It's the Bride of Frankenstein, y'all.

Made a few more needle minders. This one just kills me. It's a teeny weeny Bride of Frankenstein. 

So adorable, right? And because I'm never not in need of a reminder to be joyful, here's a little cutie for my Keeping Christmas Project ornament stitching. Sparkly, of course.

And here's a winter one. She cracks me up. I can just imagine her mother saying, "Why didn't you think of that before I got you all bundled up?"

All of these are made from buttons from those small decorative button packs. I found them at various craft stores, but this is a good online source for a very wide selection. All the buttons I've shown in this post are available from this source. I have ordered from them and had good service. 

BREAKING NEWS!

BREAKING NEWS: There are still really, really nice people in the world.

With all the negative things happening around us, sometimes it's hard to remember that fact, but it's pretty essential for our mental health that we endeavor to do so. Yesterday's mail was my reminder for this week.

First, a surprise from fellow stitcher Kari in Wisconsin. She had very sweetly offered to send me a magazine she had that had a gorgeous fox design in it she would never stitch. It arrived yesterday. Beautiful, right? Just look at the happy little face on the baby in the background!

She also snuck this precious needle minder into the magazine! He has a sparkly tummy, y'all. I'm crazy about it. Thank you, Kari!

Second, fellow stitcher Lois in New York offered for sale an out-of-print Prairie Schooler design I've been looking for for some time. Of course, just as we were about to conduct our transaction, I got a fraud alert on the card I use for online purchases, and the card had to be cancelled. Lois very patiently waited a few days for me to get the issue resolved, and was very understanding in our email exchanges. Thank you, Lois, for being a bright spot in a frustrating week!

And finally, a WIP update. I have been really off my stitching game for quite a while so I haven't made nearly as much progress on the two projects I have going right now as I should have. Haunted House should have been done a couple of weeks ago, and I haven't touched my Christmas ornament in weeks--probably due to the fact that I'm facing over-one stitching, which I don't care for. So, here's half a tree.

The tree and the border are all that's left. One would think I could just sit down and whip them out, but no...

Anyway, don't forget: there are still really nice people in the world. Hang on to that and have a great weekend!

Making (more!) Needle Minders

Needle minders are fun. They're not necessary, but as with most things that aren't necessary, that's part of what makes them fun--they're just special little extras that make life a little brighter. Cookies aren't necessary to survival (they sorta are at my house), but why would you want to live without them if you don't have to? Jewelry for your WIP... why not?!

Happily, they're super easy (and inexpensive) to make yourself, which I discussed here a while back. So you can have a whole bunch of them to fit every whim, every season, every holiday, every project. They're so simple to make they really don't require a tutorial. Basic instruction: Glue one of a pair of magnets to the back of something. Boom. Needle minder. That's it.

However, since I was making a few more today, I decided to snap a few pictures to share ideas for what items you can use to make them, how to make those items usable, and how to store them. Here are the ones I made today, in about 30 minutes (easy!).

You can use all kinds of things to make needle minders. Here we have a kitty charm (Jo-Ann's), a Christmas tree brooch (Hobby Lobby), and some buttons (Hobby Lobby & Jo-Ann's). 

A button shank remover is a great little tool to have on hand. The curved blades allow a close cut so the back of the button is flat.

Old jewelry from your jewelry box or inexpensive costume jewelry makes great needle minders. Pins can be easily twisted off with a pair of pliers (don't stick yourself!).

When using charms, sometimes you can get the charm loop off cleanly with pliers, but more often than not, trying to remove it will either damage the charm or leave little points of metal behind that are too small to be removed. My solution is to just cover the charm loop with a small crystal. These crystals (Hobby Lobby) came in a package that contains multiple sizes, which is great because you don't have to guess what size you need and only buy one size. I use strong craft glue to attach these, as I've found that the chemicals in super glue eat away the backing on the crystal and leave it dull-looking.

