Things That Have Come to My House

Lots of deliveries at the Wonderful household recently. In addition to the sweet babies from my mom that I showed in my last post...

Flowers from Mr. Wonderful to mark the halfway point.

Thanksgiving cookies from my mom and dad.

The new DMC colors.

Very happy with all these new colors, especially the greys/browns, and the purples below. In my opinion, the DMC range has been in need of more of these shades for a long time.

I picked up this pretty box at a pre-Thanksgiving Jo Ann Fabrics sale.

And also found this sparkly little guy. He's too big for a needle minder, but just right for a chart magnet.

Here's my latest Joy finish. This is from the 2015 Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament issue, stitched on 28 ct. Straw Gingham linen from Weeks. I used CC Cherry Cobbler for the red, added some GAST Brandy to add some warmth to the lantern, and stitched the bottom in the snowflake/beard color instead of the color suggested.

This is a better representation of the fabric color... sort of gingerbread-y.

Bonus Tiger Lily, in her cozy winter basket!

Happy Thanksgiving!

More babies from my mom! Cute overload!

I'll be spending Thanksgiving with our next door neighbors, and Mr. Wonderful will be with his buddies at their undisclosed location. We can't be together this year, but we're not alone.

Tiger Lily and I wish all of y'all a wonderful Thanksgiving!

A Joyful Finish!

Here's my first JOY finish! This is Joy Squared, from the December 2016 issue of Just Cross Stitch magazine. I stitched it with GAST Buckeye Scarlet on 28 ct. Snow linen from Fabric Flair (available at 123 Stitch). Instead of stitching individual blocks, I stitched the design as a single piece, and I added lots of JABCO buttons.

For reasons known only to itself, the camera isn't reading the colors on this very well. The blue of the fabric is washed out, and the red is showing too dark. But that's the best I can do for today! On to more JOY projects...

Breakfast with Tiger Lily

We're about 2 1/2 weeks into Mr. Wonderful's 6-week absence, and Tiger Lily and I are plodding along. We've settled into our new, unsupervised routine; I've accomplished some things around the house, and I've started my JOY projects. I should have a finish to show in a few days. 

One of the things we've been doing occasionally is sharing breakfast in bed. Now, I'm not a breakfast person, and I'm definitely not a breakfast in bed person. I'm the type that gets up when I wake up. I hate wallowing around in bed after I've awakened. And "breakfast" for me is a mini vanilla bean scone and a piping hot cup of strong Irish breakfast tea. I usually get that down while reading the news at the computer.

Anyway, Tiger Lily is--believe it or not--deeply devoted to vanilla bean scones. I'm not even kidding. She will be sound asleep, but when she gets a whiff of a warm scone, she will trot in to wherever I am, expecting to share. Since we're alone and our days are our own, we occasionally sit on the bed and have a scone together before we start our day.

Waiting patiently for her little crumbs.

Nom, nom, nom...

All gone! I have to show her there's nothing left before she will go off for her morning nap.

Have a good day, y'all!

Playing with Jax is finished!

Here it is! My accidental purple conversion of Playing with Jax, and the original design below.

My changes:

Flower Pumpkin (right back pumpkin):
3740--changed to-->3041
3813-->3013
309-->437

large flower:
977-->Autumn Bouquet
350-->977
vine:
3011-->3012
3810-->437

stem: 869
backstitch: 3011

Borders:
top border: 3042

bottom border (replaced leaves with acorns):
acorn caps: 869 & 437
acorns (left to right): 3012, 3776, Autumn Bouquet, 356, 3042

For the changes on the rest of the pumpkins, click on the Playing with Jax label.

November Memo Board & Stash Update

Mr. Wonderful has been gone about a week (five weeks to go!) and let's just say that last week was not great. How-ev-er! Robin in Virginia put on her superhero cape and swooped in to provide much-appreciated cheer! Just look at these goodies! 

A precious, precious little felted wool fox ornament.

Beautiful JOY notecards, to go with my stitching theme during Mr. Wonderful's absence.

A patriotic needle minder (how perfect?) and a stitch starter. 

This little box absolutely made my day. Thank you so much, Robin. And by the way, whenever anyone sends anything to me wrapped in tissue paper, this is what happens to it. Tiger Lily loves tissue paper with all her little heart and she thinks the tissue paper in every package is for her. And so it is. (My mom includes tissue paper in my boxes whether anything needs wrapping or not, so Tiger Lily will have some.)

Here's my November memo board. See this post for info on this easy project.

And here is some gorgeous new Fabric Flair fabric from 123 Stitch. This is 28 ct. Fairy Mist. Beautiful, soft lavender, blue, pink, green, and yellow with a subtle silver sparkle. I bought a small piece just to see how it would look in person, but now I know I need moar.

And 28 ct. blue snowflakes on silver. So frosty and wintry.

I am "thisclose" to finishing Playing with Jax. I only have the bottom border left to stitch, but I took a little break from it to consider how I wanted to stitch it. Hope to have that finished in the next day or two. I need to get going on my JOY projects. In the meantime, here's a little peek at the one I'll be starting next: