Poll - which color scheme should I use in my master bedroom?

Help! I'm trying to decide on more paint colors. My husband and I agreed on a basic color scheme (brown and blue). I was going to do 3-ish walls (no room is actually a square) in one color, with an accent wall, but he decided he wanted to have the blue on the upper half, with a chair rail and the brown on the lower half. (Hee-hee, this is what I really wanted, but I didn't ask for it because I knew it was more work and he'd say no!) I went to Joann tonight to try to find fabric I liked for a duvet cover and curtains, but they had nothing. So I browsed the embroidery floss and found the colors I've had in my head! I narrowed it down to one blue and 3 browns. I tried to do a poll, but I couldn't figure out how to put images in, so we'll do it the old-fashioned blogger way:

#1 Caravel brown

#2 Dark toast

#3 Mocha syrup

Please leave a comment here with 1, 2 or 3! Thanks for your help!

House Update

More Before and Durings of Hallie's room:

We are now ready for pretty pink and green!

Andrea's DIY reno tip - this one is a DON'T: DON'T create your own wallpaper border with a faux-finish technique. The gold in the first picture is some kind of craft paper with a mottled gold finish, glued to the wall. The paint impedes the removal process. We never got all of it off - I spent a good 2 hours removing a small section. I gave up, got some sandpaper and sanded the edges of the paper and primed over it. If you MUST create a theme room, spend the extra money to get a pre-made wallpaper border. Or, even better, avoid wallpaper altogether and use pillows, blankets and other things that are completely removable to customize the room. Please. Think of the people who will buy your house and have to undo all your "creativity". Thank you.

House Update

Before and During pics below (no afters yet) - we worked on taking down curtains and old curtain hardware.  All the brackets for the hardware had been painted at least once.  I spent so much time on this project, that I didn't get to removing switchplate covers and things.  We also started removing the wallpaper borders.  You can see the loooong hallway of garden-flowers, and a close-up of the pretty moose border downstairs.

Today's work resulted in removal of border from under the dining room window and the right-hand side of the hallway (almost to the first bedroom door).  And removal of the silly wood medallions and FOAMY STICKERS - did a grown-up person live here?  My goodness!

On tomorrow's agenda (after church) - prime the black and gold walls in Hallie's room.  Oh, yes, black and gold.

Andrea's DIY tip for renovations - use curtains that were left behind by the previous owner as dropcloths for wallpaper removal.  They will protect the carpet from the removal spray, and catch all the little bits of paper in an easy-to-bundle, well, bundle.  And no guilt about tossing it.  Yes, that's right!  There were curtains (FABRIC!) that I could have cut down and re-used.  I resisted, and the clean-up so far has been super easy!!!!!!

Looky-looky!

We got the white house (for those who asked) - I was blogging Wednseday while my mom was signing papers.  Keys.  Official.  Utilities are being set up.  :)

I'll e-mail my new address to those who have been patiently waiting for it.  Thanks for everyone who prayed and sent good wishes for this process.  We'll be measuring walls today for painting and making lists.

Can I get a house happy dance?

Goal review time

How did I do in May?

Finish-finish Dove Love. That means all stitches in all pieces of fabric, every drop of glue dried, finished product mailed before May 31. - Yes!  Mailed May 15
Finish cross stitches on Emma #2. I only have 2 shades of pink left. I think that goal is totally achievable. - Yes!
Sew dresses, but not until I finish stitching Dove Love finish. - Khaki dress started and nearly complete

Dare I set any goals for June?

Pack, move, paint...new house stuff.  I'm still waiting for the final word, but at this moment my mother is at the title company.  We will get keys Friday.

Finish khaki dress by June 5.

Complete cross stitches on round 6 of Earth Goddess and mail by June 15, mail what I have completed of Dark Sorceress to Pixie at the same time.

I know I'll continue to stitch on Emma during the move, and BoInk, I need something to do with my hands when I'm stressed.  Like right now I'm blogging and avoiding packing.

House update - this is my unhappy face :(

Short story, we don't have keys.  Mom hasn't signed.  On Thursday (day before we were supposed to close) the mortgage insurance company decided to ask for ONE more piece of information - verification of rental payments for the last 12 months.  Apparently, this is new information required due to the increased scrutiny on the lending industry.

