I’ll cross that stitch when I come to it

…what have I been doing? Well, we’ve been decorating

Believe me, it’s a lot tackier in person , but it has made giving directions to the house a lot easier… “Yup, turn left into the subdivision. See that jumble of lights in the back? Just drive towards it…” Now, the inside isn’t anywhere near as ready as the outside - the main Christmas tree is still missing ornaments and a tree topper, so I still have a lot of work to do before Christmas.

While I was sitting in front of the computer and finishing up addressing my Christmas cards (eek, I know, I’m late!), I figured I’d offer to send a card to anyone who wants one. Just email me, or leave me a comment and I’ll email you for your address.

is Nicola! I’ll be contacting you soon

Thank you to everyone who entered, especially the new people I haven’t “met” before. I plan on stopping by all your blogs soon, if I haven’t already.

Sorry for the complete disappearance - I had some personal problems that have really been keeping me away from blogging and stitching. I’m slowly working my way back through my 400 emails and bajillions of blogs on bloglines… I’ll be doing the drawing tonight for my blogiversary contest

So, I’ve been trying to organize my cross stitch stash lately. Part of this stems from moving into the new house and finally having space to organize everything. The other part comes from the realization that I shouldn’t *need* a big house to store my stash, and that I probably have too much. Therefore, I should resolve to stop buying stash…..for a while at least.

I decided to start with my collection of magazine because, intellectually, I knew I had a lot of magazines. The problem all started with a lovely shop in upstate NY called Craft Bits and Pieces. It’s a thrift store specifically for crafts, and it sells cross stitch magazines for 10 cents a piece. I used to go there pretty much every other weekend and drop $5 on magazines. Which, you know, starts to add up, and I had accepted the fact that I had a lot of magazines.

It’s one thing to know it and another to see it spread out across the floor of your office

The worst part? I know there’s a box or two that I haven’t unpacked yet. And this is just one of the many reasons why I never need to buy stash again for as long as I live

Did you notice? I missed it, too! My 2 year blogiversary was on the 30th of October! In recognition of that momentous event, I’m holding a contest. Leave a comment below, and this Sunday I’ll pick out someone to receive a little stitched giftie from me. I don’t know what yet, because I haven’t made it, but hopefully it will be super awesome

Go on, leave a comment, you know you want to!

Things never go quite as planned, do they? Glenn was scheduled to go back to PA last Thursday morning to coordinate moving the rest of my stuff from the storage unit to NC. I was supposed to stay home and try to finish unpacking / cleaning / watching over the kitties (did I mention we had just gotten a new cat?). Plans changed, however, and I ended up going along on the trip. I got a ton of stitching and reading done in the car, but I also forgot to mail my Fair and Square exchange ahead of time (sorry again, Darla and Vonna!). Things went well, including running into Glenn’s childhood best friend by accident - who just happens to fly into the airport by our house every month or so - and stopping at an Ikea on the way home (yay! spice rack!). The bad news is that we now have until Saturday to get the house ready for the rest of the furniture and boxes. Besides that, I’m also trying to finish up the Neighborhood RR, going to work, and just trying not to go insane

I’m awfully behind on reading and commenting on blogs, and my email. Plus, I have a ton of pictures and other updates…. which I will hopefully write up and post soon

Awhile ago, the wonderful and talented Monique tagged me to tell seven facts about myself. So here goes! I did this awhile back in May, too, so you can take a look at those.

1. I hate onions - I’ll eat them if they’ve been diced up teeny-tiny, and I don’t mind onion powder, but I refuse to eat big globs of onions. My parents used to think I’d grow out of it. I didn’t. This is a warning to parents everywhere

2. I hoard cross stitch magazines. Even if there’s not a single pattern in there I think I’ll ever do… especially older ones, as some of the ads are insanely funny.

3. I like Pepsi better than Coke. I like Diet Coke better than Diet Pepsi. At a restaurant, I’ll normally end up drinking water because of this.

4. I can read a 200-ish page paperback in about 2 hours. This makes going to the library very much worth my while

5. Speaking of my library card, though it is one of my most treasured possessions, I am constantly misplacing it. Bottom of my purse, under the brake pedal of the car, in the lint trap-thingy of the clothes dryer…

6. I firmly believe that that cupcakes taste better than a normal cake made with the same recipe. This should be a law of physics, though we’d probably have to find a better name than Lauren’s Cupcake Law.

7. We’ve been in the house for 1 month and 3 days, and the kitchen still isn’t fully unpacked.

Alrighty, hopefully a more stitching related post soon!

Cheryl and Sharon recently (ok, not THAT recently) gave me the You Make Me Smile aware. Awww, thanks so much!

The rules are that you have to give it to 10 people who make you smile…

so

1 & 2 are right back atcha, Cheryl and Sharon! Is that allowed? I’m not sure, but, gosh, they make me smile in return

3. The Crafty Gryphon, who I like to pretend has more UFOs and WIPs than me. (emphasis on pretend)

4. Jean

5. StitcherW

6. Hannah, even though I keep wincing because her exchange is so incredibly late

7. Anne

Err, this is hard just picking out people. So, the last three spots go to everyone else who reads my blog, and especially to those that comment, because I get so excited every time someone comments (I know, cheap thrills, huh?)

I haven’t been posting much because I’ve had a nasty headache that just wouldn’t go away. I finally decided to stay home, sleep in, and work from home today, and, lo and behold, it’s finally mostly gone! I chalk it all up the massive amount of kitty cuddles I got today

In the meantime, I’ve finished a project, took tons of pictures of my stash (pics soon!), and generally wished that it would start acting like Autumn, for gosh sakes. Here it is nearly November, and we *still* have temperatures regularly in the 80s.

I hope everyone else is enjoying some autumnal fun

Here’s what I’ve been stitching on mostly.

This is Just Nan’s Ghoulies and Ghosties. This is actually the first JN chart I’m stitching for myself I’ve been having a lot of fun with this - it’s DMC on 28ct linen, so it’s not something I have to concentrate too much on. That’s a good thing, because it’s been one of those awful weeks at work. I am ever so happy that it’s Friday tomorrow, and I’m really looking forward to hopefully going to the State Fair this weekend. Plus, ya know, working on the many exchanges and such that I *should* be working on. On that front, I have what I’m going to stitch for my Fair & Square partner picked out, so I hope to start that this weekend. For Hannah’s long overdue exchange, I need to find my sewing machine. I *think* it’s buried in the garage…. somewhere. I’ve decided the main chart I’m going to base the next RR square after and now I just need to graph it up and make sure it fits well in the space allowed. And then, after all that’s done? It’ll be well past time to start Christmas presents ! Ah well, at least I can’t complain about being bored!

I’m going to try to get more pictures of the house this weekend, so you can see the slightly-less-boxes decorating style we’ve got going on now I hope everyone has a good end to their week!

Another SBQ:

How did you get started stitching? Was there a person that inspired you?

My mother knitted, and my mom and grandma both did quilting and basketweaving, but neither were into cross stitching. I did do some plastic canvas when I was very young, which they both encouraged, and I always liked doing crafty things, but I never found a craft that I could stick with for very long. I started stitching with a cheap little elephant kit from Joann’s in my second year of college. Since then, there’s been no looking back!