bodner017

What a happy busy month October proved to be! Was able to reach my personal hour goal for volunteer work, which was truly enjoyable! We met some new friends, and got to know some -not so new friends- a bit better. The littles are doing great with their homeschool curriculums, playdates, and their personal spiritual goals as well. Didn't have much time to stitch in October, but I'm starting this month with a little bit of stitching. Wasn't able to complete it (spent a couple of minutes reaping out and restitching the tail do to miscounting). I t is not much, but I'm just warming up my needle ;-).  Most of my house chores are done, just a quick errand tomorrow to grab a few groceries & toiletries, so perhaps once back I might be able to complete this sheep and the last one. I'm still not looking forward to stitching all that grass :-/. Oh, have you seen/tried these Krispy Kreme Glazed Pumpkin Spice  doughnuts? So Good!!! They are quite sweet do to the glazing, but...

Isn't it interesting how our mood or events on a day affects the things we do or left undone? Instead of working on the cross stitch project and finishing the autumn mug rug, I ended up adding a few more stitches to my hand embroidery project :-). Above is where I'm at at the moment. Below are a couple of photos taken during my brief stitching section. So as you can see, the element that I decided to focus on was the leaves, and the tiny buds. Autumn foliage is breathtaking! We can only try to replicate what our eyes take in, all praise goes to the Master Artist!  Yes, below... there in the background is my neglected cross stitch project (sigh) must get back to it. If you cross stitch, please do share, how do you make the counting easier for yourself? Do you use a highlighter to mark the areas you have already worked on? I'm leaning towards giving that a try.  Any thoughts? Please do share! I'm not making any plans for my work in progress projects. Will definitely work ...

Autumn is my favorite season. Today is beautiful here, my family went out to do a bit of volunteer work. I stayed behind in order to have some time alone and go over my younger one's homework, get it ready to go over any errors once she's back, and have a few minutes of me time with a cup of massala chai (aka: chai tea latte).  Browsing thru old pictures while sipping chai, found these two of autumn of 2016. Above, a bit of english paper piecing on the the deck of our previous home, interestingly with a cup of chai ;-). This other one, also on our previous home, of my craft desk full of projects... getting ready a towel for my older child to stitch. It took her quite awhile to complete (she started it  here  and completed it here ).  Sudden weather changes don't do me well. On a recent Dr. visit, she suggested I approached things a bit different, too soon to tell but so far it seems to be working. Still love Fall and all it's wonderful colors, flavors,...

Thanks for the input on the comments on previous post! Clouds have lingered these past few days. Today the sun shined through, just for a bit before sunset, enough to take a few pictures of my projects ;-).  Above is where I'm at on my Give Thanks project from Stitches from the Harvest book by Kathy Schmitz. Done with the chain stitch on the yellow pods, and practically 2/3 done with the brown stems/branches. Might work a bit more on it this weekend. These, above, are all the completed stitcheries, and the WIP on the first picture. Above is this month's One Stitch at a Time design. It was stitched by my daughter on a flour sack kitchen towel by Colonial Patterns. She used DMC threads. From these ones, the Quilt on the Line and the Hop Along Stitches were also stitched by my daughter. She used Artiste variegated thread in Sugar Plum, and for the house with the quilt she used variegated Valdani 3ply thread in color M66. The other two were stitched by me....

Since we moved, I haven't been able or motivated to set up my new craft space. I've been missing my old space and how enjoyable the natural sunlight of that room used to be. I'm adding a few pictures of my old craft space here. We had a very large home, beautiful custom home.... but it was challenging for me to keep up with (even with the help of my husband)... living with chronic illnesses makes things a bit challenging. We refocus and decided to downsize a bit.   My new craft space will be craft room/guest room, so I'm lost as to how I'm going to set it up. The old one used to be in the kids playroom. So I had it set up to simply look like a craft space.   New projects, books, work in progress projects, supplies, etc., used to sleep right on top of my desk. Waiting for me whenever I had free time to keep working on them, without having to dig them out.... or even worst, being forgotten. (By the way, I'm having to use see thru project bags lately to help me rem...

At some point I will continue to work on this quilt. The one that was meant for mom. There are a few older blog posts about this project. When mom's health started to rapidly decline it took us (my siblings and myself) by surprise, it happened so fast, like a ride down a playground slide. My grandmother (mom's mother) lived for many years with Alzheimer's, even her late stages were quite long. We thought it was going to be the same with mom. Not so. Perhaps the fact that mom also had Lupus accelerated everything? Can't know for sure, but it is a possibility. Perhaps, all was clear all along and we were somewhat in denial? Maybe. What if the natural disaster that hit the area had to do with it? No matter how many questions we may ask, what we do know for sure is that the 'unexpected events befall us all'. - Ec 9:11. For safety reasons only certain things approved by the caregiving facility were allowed in her room, handmade quilts weren't part of that approve...