Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Day!

Boyd's Bears Starsley Family. Robert, Chase, Adele, Lucy w Munchkin, Sara Lynn, Tessa and Corey

I hope everyone is having a nice Memorial Day weekend! The rain and cooler temps the past couple days have given way to sunny & 80* temps today. While we enjoy our family, friends & cook-outs, hopefully we all remember to take a moment and remember and thank all of those who have served our country!

I finished Lizzie Kate's Boo Club, but forgot to take a picture! All the blocks and borders are done, all it needs are the buttons! As soon as I have it completely finished, I'll be sure to get a picture.

SanMan SAL Calendar October, November & December

While doing some "cleaning" (more like rummaging, but cleaning makes it sound like I was getting someone accomplished) I found the 2010 SanMan calendar piece I had been working on last year. I had finished up to September and when we moved, it got packed away and forgotten about. Luckily sometime after moving I saved the October, November & December patterns when they were released. The last month I shared here was July. I had August & September done and then finished the year off by finishing October, November & December this weekend.

SanMan 2010 SAL Calendar Bell Pull

Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend & thanks for stopping by! Nick

A Long Time Coming

Well, it has definitely been a while since my last post, and unfortunately, a while since I've really stitched anything. Work has taken up a big chunk of my time, even with 2-3 days off, I rarely find any time to stitch. I also haven't really "felt" any of the project's I've started lately. I pick them up when I do find time and just don't have the enthusiasm to work on them or get much done. Hopefully I get my mojo back soon! I do have a few things to share since I've been gone from blogging though...

Here is SanMan's calendar piece for July. The pattern is charted for the ice cream to be brown & pink but I added the white-ish color to make it a neapolitan ice cream cone. It's hard to believe this is the last week of July! The year, month & summer have flown by!

I'm also working on the June & July SanMan blackwork pieces. I can't wait to start on July, its a really nice stars & stripes theme in dark red, blue & gold.

I also finally found a frame for Hot Stuff! I got this on sale for $1.91 at Hobby Lobby! It was a little scratched up so it was in the home decor clearance aisle and with another so much of a % off the clearance price cost almost nothing! I liked the look of it being a little ruff, so I took a piece of sandpaper to it to give it an even more beat up look. Sorry for the bad picture, I hung it in a hallway to get a picture and didn't use the flash since it always showed up in the glass.

I feel terribly behind and am going to try to catch up on blogs so I can see all of the fun everyone else has been up to! Maybe I can find something that catches my eye & lights a stitching fire under me! lol Have a great day & thanks for stopping by! Nick

Snowmen, Eggs & Summer

Wow, it's been a while since my last update. I have been busy, busy, busy with work. I started working the closing night shift last week, so I don't leave work until between 1:30-2 AM. I'm holding out for Wednesday, which is my next day off!

Even though today is officially the first day of summer, what little stitching I have done has been anything but summer related. I started a small fall themed sampler freebie but don't have a picture of it. I did manage to start and finish the April block of the SanMan Inky Dinky SAL as well. That darn yellow! Though I think this is easy to see than the lemonade piece.

I saw Toy Story 3 with some friends on Friday, and it was really good! It's hard to believe the first Toy Story movie came out 15 years ago, I remember seeing it when I was a kid. In fact I remember having a Buzz Lightyear and a Rex (the green dinosaur) puppet, you could put your fingers into his little tyrannosaurus arms! lol I'm currently saving the codes from Kellogg's cereal so I can trade them in for a Hamm piggy bank. lol You definitely don't have to be a kid to enjoy any of the Toy Story movies, especially the newest movie.

Hopefully I will be able to catch up with everyone's else's blogs soon, thanks for stopping by & have a great day! Nick

Lemonade & Hacked E-mail

Thank you everyone for the comments on Hot Stuff! Hopefully this weekend I can get it framed. Until Sharon mentioned painting a frame red, the thought had never crossed my mind. Well duh, of course it would be much easier to paint a unfinished or white wood frame than spend forever looking for the right red frame, especially since its a standard 8x10! lol

Here is SanMan's June calendar piece "Fresh Squeezed", the calender is 1/2 finished now! I redid the backstitching in darker colors and I like how the blue ice cubes show up but still don't care for the yellow. It's weird in the picture you can really see the outline but when you actually look at the piece it's still really hard to tell the lemon slices from the lemonade, the flash must make it show up better. Now I'm all caught up with all my SanMan SALs, just waiting for the June blackwork and next Inky Dinky snowman to be posted.

