Stashin'! My DSDUCJ/FC2015 List, aye caramba!

After some brain storming, calculations, and substitutions (a lot), I present to you my Debbie's Super Duper Ultimate Crazy Jan/Feb Challenge 2015 list! Embarrassingly enough, all of this is and was from my Stash, yikes! I did buy 80-some skeins of DMC, and a few batches of fabric but I didn't go on a huge buying spree. So lets start:

Better With a Cupcake-Amy Bruecken

Fresh Fallen Snow-JCS  '11 pg. 35 

Christmas Pear-Samplers & Santa's '12 pears

Fancey Blacketts Brooms-Pineberry Lane

Promise Me-LizzieKate 

Miss Baxter's House-Pineberry Lane

Holiday Samplings II-Homespun Elegance

Calico Heart-Notforgotten Farm

Trick or Treat-Praiseworthy Stitches JCS Halloween '12 pg. 101

Without a Mouse-BBD

Hats off to Halloween-LizzieKate 

Ambiance Automnale-Danybrod

Salem Sisters-PSS

Let it Snow-JCS Ornie '08 pg. 43

Flowers for a Friend-Giulia Punti freebie

Joy to the World-JCS Ornie '12 pg. 41

Majestic Bird-JCS Ornie '13 pg. 20

Ghoul Tidings-PSS JCS Halloween '13 pg.51

Autumn Delights-CS&ND Nov. '13

Blackbird-BBD

The Journey-LHN

Autumn Leaves-JCS Sept./Oct. '12 pg. 33

White Jack o'Lantern  ""     ""           pg. 44

Christmas Visit-Butternut Road

Jingle Bells-Brenda Gervais

Halloween Revelry-JCS Halloween Sept./Oct. '09 pg. 56

Harvest Pinkeep-Early Workings

Santa's Hat-JCS Ornie '12 pg. 60

Salem Hollow-Pamela Dervaitis

Emmanuel-PSS freebie

Lady Rachel Ruth-Scattered Seed Samplers

This is all just for January. I'll have the list up for February later on. As you can see, I have some freebies and ornaments in there so I won't go totally bonkers! Can you tell I like Halloween? Lol. I have two BAPs in this month also but the rest are mostly medium to small size. The Danybrod design will be my first stitch of 2015. Two years ago, I joined the Yahoo group for the Crazy January starts. I pretty much kept to a schedule of what I was going to stitch and when but for 2015 I will just wing it! Whatever I feel like at the time. I'm so looking forward to this and I'm having startitis right now!

I left Stitch from Stash in October to get ready for the Super Duper and I'm not returning in 2015. So I stashed! From my favorite shop http://needlecraft-corner.com/index.html

Here's what I bought..

It felt so good to stash without reservations! The two Notforgotten designs, the Chessie & Me Little Halloween kit, and The Pamela Dervaritis pfd were not bought at Needlecraft Corner, the rest were. All on sale at half off. The Glendon Place design called Red Velvet Cake is my favorite as Red Velvet Cake is my favoritest cake of all. It's a BAP for sure at 17 x17 finished, I believe. Rebecca by La D Da, was a temptation on a SFS post early this year, finally got her! I'm looking forward to starting some of these next year too.

In the coming weeks, I'm going to do a re-cap of the finishes I had, February's Crazy starts, and the big one-What I spent while on SFS! It was still huge, lol!

Take care you all and don't forget about the Giveaway in the last post. It will end tonight at a minute before Midnight Arizona time!

Dreaming of Ornaments

Dream: This woman calls me up and asks where is my payment for stitched ornaments I bought from her. I said I must've forgot. Meanwhile I'm wracking my brain trying to remember how and why did I buy cross stitched ornaments. While I'm doing this, her supposed son gets on the phone and asks me about the truck stops in and around Phoenix.

What??!

I woke up at that point! After I woke up, I was trying to think if I forgot to pay someone for something! It was just a dream because #1-I can stitch and finish my own ornaments! I wouldn't buy any from anyone. #2-No one but friends and relatives, know what my cell phone # is. Heck, sometimes I can't even remember mine! I'm blaming this wacko dream on the pizza we ate last night!

