Neighborhood RR Block HD!

A month, it's been a month, a whole month I think since I've had a moment to visit the blogs. I haven't had anything very stitchy to share. Starting back to work has been just a crazy adjustment for my whole household and things are only just starting to become routine. Here is the block I stitched for Heather's RR. I had to laugh when I posted my pic to the Hello Neighbor blog and I saw Carol had stitched the same design (Patience by Little House Needleworks) for this round as well! I didn't have time to wait for a daylight picture, the fabric is such a pretty shade of gold IRL. Here is a picture of how it looks with the rest of the houses: I saw Von's square (above mine) and about fell out my chair. Being after Von is a lot of pressure :) I have no idea how to find designs like that! I hope you like it Heather! I had fun stitching it for you :) So the very latest with me, in as brief as I can possibly be, is that I quit my job... because I was offered the one that I really wanted. The one I came in second place for back at the end of August. I know lots of people do that and jump jobs but I am a creature of habit and shaking up my routine causes me a ton of anxiety! Monday I start at my new position (which has better hours, benefits, better salary, etc). I really haven't been getting much sleep or eating well or getting any time at the gym (*cry*) and I hope everything will level off once I get going at the new company. I miss you all and I am sure you are stitching like mad! I can't wait to see what you all have been up to.

Unstitchy Update!

I'm all finished with my first week of work and made it through my friends wedding yesterday so things have settled as far as that. Here's a picture of me and my Amanda dressed as bridesmaid and flower girl respectfully. I just love this picture and had to share. We are still dealing with the ongoing water issues. We've had the people out twice and at first they said it wasn't too bad, but the second trip they said the hardwood floors are probably ruined and the carpet might be as well. And of course all the drywall ceiling in our family room will probably need to be replaced. *sigh* It's all covered by homeowners thankfully but just a big headache. The anxiety with starting work has mostly subsided, I am happy to say. It's a lot of work getting all the girls out the door in the morning, but so far so good! Not much time for stitching this past week, but I think I'll have time this week! Happy stitching everyone :)

Will be MIA for the next few days...

Just a quick post to let you all know I'm going to be MIA for a little while. I started a new job (yay!) yesterday and have my friends wedding Friday-Saturday. On top of all of that, we had a terrible water leak in my house that caused major damage so we have been dealing with insurance companies and water damage companies too. Tonight I will be reworking my DD's flower girl dress and I may have time to post a pic or two of that if I get it done. Hope everyone is doing well!

Stitchy Progress (of some sort)

Look at this I have a real stitching pic. Here is my progress on White Christmas. I'm very excited to report that she has a head. :) My plan is to put her away in a couple of days and pick up Heather's RR. I did not have a good day yesterday. I had a second interview for a job that I really wanted and I got a call that I was the second choice for the position. I guess the "glass-is-half-full" in me says I should be proud at being the second choice out of dozens of applicants when I have no work experience to speak of more current than 5 years ago. I have another interview today to look forward to. Since then I've been moping applying for more jobs. When one door closes another opens, right? Thank you all for your nice comments about my tea dying! It was a lot easier than I thought and the fabric surprisingly doesn't smell like tea. One thing you may not know about me is that I am addicted to free samples. I found this free sample this morning for Folger's Gourmet Coffee and it had an option to post it to your blog so I thought I would pass it along. I swear, I get no kick back what so ever!

Adventures in Fabric Dying...

I've been having some finishing envy of late. Heather traded me for her Fancy That Snow Catchers chart which she so beautifully finished as a quilted wall hanging. The chart shows it stitched on stitchband and since I don't trust my own finishing abilities I dug through my stash and actually found some in the right width that would be perfect. Only one problem: It's white stitchband. White stitcheband + Snowmen = not so good. So I decided to tea dye the banding which was a much easier process than I thought it would be. Here's what I did: In the beginning, there was white fabric. Then I mixed up a brew of boiled water and assorted tea bags. First boil water then turn off heat and add tea bags. Let brew for at least 5 minutes until water is very dark brown. Remove tea bags and add fabric. I let my fabric soak for 1 hour. Remove fabric from pot with cooking tongs and rinse in cold water. I hung my fabric to dry and used clothepin weights so it would dry nice and flat. You could run it through the dryer to heat set it. It just happened to be 100 degrees today which I thought was plenty warm. My result is somewhere between GAST Oatmeal and standard Ecru. I was hoping for slightly darker and I will probably leave it in a bit longer the next time I attempt this. The pattern calls for Oatmeal colored snowmen so I'm going to stitch them with a whiter white instead. The other finish I have been envying is Jenna's Alyssum Scissor Pocket. I just purchased this pattern from her a couple weeks ago and I just love how pretty her's turned out. I think both of these would be great small take to work with me projects... if I can manage to find a job! Speaking of the job hunt, I have something lined up for tomorrow that I'm not going to talk too much about for fear of jinxing it. I've been stressing out about looking for a job and haven't been able to get to the gym (which is making me feel run down and cranky). Yesterday was a very busy day. My mother wanted to take the girls school shopping. So we all piled into my van and headed to Kohl's early in the morning for their Early Bird sale. Then lunch out and a trip to the BIG mall. Normally I really hate shopping at the mall, especially with the kids and especially at this particular mall because it is crowded but it wasn't too horrible. My poor mother spent a ton of money on the kids and they are mostly set in the clothing for school. Big financial load off of me--- thanks mom! After that my friend visited and I got to see her adorable daughter for the first time. Here is little baby Nyssa. Isn't she so cute? It was so nice to finally meet the baby! After all that, we had my other friend and her fiance over and we were just up talking for hours and before we knew it, it was almost 2am! A very long day indeed, but so much fun. Normally, DH and I are just hanging out by ourselves all weekend. LOL