SanMan's Fresh Squeezed

Also I wanted to let everyone know that my e-mail was hacked yesterday evening. An e-mail with no subject and only a link in the body (to an online pharmacy ???) was sent to everyone in my address book. As I was just telling Shari, I almost never use or check my e-mail so thankfully most of the address in my book were old or are stored address from store websites or newsletters (so their e-mails don't end up in my spam folder). I had tons of "mail undeliverable" e-mails because the message wouldn't send to Yankee Candle or Barnes & Noble! lol I did e-mail the bloggers whose e-mail address' I recognized on the list but if I missed any I just wanted to let you know what was up and that I'm sorry you were bothered with that pesky junk! I reported the problem to AOL, changed my password and changed the setting so that e-mail address aren't automatically saved to my address book when I send an e-mail.

Thanks for stopping by & hope everyone has a great day! Nick

Fresh Squeezed June

Happy June 1st everyone! I know I say this every month, but where did the time go? lol I hope everyone had a safe and fun Memorial Day weekend. I've worked everyday since last Tuesday so I spent most of my weekend at work, though I did enjoy a cookout/bonfire at a friends house Saturday night and a fireworks show Sunday night. Even though Memorial Day was yesterday I still want to say a big "Thank You!" to all of our veterans, those who lost their lives in war and those currently serving. I have several family members who are/were veterans, from WWII, Desert Storm and the current war in Iraq.

Since I have been so busy with work there has not been much time for stitching, though I did get the March square in the SanMan Inky Dinky SAL done. It was a quick and relaxing something to stitch last night. For now the snowmen are blind, but I will give them Mill Hill seed bead eyes when all 12 are done so I don't have to iron over the beads.

I also wanted to start the June piece for the SanMan calendar, but of course I only had one of the colors needed. It seems every new project I am missing several colors, so you would think I would have all of them by now! lol The piece is titled Fresh Squeezed, and is probably my favorite so far. It's a little glass of lemonade filled with lemon slices and ice cubes. I can't wait to start it!

Since I couldn't stitch, I washed my Baby today. It's been probably 2 weeks since the last car wash and boy could you tell, or at least I could! lol The only thing I didn't do was sweep the inside out, otherwise she got a complete cleaning. Now my Baby looks brand spanking new, I even got the wheel brush and rim polish out and deep cleaned the rims and took the license plate off to clean behind it and clean the plate as well. After all you can't have a dirty U of M plate! lol

Thanks for stopping by, hope you have a great day! Nick

Inky Dinky SAL

Last weekend I started and finished the first two blocks in the SanMan Inky Dinky SAL. When it's done there will be 12 snowmen, one for each month, and matching boarders. January and February are the only two released so far, but I'm eagerly awaiting March!

Last night was a blast! Me and several friends went to dinner and then to a cocktail party before seeing Sex and the City 2 at midnight. The I really liked the movie. It was alot different than the first, this one was way more fun and light-hearted and in my opinion more along the tone of the show. It didn't live up to my expectations 100% , but then again I've been waiting for it to come out since they started filming it back in September so I probably had too high of expectations! lol The movie theater we saw it in was pretty full. They played it on the biggest theater with a huge screen and seating for 600. It's actually two stories, there is an entrance on the first floor to the bottom rows of seats and an upstairs entrance to the top rows. I would say there were probably at least 400 people there.

Sex and the City 2 : The Stores. The Fashion. The Adventure and an example of how each outfit is "deconstructed" piece by piece. It evens lists the designer of each piece. The page next to it shows a picture of the character in the outfit from the movie.

The party before hand was lots of fun. The hors d'oeuvres were delicious, everyone got a Sex and the City 2 martini glass and for those of us who weren't 21, they had kiddie cocktails! lol They had tons of raffles and give always and I actually won a copy of the companion book to the movie that shows all the characters outfits piece by piece. The only down side was not getting home until almost 4 AM and then having to get up for work, luckily I didn't have to be there until 11:30! lol

Sharlotte - John Corbett was indeed the new movie (he isn't in the first), though he is only in two scenes. His character Aiden went out with Carrie for a while during the course of the show and they were actually engaged at one time. They run into each other in Abu Dhabi in the movie. He was actually my favorite of Carrie's boyfriends, but it was one of those things were I always knew she wouldn't end up with him because she was supposed to be with Big. lol Have you ever seen United States of Tara on Showtime? He plays the husband of a women with multiple personalities, it's a pretty good show especially the 1st season. Also, I did see the episode of Sarah Jessica Parker's "Who Do You Think You Are", her husband Matthew Broderick was also on an episode of the show, both were very interesting. He had family that fought in Gettysburg during the Civil War.