I have no problem providing this information.  I think it's GREAT that they are asking for it, perhaps if they'd had this step 3 or 4 years ago, a lot of the sub-prime mess could have been avoided.  My problem is they waited until the DAY BEFORE CLOSING to ask for it.  We've rented from private owners, i.e. PEOPLE.  Not companies.  People move slowly.  Not our current landlords.  They responded right away, let me know they'd sent the information, no problem.  They're motivated to have us get the keys, as they're moving back in when we move out.  The previous landlord is the hold-up.  I remember she took DAYS to get the information to our current landlords when we moved here.  She has no motivation to get the information, and quite frankly, is not the most pleasant person to deal with.  Fortunately, we had receipts for our rent deposits, and we only need 3 months worth.  The lender is hoping that this information, along with the cancelled checks, will be stronger than the landlords' word.  FYI, this is the first time he's every heard of this step, as well.

I've spent the last 48 hours wondering WHY this last minute hiccup, after so many others?  I've finally decided that God is punishing the seller for being a loser, for failing to record the sale before he put the house on the market, and for putting pressure on us to close sooner, obviously so he doesn't have to make a mortgage payment.  It may not be true, but it makes me feel better.

Something else that makes me feel better - our new curtains arrived!  In the picture the panel is laying sideways, sorry.  But you can see they are a multi-colored mini-stripe, and how they work with the couch and carpet (the carpet in the new house is slightly browner).  My mom and I were the crazy ladies carrying paint chips and a throw pillow through Bed, Bath & Beyond last weekend.

Stitching update coming next.

Updates Galore

Wow, I lost a whole week somewhere!  I've been around, I've even been stitching!  I guess I just haven't had a lot to say blog-wise.  But my grandparents have received their anniversary gift, so I can talk about the finish of Dove Love!

First of all, here's Dove Love, a freebie from Alessandra Adelaide Needleworks, all finished.  It was stitched 2-over-1 on 28-count linen.  Colors are DMC - 2 are as called for, and the other 2 are "close enoughs" I had in my stash.  Stitching time on this was about 3 months.  I fray-checked the edges and machine-stitched this piece to a piece of muslin.  Katie chose the red and gold ribbon that I used to cover the linens edges - note: I cut the stitching fabric before I knew how I would finish this piece.  I used this as the cover of the the Family Tree Book.  You'll see the colors repeated on another "page".  There are 8 small hearts on Dove Love, which to me stand for the 8 grandchildren.

Her'e a scan of the cover page.  Thanks to Debbie from Tangled Stitch for her input on bringing this concept from my head to fabric.  You should be able to see on the tree, there are 8 red hears (grandchildren again) and 4 yellow hearts for my dad and his sisters.  The great-grandchildren are there, too, they are just leaves branching off from red-heart-branches.

The subsequent pages have a lot of my family's personal information on them, so I won't post them.  They've all received scans via e-mail.  But I'll describe them.  I made four additional pages, for my dad and his 3 sisters.  I continued the colorway, so my dad's name is in the mustard-yellow, and each of his children are in the blue-red.  The dates are like the branches on the trees - the numbers are done in green, to look like leaves and the slash marks are satin-stitched in brown.  However, instead of birthdates, I incorporated baptism dates.  On each page is a portion of the scripture found in III John verse 4 - "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are living according to the truth. " (NIV).  I know this verse means so much to my grandparents, who have dedicated their lives to ministry.  But the ministry always started at home.  This book is not just about births in the family, it's about legacy.

Here's what it looks like all put together.  It folded flat for shipping (yay!),  but it can also stand on the back page to be a display piece.  I included this picture in the package, and it was a good thing I did!  My grandparents love puzzle things, and they like watching people try to figure things out.  Not only does it stand like a pyramid, it also doesn't read straight front to back, so people have to flip it around - LOL, it will give them hours of entertainment.

