy spot & relax with needle & thread :)

Enjoy the rest of your week friends, it's almost Friday!

A win & a couple of hats

Sometimes I find the hardest thing about posting here can be coming up with a title for the post...  seems silly to me, but it's true!  Anyone else?

A couple of weeks ago I received a package in the mail with these two cute charts :)

I was lucky to be the winner of the Shepherd's Bush portion of Melissa's January giveaway!  I haven't stitched a SB pattern before, this snowman fob drew me right in!  And the scissors are very cute too!  Thanks Melissa!

I crocheted a couple of hats last month for Ethan and my dad, those bald heads needed something to help keep them warm!

Ribbed Hat

free pattern by Bernat {here}

details on my Ravelry page

And a not so great pic of the two of them sporting their hats after a Rush game for Hair Massacure!

 

Lookin' good! ;o)

 

I started a new crochet project tonight, the Diamond Crochet Cowl and I love how it's turning out!  It's working up so quickly, and I love me some instant gratification!

 

Are up on Ravelry?  I've just started using it a little more, helping me to track my crochet projects better.  And helping enable me to add more projects to the never ending to-do list!  So many projects and so little time!

 

Well, in the blink of an eye it's Sunday night already.  I hope you all had a fantastic weekend and wishing you a fabulous week ahead!  G'night :)



IHSW ~ February 2013

This last weekend was the third weekend of the month, bringing us another IHSW (International Hermit and Stitch Weekend) hosted by Joysze.  It was a long weekend here, although I don't know that it meant anything for me, I worked Sunday morning & all day Monday!  My busy season has begun :S

I worked a bit on Butterfly Ballerina Blue... 

before

after

I was thinking that there wasn't as much progress as it looks like to me now, yay!  I guess I did manage to fit in a fair amount of stitching time :)  Maybe by the end of 2013 I'll get to the end of page one! 

A question for HAED stitchers ~ I'm stitching 1 over 1 on 25ct, but just realized that the pattern says 2 strands...  how do you stitch your HAEDs?  I think I have adequate coverage, especially since so far it's been mainly only lighter grays that I've been stitching and it seems ok, so I'm thinking maybe that will just matter if you're stitching on a darker fabric?  Any thoughts?

Happy Wednesday!

Hair Massacure 2013

Friday was Hair Massacure Day!  I had so much fun working at the event all day, it was a very rewarding experience.  I was placed at the pre-registration table with a friend of mine, we were blessed to be able to chat with all of the participants that came through, except for the large teams and schools.  We loved it their and told the event organizers that we'll sign a lifetime contract to work the front table! We were there from 8am - 9pm and the day just flew by!

It was a very rewarding and emotional day.  We met people who have lost loved ones and were participating in their memory, survivors, individuals battling right now and others who just want to give.  One lady walked in and donated 18.5 inches of hair!   

 

One girl that stands out in my mind ~ she was about 15 with beautiful, curly, auburn hair down to her waist.  She had raised money (if memory serves me right it was over $3,000!) and was there to donate her hair and shave her head.  Her parents and four of her friends were with her for support.  She came back to see us with her beautiful bald head afterwards and she was just glowing!  She was so happy that she could do this in order to help someone else feel beautiful when they're going through these struggles.  Her smile never left her face all day! 

 

Later in the afternoon my dad and Ethan showed up for their turn in the shave pit. 

They were seated in chairs side by side, with the rest of the family watching behind them (Ethan's great-grandparents are in the top left corner of the picture above!).

One of my favorite shots of Ethan, he looks so deep in thought!

And my dad smiled the WHOLE TIME!!!

The first impressions of their bald heads!!  Dad looked in the mirror and yelled "Mussolini!" Haha!

My dad's hat with the slogan "This is how we fight!".

And Ethan's glitter tatoo with the Hair Massacure logo...  these were fun!

And finally, a photo of my two "proud victims"! 

I'm so glad Ethan was able to share this experience with his Opa. Thanks Dad for being such a great role model!

We thank everyone so much for their support of these two with their 2013 Hair Massacure adventure ~ they raised $2,902 in pledges for the event, surpassing their goal of $2,500!!!

**You can see our family's participation with the event over the years here!

TUSAL ~ February 2013

It's TUSAL time again!  I don't know about you, but for me it feels like all I do is blink and it's time to post our orts again ;o)

I don't think you can see a whole lot of difference in my container from last time.  There has been some stitching, I'm about 1/2 way done the first page of my HAED.  But those itty bitty stitches don't use up a lot of floss!  And I probably should get a new jar, a clear one that you can see from the side like I used to have. 

I put the stitching aside for a little bit over the last week and picked up hook & yarn.  There will be some bald heads around me very soon that will need keeping warm, hat #1 has been completed & hat #2 is about halfway done.  But with only 3 more sleeps until the big shave I better get a move on!

What have you been working on?