Wow-wee What a great day....

First I stitched for a couple of hours.....always the preferred way to start the day.   Here is my progress on the six and final side of my etui.   This is the top.....

Our guild meeting was in part devoted to how to finish the etui.....this is going to be a daunting task.  Making it even more difficult is the little detail  that I put my assembling instructions someplace so safe that I can't find them.   Thank heavens for my stitching friend Pat.   She is copying the assembling instructions and will give them to me at our Secret Squirrel Stitchers get together (that is not the real name....it is the name Mr. Wonderful gave the group)  

So we all know that leads to two scenarios......first I will most assuredly find my finishing instructions on Friday right where I put them.    Second, it lead me to a craft sort this afternoon after I got home.   I was so sure I would find  my instructions so I had to look.  It didn't find them but it lead to more purging.   I did some kitting up of some NBS (never been started).   I know I will never get to some of the older patterns and I am thinking I will have to come up with some sort of giveaway once I get my extras in some sort of order.   So it was a good thing to have to look for directions and to thin out the stash at the same time.  It is also fun to rediscover your stash! 

Next, my little step-grandson stopped over on his way to his Blue and Gold Cub Scout Dinner.   I had never seen him in his uniform so of course that meant photos.  He is really enjoying Cub Scouts.   Many thanks and much appreciation to all those troop leaders out there. 

My husband did an upgrade to my laptop and it is running faster than ever and all spiffy with Windows 7. 

At my guild meeting today, I got my first copy of Inspirations.   WOW  What a great magazine and worth every penny.   I just did the first quick once over and know I will really enjoy looking at this magazine again and again.   It is a definite keeper. 

And now for the one SAL I can keep up with......the TUSAL or Totally Useless Stitch Along.  Here is my new moon status of my ort jar. 

And lastly, I did some greeting card making. I sat at the dining room table and assembled while my husband works on my laptop. Quality time!

All before dinner and more stitching time! 

Crafters are just the nicest people

Pardon the pun

but crafters are cut from a different cloth to be sure.  We have all known that friend or member of the women's club that has a recipe that we compliment.  What happens when you ask for the recipe?   Does she offer up her prize winning secret for her apple pie readily?   There may be promises of a recipe.  And sometimes you get the recipe but your version doesn't quite measure up when you prepare it.   Maybe an ingredient or step missing?  We all have suspected that.  Well, crafters are not the same.   A crafter loves to share her treasures, her websites for favorite stores, her trinkets, her joy in her craft, her techniques, her help, her time, her methods, her favorite store, her wisdom and her stash (well maybe I got carried away; maybe not her stash! lol).  

This is not limited to stitchers.   Crafters in general take so much pleasure in what they do that they want others to have the same pleasure and jump at the chance to share.   It just comes natural to us.   We know the effort that has gone into a project and we appreciate with a keener, non-critical eye.   We look on in awe and wonder.  Why, because we are not competitive.  Not competitive with each other but rather take pleasure in others success and accomplishment with a given craft. 

I am on this roll because of a RAK from someone I don't even know.    Let's see if I can explain......back to the purchase and gifting of the Big Shot dye cutter I bought my daughter for her birthday.   Since she was home for a visit, I gave it to her early.   She opens and I find out she already had one so I got to keep it.  (Yeah!)  When she returned home, she went to her card stamping group and was telling the demonstrator about my birthday gift to her.   Her demonstrator was all over it.   She emailed me "how to's", ideas, and more just so I could get the most out of my purchase which I had not even made from her; she was eager to share her crafting knowledge with me!   She sent me the latest catalogs in the us mail and some cards she made as well.    I did nothing but leaf through the catalog earlier tonight.   I turned down pages of must haves, like to haves, and neat ideas. 

Look at the trees on the left page of the catalog!  Too cute.   Now look at Selene's card.   Who'd of thought to put blue and purple together for a Christmas card?  Too pretty.     I love the Stampin' up papers.  Their colors are so pretty.   Check out the little gift card envelope Selene also included.   I feel like I want to stamp all day on Saturday and make a ton of cards!  Selene has already offered a girl's night of stamping the next time DD#1 and I visit DD#2.    Check out Selene's blog.   She has great ideas and easy to follow instructions.   I may even have to use her as one of Santa's Elves to help me with my Christmas shopping. 

On the stitchy side - I picked up my framed Jeannette Douglas Pineapple Stitches.   Had to take the shot at that angle to not have a big old glare spot!   The outer mat is in the olivey family and the inner mat is purple!  The framer was surprised that I wanted to see the purple until we laid it next to the piece.   He said he hadn't even seen the purple stitches until we placed the mat.   I wanted something different.   I am not sure where I am hanging it.   I had plans to line the walls of my dining room with samplers but since my stitching has to be as slow as blue mud that will never happen. 

(look at all the page corners I have turned in the Stampin up catalog Selene sent me!)

Blogoversary! - I will be putting all the names in the hat on Turkey Day and letting you know who the winner is by the end of the day!   Good luck all....down to the wire on getting your name in the hat.

African Update and Birthday Present

Spoke with my eldest daughter and she has been able to talk to her husband.   He has ascended and descended Mt. Kilomanjiro.   He is apparently a legend in Arusha for some unknown reason.   Maybe they consider him that crazy american?  He is back in Arusha and prepping to leave tomorrow for Amsterdam for his connecting flight back to the US.   Asked what the next mountain he will climb is his reply was....he doesn't think he will climb again for a while.   We both think it is the exhaustion talking.   He will be planning his next (his second) climb probably before he lands back in the USA.   It may not be year or two but I bet he does it again.  I can't wait to see him, hear the stories and see the photos.

