Giveaway and New 2012 Goal

I have done a lot of stitchy pondering and thinking over the weekend.  And that usually means purging and cleaning house, which of course means a giveaway for you!!!  I did get rid of a lot of stash a while ago on Ebay, and this giveaway is the absolute last of it.  YES, you read right.  After this giveaway there will be no stitchy stash in my house save for my goal project for 2012, a Heaven and Earth Designs pattern!!!!

Now, while you catch your break and recover from your breakdown, let me explain.  I have wanted to stitch a HAED design for as long as I have known about them.  Have I done so?  Not yet.  And in my quest to pare down and not buy any stash in 2012, this seemed like a good way to do it.  Between the 90 skeins of DMC, a bobbin box, the pattern, and the fabric, I spent $54.  And save for running out of a DMC or two, I will not have to purchase anything further for this project.

The pattern I chose was Hannah Disney's QS Butterfly Keeper.  I know this is a large undertaking and a lot of you may think I have jumped onto the crazy wagon.  This will be monumental for me if I can complete this goal in 2012.  Diary of a Manbroider is my complete and utter inspiration.  He has completed MULTIPLE HAED designs, all breathtakingly gorgeous!

So, now to the giveaway.  One lucky winner will receive the following:

Shepherd's Bush The Journey~pattern and silk (no fabric)
A scrap piece of 40 count Iced Cappuccino R&R Linen (approximately 8 by 9)
Little House Needleworks Little Miss Sunflower pattern and all threads
Little House Needleworks Warm Winter Woolens and all threads
Country Cottage Needleworks January Cottage and all threads
Bent Creek Thankful Quaker and some of the threads
Little House Needleworks Frosty Flakes ornament pattern
Country Cottage Needleworks Vintage Christmas pattern
Country Cottage Needleworks Gingerbread Houses pattern
Lizzie Kate Ho Ho Ho Quick It pattern and all threads (The snowman is highlighted a bit on the pattern)
Shepherd's Bush Merry Be Pincushion kit.  I have started this and will include my started piece on the 6 by 6 Qsnap (you can see it in the picture)

All you need to do to enter is just leave me a comment telling me either your 2012 stitchy goal(s) or what your motivation is to complete a large project, especially if you have completed a HAED.

I will choose a winner Christmas morning.  Good luck to all of you who enter!

I leave you with a pic of our Christmas tree this year.

Giveaway Alert!

Kathy of A Stitcher's Heirlooms is hosting a wonderful fall giveaway!  Go here to check it out and enter!

And Lisa of Hocky Mom Stitchin' Hobby is hosting a fabulous blogoversary giveaway here.

We have a winner!

The winner of my HDF silk giveaway is....Faye of Carolina Stitcher!!!  Congrats, Faye!  I have sent you an e-mail.  Watch your mailbox!!

Thank you to all who entered!

In peace, love, and stitches,
Danielle

Giveaway Time!!!

To celebrate the arrival of spring, and my happiness at having a weekend getaway, I am having a giveaway, of HDF silk.  If you have never worked with silk, you are in for a treat.  Each spool you see here is 52.2 yards of silk, single stranded. 

ONE lucky person will receive all of these spools (the container they are in is NOT included)!  And I am pretty sure I have some more floating around here so I will add those too.  Suffice it to say it's a lot.  You can tell by the picture. 

All you have to do is leave a comment ON THIS POST ONLY stating your favorite Blue Ribbon Designs pattern.  If you have never heard of Blue Ribbon Designs, then you can state that instead.  Belinda is my new favorite designer and I am just totally smitten at the moment!

I will draw one name on Monday morning.  Good luck to all!

Blueberry Cake

I just received notification from Down Sunshine Lane that the next thread pack in the Country Cottage Needleworks Cakes set, Blueberry, is ready for shipping!  And the lucky recipient is Pumpkin!  Keep an eye on your mailbox!

I worked on Snowman Snippet a bit today, filling in the snowman himself.  I will take a pic once I get him all filled in.

