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