Wednesday, September 29, 2010

It's Time to Decorate (and to show some stitching too!)

Let's start on the front porch... not a whole lot going on there this year. But it wouldn't be Halloween without this witch and owl wallhanging I made back in 2000. It is one of my absolute favourite pieces and I look forward to putting it out by my front door this time every year.


Here's another little wall hanging I stitched with another witch and owl on it (plus a black cat thrown in the mix!)... along with a cute vintage looking sign that Bonnie gave each of the 3 of us last Halloween time (thanks Bonnie!)

Step inside and you will get your first glimpse of our newly renovated "sitting room". It's been a long process and there's still a bit more to do, but you get the idea. Once it's totally complete, I will show more with the before and after pics. For this posting I mainly wanted to share my fall/ Halloween decorating ideas.

I knew when I saw this Bent Creek pattern I just had to stitch it! Who hasn't hollered out this phrase while hurrying down the street on Halloween night, excited to see what goodies were waiting for you at your next stop? Oh, how I miss those days!


This little pumpkin man carrying his Jack-O-Lantern was a birthday gift a few years back (thanks Jody!). He looks right at home perched on top of a pile of chestnuts, with a few fall leaves mixed in... along with beautiful gold coloured curtains as the perfect backdrop which were made for me by another member of our little group (thanks Anita!).


Ghouls Night Out was sure a fun, quick stitch! It was the first time I had ever tried Vicki Clayton's hand-dyed silk threads
(Fool's Gold & Primitive Black) What a treat! I will definitely be using these lovely threads again!


I have to thank our talented contractor for thinking to put this ledge above the closet he installed.
Not only is there room to display my goodies, but he also thought to put rope lighting along the back of it and also hooked it up to the light switch! You can't tell in this pic, but at night it just gives a really nice glow to the space :^)


I've really had fun decorating for the fall season for the first time in this new room. I've really loved checking out a lot of your other blogs for inspiration too. Seems like I'm not the only one who gets so much joy from this beautiful time of year!

Tracey

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Summer?? Fall??

That's the question many of us were asking here today as we enjoyed summer like temperatures, even with the first day of autumn being just a couple of days away.

As humans, we were thrilled to be basking in the sunshine...
where as our four legged friend Willow was probably thinking, I much more prefer to go on my walk when the weather is much cooler than this!


What's not to love when you see a blue sky like this, with those fluffy cotton like clouds?


As I wandered around my gardens tonight, I picked those last few roses to bring inside and enjoy as the days get shorter and we need something to brighten our day.



As I was out on the road last week, I couldn't help but snap a picture of this amazing sunset.


No matter what the season, there always seems to be something to look at that makes us smile :^)


Tracey

Friday, September 17, 2010

Look out Martha!

Today I decorated... And in record time.
This pumpkin topiary took me a total of 4.5 minutes and that included removing the pumpkins from out of the van and then ripping the price tags off the leaf picks.
That's right my friends, Martha has met her match.




Meet The Gourds

Isn't it sweet how they watch over their young one?
I love how the baby looks up to mommy and daddy.
I think mamma could use a little Mary Kay moisturizer though....



The entire ensemble....


What a gorgeous day it was today.
Now if I could only find the ambition to cut the grass....

Bonnie

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Go BIG or stay at home...

When Tracey first offered to teach me how to cross stitch 18 years ago, she left me with some pattern books to decide what I would like to learn on. On her next visit, I showed her the design I wanted to do. It was of a Victorian style angel's head and wings. Pretty intricate, lots of detailing, back stitching, 1/4 and 3/4 stitches etc. She kept insisting, "Are you sure you don't want to try to learn on something simpler?" Nope, I'm good. I had no problem catching on and quite loved the challenge.

As years went by I chose such projects as large pieces that were 'stitched over two' (that one took me 5 years, but I was in college at the time so that's my excuse - we'll show that picture closer to Christmas...). I even chose a pattern of a little girl in a dress and I really didn't like the colours in the dress so I changed the pattern. I simply laid out all the colours of the dress that the pattern called for in the corals and oranges and then I laid out all my blue colours beside each one and found the right shades and tones to correspond. Then I just replaced the number beside the original colour. Easy. I'm sure you've all done it.

Let's not forget the MAX Kit with the multitude of shades (light green gray, lighter green gray, lightest green gray, light green moss gray, lighter green moss gray, lightest green moss gray etc).

To top that all off my Labour of Love photo stitch that took me a little over 197 hours to complete; it was a lovely photo of a couple that I gave to them as a wedding gift and ....they are now divorced. I have the picture back and I'm studying it to see if I can RIP him OUT of the picture. I'm undecided about that as yet???

Recently took part in a Secret Sister Cross Stitch Exchange and one of my gifts was a gift certificate to 1-2-3 Stitch. I had a blast shopping on that site. Oh and Jayne...your Heaven and Earth 'Xmas" (snowman and little girl) inspired me to choose something similar. I chose 'Dear Santa'; it's adorable. See the photo below of what it will look like once complete.

However, even though I love challenges - I confess I nearly fainted when I saw that there are 20+ pages of pattern graphs. (Small pattern graphs I might add.) I'm really going to have to study this before I begin working on this project. I'm curious to see how long this picture will take me. I plan to log my hours ... you know... just for the fun of it. There are over 90 different colours in this pattern and I think I watched 2 or 3 movies while I wound the floss to "kit-up" my project.

I think I'll head to the lottery store now for a ticket. One that will go BIG so I can stay at home!


Dear Santa


Christmas 2016

Christmas 2016 was held at Jody's this year and we were lucky we had good weather for our travel eastbound.  If there is going to be a...