I did work on 'Tis Pink last night and will work on it again today.  Pic to come!!  I ordered this lamp in white for stitching downstairs, to give me better light.  I love how it folds up into an egg shape! 

Have a great Saturday!  We are off to The Melting Pot for dinner tonight!

In peace, love, and stitches,
Danielle

The letter I & Enya

I finished the letter "I" this morning and put the snowflake button on.  This project is looking better by the day as I complete more and more.  And for the first time I did not stitch with the TV on.  Instead, I listened to Enya on my Ipod dock.  Her music is very calming and soothing.  It was heavenly to concentrate just on the stitching and not be looking up every few seconds at the TV.

In my quest to find out the exact color of the fabric used in this Lizzie Kate kit, I decided to order a few pieces of fabric from 1-2-3 Stitch.  I ordered a 13 by 18 piece of 28 count Cashel in the following colors:  Clay, Flax, Summer Khaki, and Light Mocha.  The reason for this quest is I want to stitch the new Country Cottage Needleworks Cakes thread packs on this particular fabric, as white floss shows up really well on this color, and there is a lot of white in those thread packs, and I just don't want it to disappear, you know?

Once I find out the color, I will be hosting a giveaway for the remaining fabrics, plus three pieces of 32 count Lambswool Jobelan that I know I will not use.  So, you, stitching friends, will benefit!  And I always like to give back, especially around the holidays, and especially stitching items!   So, stay tuned for a future post about this giveaway.

Lately, I have been wishing to purchase/receive an Apple Ipad.  I have watched all of the tours and looked at all the specs on the Apple website.  I especially like the blogging applications available.  However, this item is $500.  Expensive.  BF said it would be a good birthday gift for me.  My birthday is in May.  A recent episode with The Daughter, though, made me realize that I don't need this item, I just want it, and always wanting is not the way to bring balance and peace into my life.  

We currently have two dogs, a cat, and a hermit crab.  I have expressed to both BF and The Daughter that any more pets in this house will be a hardship for me, as I am the one that takes care of them for the most part.

BF's sister recently purchased a few 300 gallon fish tanks and when The Daughter and BF went to visit them over Thanksgiving, they helped set them up.  Now The Daughter wants a fishtank and/or a bunny.  Both time consuming.  Just the fishtank costs $550, not counting the fish or any other stuff.  And she is obsessed.  BF told her that she can have those items at her mother's house.  And I realized that I have obsessed a bit about the Ipad, and that's not how I want to be.  I don't need a $500 birthday gift.

I also broke one of my resolutions last night, Facebook.  I had been talking to BF about The Price Is Right game on there, and he said last night after dinner why don't we play?  OK.  So, I unplug my laptop from in my office and bring it downstairs where we spend each evening.  BF has his laptop and I have mine and we both sign in, but realize that we are not playing the same game.  Then the next time the game comes on we try it again, but this time I click on something and some other screen comes up and it's too late, he has already started playing, but I can't get out of whatever it was I clicked on and I just lost it.  A few expletives came out of my mouth and BF says, honey, calm down, it's only a game, and it was like a light switch flipped.  I stopped, quietly closed the game, and then checked e-mail and took care of a few work items before watching TV the rest of the evening with BF.  I saw the dark side of myself in that minute, and did not like it one bit.  And we realized that to play the same game one of us has to invite the other one to play.  But we did not figure this out until we had stopped playing.

So, this morning I plug my computer back in and my printer won't print.  So, I spend about 20 minutes getting that working again.  Was this God at work showing me that my resolution is a good one and that I need to keep it?  I think so.

I started a new book this morning, Neighborhood Watch by Cammie McGovern.  Very good so far.  Books have to catch me on the first page for me to continue, and this one did.   

I am very proud that I have kept most of my goals so far.  I have stitched, read, and blogged this morning, all of which has made me happy.

Happy Thursday, everyone!  9 days until Christmas!

In peace, love and stitches,
Danielle