The last post I showed Angel Abode, my latest finish. I decided to make her into a cube:

Can you see the sparkles on the ribbon? I think I found this ribbon either at Michaels or Hobby Lobby. I wanted a toned down look that went with the colors of the design. The stripes in the side and backing fabric are blue, so it goes with the tree vase in the design. I wanted another wider ribbon to go below the skinnier one but couldn't find anything. Get a load of the top ribbon. Isn't it nice? Here's a closer look:

It looks linen-y, right? I attached it with the white pearly pins and the little bells. I still have yet to buy the little rubber footsies that I use for feet. Those same rubber thingys are more to project your walls from framed items. The styrofoam I used for my last cube was already pre-formed, it came that way. I bought the styrofoam for this one and had to cut it and sand the sides to get it to look right. Ugh. That took some work not to mention the mess! It was worth it though.

Pretty isn't it? Well, I bought the one on the left. It's a thread organizer with lots of holes. I see lots of these wooden thread organizers but a lot only have 4 or 5 holes. I first saw wood items like these over at Plum Street Sampler in her photos of the last Market. I'm scrolling through thinking I want this, I want that, when I see wood thread organizers but there is no mention of who made them. Another picture shows a hand needleminder, I think, and on it is the manufacturer name! So a little research on the WWW, and I found them! Here's the link if you want to check their things out-

http://www.retromanticfripperies.com/

So where am I going with this?!

GIVEAWAY!!!!! A WOODSY GIVEAWAY!!!

In celebration of my 4th Blogaversary on the 20th or 21st. It's Woodsy because of the Knotty Kitten wood thread

organizer above and another item in the giveaway, everything has to do with trees and Christmas.

I just hope everything is not so blurry on your side. I still have to get a few more things but so far we have enough 

28ct fabric to stitch two of the big JBW trees, the overdyes to stitch them, DMC Christmas colors, socks, a 

writing pad, a kitchen towel, and the other wood item, a start gauge I call it. I'm a middle starter but every now and

then I'll start at the upper left. This gauge has a mark, the holes, to measure out 2, 2.5, and 3 inches from edge in

to leave enough fabric for framing. I have one but haven't used it just yet. I'll be remedying that in January!

The mitten organizer (and more for myself!) won't be shipped until 1 more week so I'm doing this now. Here's the

rules: Must be a Follower. If you've been lurking here by using bookmarks, become a follower and have a chance!

I'll ship Only to: US, CANADA, AND the UK. A winner in the UK may not receive this until afterwards due to our crazy

seasonal mailing frenzy! FYI!  Easy enough I think. Nothing like my other complicated giveaways! Be sure to be 

a Follower, get your comment in that you'd love a chance by 11:59 p.m. Arizona time on December the 13th 

and I'll draw a name on Sunday the 14th!

I am still gathering supplies for the DUCJC2015. A few more DMCs, fabric. I can't wait! I'm going to try to stay up

past midnight to get my first stitch on! Between now and then, I'll have pictures of the WIPs I'm including, the BAPs

I'm starting, and an entire list of what I'll be working on for 59 straight days. Madness!

Off to buy a tree and more ornaments! I'm hoping this doesn't happen-

Take care!

A Christmas finish, lots of DMC cardboard winding!

Here's the result of my Black Friday shopping!

Two years ago, my daughter and I decided to do Black Friday. To make a long story short, we got home a little after 1 a.m. after standing in line at two stores for what seemed like 4 hours! Never again I said! Back to this year. I went to Michael's at 11 a.m. with a 25% off entire order coupon and a list of DMC numbers and there were a lot! 58 skeins to be exact. The week before, I had bought 30something skeins. The picture above is what 58 skeins looks like. The poor lady at the checkout counter, I felt sorry for. But she managed to beep every skein in short order!

Just a few minutes ago I finished this..

Isn't it cute? This is Angel Abode by Goodflora Stitchwort. I'm thinking flat ornament for this with the fabric, ribbon, and pins shown. The designer is based in the UK. I found her blog first and then her Etsy site. Such cute offerings. Here's the link to her blog-

http://goodfloras.blogspot.com/

You can reach her Etsy site from her blog. I also bought and downloaded, charts are PDF's, Prim Sheep

Hope this shows up clear, it's looking blurry from my side. You can either stitch the words spring or prim in the 

sheeps body. I just may start this today.

I have my work cut out today, winding all those skeins on my favorite cardboard bobbins! Then adding them

to their respective charts. The Crazy begins almost a month from now and I'm getting everything together. 

I'm starting 59 items. I know, crazy! You're all going to be so sick of seeing my posts! Haha.

Hope your able to stitch a lot today! Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, those of you who celebrate it! 

Welcome to the new followers! I'm off to make a turkey sandwich!

TUSAL, FNSI, a little finish

Hello!

First up is TUSAL:

Black threads from Early Witches, yellows from my FNSI stitch.