Since my other daughter was home for a family funeral, I gave her her birthday present rather than having to making it at the end of the week.    Well before she opened all the way, she said......"You didn't get me a Big Shot, did you?"  Yes, of course I did.   I introduced her to Stampin Up and card stamping last year on a visit home.   She now meets regularly with a group near her and is even in a club,  She told me all about SplitCoasters.com and puts me to shame with all the new and different stamping techniques she has learned and made.   So guess what, she already has one.   Well, there is no dilemma.  I wanted one but wouldn't spend the money on myself for one.  Sure, I'd spend it on my kids....you know how that goes.   I am excited.   We went to Joanne's yesterday afternoon and got a couple fo Sizzix dyes and played last night.   I need to stitch for next couple of nights to make up for lost time but will have to make up some Christmas Cards this weekend.    As for my daughter's birthday, looks like I am buying her a new jacket.   All's well.  I was secretly happy that I had picked out something that she liked....afterall she had already bought one which proves it.

For those who asked.....here is my Big Shot ......  It is a tool for card cutting and more.   You can cut fabric, paper, tin, felt.   It consists of a platform and a roller you crank your dies through.   

It is hard to see here, but this is the general deal.   You have two lucite plates.  Between the plates you sandwich your paper and the die.   Of course, don't be silly, yes they are sold separately.     

You then feed this 'sandwich' through the machine and it does the rest.

You get a perfect cut, everytime.

Stampin Up has some really cool dies.   I of course coudn't wait to mail order one and we ran to Joanne's to buy a couple.   Staying with the season, I got the christmas tree and the snowflake.     I especially like the little gift tags and the little favor boxes that Stampin Up offers.   It is perfect for those times you want to mass produce. 

Good Stuff x's two or more!

Today was double, maybe even a triple great day. First I went to a Stampin Up event with my daughter and her friend Val. It was great. Val was the total newbie not only to Stampin but to being crafty. Well shall we say, she's hooked. The stamp set that was featured was one that I wouldn't have looked at twice at in the catalog. As always the demonstrators are too too clever. Their displays of other cards and items left us all inspired to come home and stamp-a-stack. Talk about organized! I think I am organized but they make the best of us look shabby. They must all take Organization 101, 102, 103 AND 104!

This one is my favorite - I love the color combination.

This was neat too. I'd be happy to get this as a Thanksgiving Day card.

What a lovely gift this little greeting card pocketbook could make. A great teacher's gift with little note cards, etc.

Not too sure about this one. The technique was cool but the card left little area to write a message.

While I was out crafting my hubbie went out and brought me a new laptop. My old one was 4 or 5 years old and I have been very frustrated all summer with the slowness, the crashing, and so on. I even fried the fan and overheated it last year. I use my laptop alot! It travels will me. I am on the internet far more hours than I care to admit. As with any new toy, I have sat here for the last hour moving files into folders and just plan navigating about the system. Got some cool new programs and a cool new shiney screen. MS Notebook! I hope I have this at work because it will make my job easier! I need to log onto MS Tuturials to check it out.

Now I am up to number three fabulous things that happened today....I took a nap. Silly as that may seem, I am not a nap taker. I don't take naps. Naps are for silly, frilly, frou-frou girlie women. Not that naps are a bad thing but I never had the priviledge of the time to be able to take a nap. Three kids to run after, followed by entering the world of work and being on every school and community committee that comes down the pike...who could nap? But today, I threw myself across the sofa, with the sliding glass door open and birds singing and took a nap. It was good!

Finally, I thought I had lost my instructions for my Petit Sampling Etui. I looked high and low for the last couple of days and could not find my instructions ANYWHERE!! I had pages 1, 4, 6 and 7 of 13 with my WIP stitching but was missing all the other pages. I was one day away from emailing the director of my guild and throwing myself on her mercy to make me copies of her instructions all the while having to admit I must be a scatterbrain. ..

So you know how it is when you look for something? You look and look in the same place KNOWING what you are looking for IS there. Again and again you go to the same place and what you need it is not there. As I walked through my family room I see on the bottom of the pile mail and filing on my desk the blue guild folder where I keep the instructions. I swear I looked there previously. But all is well. My instructions are back in my hot little stitching hands.  Here's the pic of my status with the instructions *neatly* in the background............

Perhaps the stress of realizing I was not the Queen of Organization that I thought I was was too much and is why I took a nap.

Slow Progress

I just haven't been able to get in any solid stitching time lately. I need one of those good ole uninterrupted Saturday afternoons of nothing but stitching. Seems like I sit down to stitch after everything calms down in the evening and I quickly fall asleep with needle in hand and only a dozen stitches complete. I take my needlework to work everyday on the chance I take some lunch hour time to stitch a bit. I do manage to stitch once or twice week that way but again only for too few minutes. hmmmm, sounds like it is time for a needlework retreat.

My stitchers group is having a retreat the first weekend in October but unfortunately I never signed up. I am regretting not signing up and can't for the life of me think why I didn't. All is not lost, I am going to a Stampin Up all day workshop so that is good. Better yet, my daughter is going with me. Last year both daughters went and my New Englander became a quick addict to Stampin Up. She returned to New England and found demonstrators in her area and quickly has become one of their regulars at their weekly SAL's.




So progress......as you can see I haven't made much. And as you can see, I got bored with working on side three of my etui and decided to do a bit on the bottom section. I figured since there was less to stitch on the bottom I would see faster progress. The old divert your attention to something else trick!

Stampin Up

Like I need another craft!



What cute cute cute stuff these demonstrators do. One of the girls at work is a demonstrator. Every other month she has a class in our lunch room after work.