These are the super strong magnets I use (left, 6.3 mm from Michael's; right, 8 mm from Hobby Lobby). I prefer the smaller 6.3 mm size, but either will do. Use caution with these, they are very strong. You can use super glue to attach them, but hot glue usually works just as well for me.

I store my collection in a little metal pencil case. Very compact and tidy.

A combination of purchased and homemade, I've used old jewelry, charms, pendants... even a metal badge from a festival we went to. The little black one with the flowers painted on it is the first needle minder I ever got. I've had it for more than 20 years--way before needle minders became a "thing". 

And that's all there is to it. Very easy. Very inexpensive. And they make really cute little gifts for fellow stitchers (Christmas is coming!).

WIP Wednesday: Halloween House (Purple Conversion)

I'm working on Judith Kirby's Victorian House #9, also known as Halloween House. I decided to do a purple conversion of the house.

The original house colors:

I'm stitching mine on 28 ct. Storm from Hand Dyed Fabrics by Stephanie. The purples are DMC 154 and 3834; the greys in the roof are DMC 646 and 844; the darkened windows are DMC 646. The green trees in the background are stitched with a 2-ply half stitch rather than a single-ply cross stitch. All the other half stitches are 2-ply as well. I will probably change the color of the cobweb and mess with the border as well, but we'll see when I get there. 

Happy Stitching!

Sweet Baby Penguin for the Keeping Christmas Project

I've had this adorable little guy in my stash for quite some time, and finally decided to bring him to life. He's a freebie available here. I stitched him on 28 ct. Glacier linen from Picture This Plus, and changed the color of the border to DMC 4040. I have a small aqua-colored tinsel Christmas tree that has retro aqua glass and grey penguin ornaments on it, and he'll be made into an ornament for that tree. Isn't he cute?

Stashy Goodness Update

The mailman has been bringing lots of goodies lately!

Charts and fabric (spot the fox?):

From sweet Robin in Virginia, a wonderful wad of Wildflowers! Thank you, Robin!

From sweet Bonnie, all the way from Canada, a precious little fox kit! He will be on my Fox Christmas Tree this year. Thank you, Bonnie!

And here's a peak of a quick project I'm whipping out. I love the color of this fabric. It's 28 ct. Glacier from Picture This Plus.

Bonus: Tiger Lily napping in a sunbeam.

Happy 100th Birthday, National Park Service!

Mr. Wonderful and I are huge fans of National Parks. If you gave me a choice of a week in London or Paris or in any one of our National Parks, the National Parks would win hands down, every time. 

The last one we visited was Acadia in Maine, three years ago. I'd go back in a heartbeat.

I was absolutely thrilled to see that Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery is doing a National Parks sampler to commemorate the centennial. They even have an adorable little matching needle minder (it's made of wood).

We're in the planning stages of a trip to Zion National Park in Utah this fall. Cannot wait.

Happy 100th to "America's Best Idea"!

Saturday Sampler: Pottery Edition

Where have I been? Pretty busy, and also on a road trip. I think I've mentioned before that Mr. Wonderful is a pottery nut. We celebrated his 40th birthday by heading to Seagrove, North Carolina, the largest and oldest community of potters in the country. It's pretty much Pottery Disneyland. We had a wonderful time wandering around through the beautiful North Carolina countryside, talking to the potters, and eating great southern cooking. We bought way too much stuff, but we had a lot of fun doing it. I only photographed my part of the haul, since showing everything he bought too would break my blog. 

Small milk mugs, about 4" high. Yes, I almost passed out when I finally found a fox!

Gorgeous small vases. On the left, crystalline (crystals are grown on the pottery when it's fired), and on the right, salt glazed.

Soup mugs. I wanted a pair for us, but decided to get them from different potters instead of a matched set. Can't wait to use these when the weather turns cold.

Small mixer. Too cute and functional to pass up.

Small baker. This came with a recipe from the potter's family for cold oven pound cake. 

Batter bowl. I love this thing.

Here you can see how it's designed to be held for easy pouring. 