Hope everyone is has a fun & safe Memorial Day weekend! Nick

Sweet May Treat

Here is SanMan's May 2010 calendar block, a colorful lollipop. It was nice quick stitch, a good way to get back in the swing of things since it's been a while since I did any stitching besides blackwork. I actually finished it off earlier today before I went to work, after posting this morning.

Here are January-May so far. I think if at the end of the series each month ends up being a food/treat, as they have been far, I'm going to find a cool font and stitch "A Sweet Year" across the top above January's block.

That's it for now, just a quick update since it's been more than a week since my last stitching post. Thanks for stopping by! Nick

April Showers Bring May Flowers

Actually I believe May flowers bring May showers, at least today they do! It's been a rainy, grey and chilly day here but it did provide May flowers, at least some backstitched May flowers. Here is SanMan's May 2010 blackwork pattern. At first I wasn't sure about the yellow floss on such a light color fabric but I think it turned out nice.

I worked on Hot Stuff as well, but didn't take a picture because I only added the foot and tail of the mouse. I worked on it Wednesday while watching Happy Town on ABC and ended up doing more watching than stitching! lol

I'm really excited that I won a kit on eBay last night that I have been wanting for a long time. It's called "Suzy's Zoo Train Birth Announcement" and was released by Janlynn in the mid 90's. I am a big fan of Suzy's Zoo. It's been around since the 70's and my Aunt collected it as a teen in the late 80's and 90's, so I have many fond memories of Suzy's Zoo birthday cards, notes & letters growing up. Just about anything you could imagine they made back then, ceramics, coffee mugs, stuffed animals, coloring books, magnets, ornaments, party decorations, clothes, cross stitch kits and then all the stationary, cards, stickets, etc they are specifically known for. The production of these things and their popularity started to wain in the late 90's as they moved more into baby themed stuff (nursery sets, baby clothes, baby products) when they created the Little Suzy's Zoo line and characters. The original Suzy's Zoo stuff was very popular on eBay several years ago and this stuff would sell for big $$. The coloring books, stickers and stuffed animals were probably the most popular items, for example it wasn't surprising for the older or rarer coloring books to go for $40-60 a piece! I actually have several coloring books and am only missing 1 of the 403 single sheet stickers. Lately is has really died down and here in the US they mainly do the stationary now, though it has really become big in Japan and over there they are starting to release all those things like they had here. They are even working on opening a memorabilia museum and a cartoon for TV. Anyway, enough of the history of Suzy's Zoo! lol Here is the pic of the kit from the auction, I'm very happy I got it for a great price, $12 shipped. I want to stitch it for my best friend's daughter, the one I mentioned watching last Friday.

In case I don't post over the weekend HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all of the moms out there!!

Have a great weekend and thanks for reading! Nick

Starts & Finishes

I started and finished SanMan's April blackwork piece this weekend. The 4 center bunnies remind me of Peep bunnies. I love SanMan's blackwork patterns, they always have so many little details. Even though the pattern doesn't have eyes charted for the bunnies I might add them later with beads.

SanMan April 2010 Blackwork

I worked a little bit on Hot Stuff but didn't take a picture, I just worked on the marshmallow and stick. I'm not really enjoying the blending colors on this one, unlike Wash Line Blues where a combination is used in large chucks, there are alot that are only used here and there. It's like confetti stitching with different color combinations. lol

I also started to grid the fabric for the HAED The Journey Begins pattern. My mom ordered this red easy-count gridline floss-like stuff online that grids your fabric and can be taken out as you stitch. Last summer when I bought the pattern we went 1/2 and 1/2 on the supplies so we could both work on it, so maybe if we both work on it on and off it won't take as long.