FNSI:

Sorry for the wrinkles. This is Dream Big from CCN. Here's what it looked like before:

I hope to have it finished by Easter!

For practice I finish finished this guy before finishing the Christmas Ornament Exchange, which I'm happy to say is in the hands of the USPS and is going allll the way to the east coast.

I just attached the ribbon to the top and stuck the three pins in front. I'll find or make a ribbon bow to put at the top 'cause its looking kind of bare. Here's the side:

More gold beads stuck in at the bottom! Love pins, they cover a multitude of sins!

I'm off to buy groceries, curtains, curtain rods, new sneakers/tennis shoes, DMC at Michaels. I think my DMC list is about 30 skeins and I hope they are on sale right now! Otherwise, I'll have to buy 10 or so at a time. I feel for you ladies overseas who are having to shell out a lot of money for DMC. I saw someone having a giveaway of DMC for stitchers not in the USA and I think that's a great idea!

Take care. Thanks for stopping in and a big hearty WELCOME to the newcomers either by Blogger or Bloglovin'! Glad to have you!

FNSI Time!

Good thing too because I haven't picked up a needle in 3 days!

Finished with School, Jumped Ship!

Mysterious title, right?!

And I really am finished with School..

School Days by La D Da, pattern found in the October 2003 issue of JCS. An 11 year old magazine that I kept around for all this time just for this pattern. Stitched on 32ct American Chestnut linen with overdyeds, 1 over 2. I enjoyed satin stitching the schoolhouse. BTW, the color of the fabric is more a buttery-brown color than what is shown above. I love it! It's a nice 7 1/4 sq. inches and I should be able to find a nice frame for it. In celebration of this finish and if there are no other designs I see in the magazine that are interesting, into the trash it goes! Unnnnless, someone wants to stitch it! Just let me know.

I have finished my Christmas Ornament Exchange ornament that is due to be mailed on the 24th. I just need to get into my craft room/bedroom and turn it into a flat ornament. It'll be big though for an ornament, but when I realized how big it was, and on 36ct no less, it was too late to find something smaller!

Jumping Ship? Yes, the SFS ship. Stitching from Stash! I emailed Mel to let her know I was leaving last week. I met two goals I set for myself last December when I first joined and that was to halve my stashing in half and purchase a second vehicle. We bought the Toyota Tacoma in May, my daughter and I, and yes my stashing was cut in half. Even better is that I learned to substitute fibers and fabrics, and have some restraint for not burning up the Web buying more. I THINK more about my finger hovering over the BUY button! Haha. My reason for jumping ship? The upcoming Debbie's Ultimate Crazy January (can't remember the rest!) starts in January. I have amassed 59 patterns to start but need more DMCs and some fabric. I wasn't comfortable with buying all this and then lying about it at post time for SFS. What was really nice was I won a chart in the drawing that Mel has for SFS people. I rarely win anything so this was a nice surprise!

Because of the upcoming Crazy January, I haven't started anything new but now with School Days finished I think a couple more Christmas ornaments are in order!

Take care all, especially those of you dealing with cold and snow. I have the front door open here and it's about the high 60's. Thanks for coming by!

Delivering a Finish...Yay

I just finished this minutes ago. All I had was the horse left to go and once again when I can see light at the end of the tunnel, I go into my finishing zone: ignoring the call of nature, ignoring the shower, and getting tunnel vision! Just kidding on the first one! Anyway, here's Harvest Delivery by PSS-

I stitched this on 32ct Platinum Belfast linen. When I did my floss toss, I thought the GAST Oatmeal used on the horse wouldn't disappear into the fabric. I think without the harness and the shadows on the legs, it would have! I'm quite happy with it and happy to have a medium sized finish.

November is amongst us now. I'm getting that little niggling feeling that comes upon me about this time-OMG, I've got to plan for Thanksgiving! OMG, I haven't done any Christmas shopping! OMG, I've got to start that Christmas exchange stitching that is due on the 24th! Lol. Well today I'll start the ornament. It's quiet today here under gloomy, cloudy skies. My daughter, and two brothers are out deer hunting. Season started Friday. At least they won't get too hot but they are more north of where I'm at.

Thanks for dropping in! Oh, and thanks for your comments on my Halloween stitching! I had to delete a comment that some 'man' made in my comments about protesting women! Whatever! I might have to start doing the 'to make sure you're not a computer' thingee when you publish a comment. I hate to but I get those emails by anonymous that I just delete. This guy came through though.

Have a great weekend!