More Freebies and Tutorial Links...

I don't really have a stitchy pic to share other than a bit of stash that wandered into my mailbox over the weekend: From Jenna at One Star's Light I picked up two of the LH/CCN chart packs and the Alyssum Scissor Pocket pack. I just LOVE how special Jenna makes the packages she sends out and the shipping prices are the best I have ever seen (less than $2 for my order to ship). And Heather and I did a quick trade for the Snow Catchers and Pumpkin charts. (Heather, your charts arrived the day I mailed mine so they are on the way!). If anyone else is interested in trading stash, my available charts are listed here. I know it says for sale, but I'd rather trade! Can't tell you how tickled I am to have this collection of charts. I want to start each and everyone right away! I do have some new tutorial sewing links to share so lets get right into that (most links courtesy of whip up). I think each of these has the potential to be a great x-stitch finish! How cute would this Mug Mat be for a coffee or tea lover? This snap box would be a cute stitchy finish. Another finish for a cross stitched piece: a fabric trim box. Zippered storage pouch. Baby Block Cube Tutorial. More Freebie Chart Links: Oh wow, I'm sure this one has been found before, but I love this french chart (pictured below) You can also find a large Quaker motif Chart at the same french site that has the above chart. This site (french) has a Heart of Hearts pattern and Alphabet Suite that are rather nice among others. This Tree Sampler (french) is amazing as is this stitching lady chart. Pages and pages of beautiful alphabets. I am severely restricted in my stitching time at the moment. I had my first interview yesterday in seven years and I feel like I prepared for it for days. Very nerve wracking indeed. The interview went well but the position isn't quite what I thought it would be so even if they offered me the job, I probably wouldn't take it. I have another interview set up for Thursday and I'm hopeful something will work out. A lot of my evening time is being spent looking for jobs and getting my resume out. Last night I did stitch for half a minute on White Christmas before I went back to the job hunt.

My First Pinkeep

The instructions were posted for this weekend's pinkeep class and I got right to work finishing the small Tulip Pynkeep freebie design I stitched earlier this week. Without further ado, my first pinkeep: I didn't have any fancy pins so I threaded some jade beads through regular straight pins and I love the sagey color with this design. The finished piece is about 2 x 3 1/2 inches. The instructions at Focus on Finishing were very clear, detailed and easy to follow. I'm definitely going to be participating in these tutorials in the future! Thanks Nicki and Focus on Finishing!

Neighborhood News

The last few days I have been furiously cleaning. Deep cleaning. The kind that requires throwing out bags full of accumulated stuff. It started because I looked into my closet and realized that I have nothing professional wear. The girls will all be in school this fall and the plan has been to go back to work full time so I have been applying for positions. Very exciting, but it has been 5 years since I've been a real working professional and none of my old work clothes fit (too big) or look really cheap and out dated. :( This process has left me rather in a frenzy. So there has not been much stitching done because I only allow myself stitch time when all else has been accomplished. *sigh* I did receive Heather's RR from Von in yesterday's mail so I can start on that when I find an appropriate design. I have no idea where to even begin! Just look at all the details Von stitched... wow! Heather's theme is farms and the like which is so cool, but I have no farm patterns so this might be just the excuse I need to make a trip to my LNS. :) I just saw the post from Margaret on the Neighborhhod blog that she finished stitching on my RR. Check out how pretty her square is! Both her and Dani finished their squares for my RR right away--- way ahead of the mailing deadlines (current deadline is Oct 1!). I have a couple neglected projects (White Christmas & Sampler GameBoard), Heather's RR, PIFs (still!), and the Birthday/Christmas club to get started, but do you know what I miss most? I so miss exchanges. I dropped from the boards when the RR started up to let others with a bit more time pop in. Exchanges really kept me stitching, kept me challenged and are so much fun!