Hope everyone had a great weekend, thanks for visiting! Nick

March Blackwork

I finished up SanMan's March Blackwork last night. I love doing blackwork, that's probably because I am in the very slim majority that actually enjoys backstitching. I would say backstitching is one of my favorite parts of working on a piece, maybe because a piece is truly finished once the backstitching is done. Not sure what's up next, I could probably work on Wash Line Blues but I'm still in a new project mood! lol

Here are January, February & March together.

We had another day of amazing weather, near 70 again and very sunny. Took the opportunity to pull Baby out of the garage and do an interior cleaning. Got all the mats & carpets vacuumed and cleaned, conditioned the seats & wheel and detail cleaned the vents and stuff on the dash. Now if only this oil change can get done Baby will be ready for the road! lol

Hope everyone had a nice Easter & thanks for visiting! Nick

No April Showers Here

Happy April 1st everyone - it's hard to believe 1/4 of the year has passed already! To celebrate the first day of April, and just in time for Easter, I finished the SanMan 2010 Calendar piece for April, a cute chocolate bunny! I finished the bunny this afternoon while sitting on the porch swing.

SanMan 2010 Calendar - April

Poor blind bunny, the eyes are supposed to be French knots. Well, I can not make a good French knot to save my life so I will put two Mill Hill seed beads there. I totally forgot to do so before I took the pic. EDIT: I also just realized I forgot to backstitch the whiskers! Yikes, this poor bunny! lol

All 4 months released so far.

It was an amazing day here today, its been in the low 70s the past two days, so I have just been sitting around outside soaking up the sun. I wish I could take Baby out for a ride in such nice weather but she still needs her oil changed and everything before she's ready for the road. The problem is the Chrysler dealer requires any mechanic that works on a Crossfire to be specially certified to do so, and the dealer only has 1 such certified mechanic. So it's tough to get an appointment not only when he is scheduled to work, but to find a time when I can get over there and they have an opening! My mom had to call earlier to rub it in that when she left work for lunch and to run a few errands, she did so in her car with the top down. lol

I haven't done any other stitching since finishing the candy cane Piglet ornament. The SanMan blackwork pattern for March was also released so that will be my next start. Here is a pic of the first two for January & February. The snowmen are blind for the same reason as the bunny! lol

Hope everyone else is enjoying their week so far, and thanks for stopping by! Nick

Weekend Project

This weekend I was able to finish the first three SanMan Originals freebies to the 2010 Calender, “January”, “Kiss Me” and “Frosty Mug”. Each month a new pattern is posted for the members of the SanMan message board, along with a monthly blackwork pattern. I am stitching the calendar pieces vertically on a banner that I made. I can’t wait to see the rest of the designs!

Don't mind the quilting supplies in the background, I took the pic real quick on my mom's quilting table. lol

I still haven’t worked on Wash Line Blues though, once I started the SanMan patterns I had to finish all 3! lol But I am really going to try to get some work done on it this week.

I will keep this post short and sweet so I can check out everyone else’s blogs. Hope every had a great weekend and has a good Monday, if there is such a thing! lol Nick

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday everyone! Man, this week flew by, don't know where the last couple days went! lol Thank you everyone for the comments on my Prairie Schooler July piece, I hope to get it framed soon. I spent some time Tuesday taking a look through all of the blogs of those who commented and I have discovered way too many patterns I would like to stitch! lol

Haven't done much in the way of stitching since my last post. I didn't work on Wash Line Blues, but I did start a new project, no actual stitching, just pre-finishing the fabric for it into a bell pull. I found a cool set of little patterns on the SanMan Originals message board, one for each month of the year, to stitch on it.

I thought I would take the chance to comment on a few comments on my other posts...

The designer of Singin' the Wash Line Blues is Adele Earnshaw and is a Dimensions kit.

I am very happy to meet a couple fellow Wolverine fans! I just found an old leaflet with charts of the U of M seal, wolverine & block M and a sampler of Burton Tower that are just calling for me to stitch. lol

I also wanted to introduce everyone to my car, Baby, that I talked about in my last post. She is a 2005 Chrysler Crossfire Ltd Coupe. She's stored in the garage for winter, but hopefully if the weather stays the way it has been this week, she can come out soon!

I hope to get a chance to work on Wash Line Blues and start my SanMan piece but we will see, I am meeting up with my Aunt & cousin out of town tomorrow and having lunch with a friend for her birthday Sunday. Hope everyone has a great day and weekend!

Thanks for reading! Nick