Small cornbread/pie dish. This is from the oldest pottery in the area.

I love, love, LOVE all of my pieces, but especially my kitchenware. They're not only pretty, they feel so wonderful; they're heavy and smooth and fit the hands so well... because they're made by hand. And the really cool thing is that for most of these pieces, I have a personal memory of meeting and talking to the potter. When I pick up that baker to make a little pound cake, I'll remember the hilarious conversation we had with the delightful woman who made it. What a wonderful trip it was, and what great memories we have to go with our new treasures.

In case you're wondering, I'm hard at work on my Keeping Christmas Project. I didn't pick up a needle for about two weeks, what with being so busy, getting ready for our trip, traveling, etc. But I'm back at it. Here's a little peek at what I'm working on. I must confess, I am not a fan of over-one stitching, but I make exceptions for certain designers!

Mr. Wonderful is leaving tomorrow for two weeks, so Tiger Lily and I will be here all by ourselves. There's no telling what we'll get into, so stay tuned!

PS: Shout out to my parents, who celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary yesterday! 

Why she does this, I have no idea...

...but Tiger Lily loves Mr. Wonderful's uniform. She does this a lot.

The Keeping Christmas Project

“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year."

~Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

I have been feeling increasingly weighed down lately by the things going on in my country and in the rest of the world. I find myself not wanting to look too far forward, in apprehension of what may be coming. A few days ago, while going through a stack of my Christmas designs, I had an idea for a project to lift my spirits and keep me looking and moving forward, focused on the JOY and BLESSINGS in life. 

If you've been visiting my blog for a while, you know I love Christmas and stitching Christmas ornaments. I've shown all my stitched ornaments, and the Christmas tree they decorate (if you need to catch up, click on any of the Christmas labels in the right sidebar). So I have quite a stack of ornament-sized designs... not to mention every issue of the Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament issue. 

While looking at my collection--and chastising myself for not having more of them stitched--my mind wandered (as it often does) to wondering how many I could get done before Christmas. This led me to check a calendar to see how many weeks it is until Christmas (21, if you were wondering, too). Then I started daydreaming about how cool it would be to stitch an ornament every week until Christmas. And I connected that to how I've been feeling lately, and thought what a great way that would be to push back against the negative thoughts and emotions I've been having.

Naturally, I would have to blog my progress. Then I started worrying about not being able to get an ornament done every week. And about what to call it. A Christmas ornament "challenge"? I pondered all this for a day or two and realized that stressing over how many ornaments I could actually get done and calling it a "challenge" were both the wrong approach. The goal is to focus on JOY and BLESSINGS... not to freak out over finishes and certainly not to consider it a "challenge" (too much pressure!). 

And so, "The Keeping Christmas Project" was born: a leisurely, five-month stroll toward Christmas, stitching as many ornaments as I can along the way. Will I stitch 21 ornaments by Christmas? Nope. Do I care? Nope. My Keeping Christmas Project is already fulfilling its purpose. I'm looking forward to stitching some beautiful ornaments and sharing them here, hopefully bringing a little joy (and enabling) to others as well. I am already pushing back, and it feels good.

This isn't a challenge or a SAL, but if you'd like to join me--in a leisurely, no-stress-allowed way--please do! Leave a link to your blog in the comments so I can see your ornaments.

Here's a start, a freebie available here.

Merry Christmas, y'all!

A Fox Forest Finish!

Finished last night! Stitched with suggested Weeks (with the addition of GAST Oatmeal) on 28 ct. PTP Sand.

I also slightly changed the border, stitching it with Caron Wildflowers in Moss. Wildflowers does the prettiest job for this type of border, if you ask me.

On to Halloween!

Closing in on a Fox Forest finish

All the little foxes are present and accounted for. All that's left is a tree and the border.

A few details: satin stitched trees, smyrna cross eyes and nose, and Rhodes stitch flower centers.

Hoping to finish this up this weekend. My next project is a classic Halloween design and it's calling my name!