Here's BoInk through week 11 - I didn't stitch this last Sunday.  I took a few days off after finishing the book, and the kids had a choir concert, so I felt it was as good a time as any to take a break on this one.  I still have a bit of color on the cat (did we decide it's a cat?) in the top right corner - the purple is a color I have to steal from Emma's baggie, but I can do that because.......

I've finished all the cross stitches on Emma #2!  Mini happy dance - still have a heck of a lot of backstitching, "lace" and a few beads to sew in place.  But you all know how I like that light at the end of the tunnel, no matter how dim it may be.

Also, I did hear back from my friend, and she's received the little purse I sent her, and she loves it, so I feel very happy about that.

House updates - we've passed the appraisal, and have entered the underwriting phase of loan approval.  Closing is still set for the 29th - is that really next week?  Could it really happen?  We went to Bed, Bath and Beyond today to just look for curtains - we'll need something for the living room slider, and we want a cafe curtain for the dining room and a valance for the kitchen.  I'm not big into matchy-matchy things, but I do like things to go together.  We found a panel we liked, and the person looked it up and said "Good news - it's on clearance, only $9.99/panel.  Bad news - our store is completely out." So he ordered all the panels we needed from other stores in the area, which will ship directly to us.  I remember a time when you actually had to drive to other towns and hope and pray that the clearance item was still waiting for you.  We plan to cut down one of the drapery panels and make our own cafe curtains and valance out of that.

In the meantime, I really should start cleaning, decluttering and packing.  My husband is so much better at the packing part, but he's still in Seattle, so I have to do it myself.  I've put the girls to work this evening, separating all the plastic grocery bags in the kitchen by store type (Walmart, WinCo, Albertsons, etc.).  Now that Katie's potty-trained, I don't have the need for as many plastic bags.  I need a craft idea for these!

I hope everyone has a safe weekend - it's a holiday in the US, Memorial Day, on Monday.  The unofficial start of summer.  We'll bbq hamburgers on Sunday and steak on Monday, with sweet corn, baked potatoes and orange soda.  Until next time...

Goal update time!

My goals for April were pretty simple - I'd just found out that our offer on the house had been accepted, and I was a little distracted. So let's see how I did:

Finish-Finish gift for grandparents (that's Dove Love, if you haven't been following along) - no, but I'm making really good progress on it. Thanks to Debra Ann for her input via e-mail!
Stick to weekly stitching schedule - ummmm, yes? BoInk is easy to stick to - I'm so excited to work on it on Sundays. The others, well, I've been more flexible with them, but I'm accomplishing stuff...
Pack 2 boxes each week (maybe starting with beads) - nope! Haven't even started. But the beads are off my work table.
Focus on what I'm doing in the moment instead of being distracted by paint colors, new drapes, etc. - ummm, no, I found a game on facebook that I really like, and I've been spending way too much time there. I've recently started sitting down with stitching at the computer so I can stitch and chat while I wait to recharge...

Goals for May (holy cow, I can't believe it's May):

Finish-finish Dove Love. That means all stitches in all pieces of fabric, every drop of glue dried, finished product mailed before May 31.
Finish cross stitches on Emma #2. I only have 2 shades of pink left. I think that goal is totally achievable.
Sew dresses, but not until I finish stitching Dove Love finish.

I'm a little sad that I decided to pass up the most recent TTE - I really wanted to do a floss tag. But I have to be realistic - I just won't have the time to give to it without taking away from my other commitments.

I think anything I achieve above these is commendable, considering we'll be moving! We got the official word, the "seller" has recorded and officially owns the house he's trying to sell us, so we can move forward with the financing part. We have most of the documents already, but we're looking at a closing date of May 29. Only 2 weeks later, and if our landlords will let us have until June 15 to be out, then Hallie can finish out the school year on the same bus route and we can still have 2 weeks to peel wallpaper and paint before we move in.

I hope everyone has a great month of May, everyone! Thanks for reading!

Still here...

There seem to be a lot of "Still Here" posts around blogland these days. I wonder if it's the time of year, or something. Personally, I have things to keep me busy, but not many of them are things I can share. I've been working away on the Dove Love finish, at least a little bit every day. But honestly, mostly I've been spending too much time on Facebook playing stupid games and having a good time.

I've put off packing to move, because it seems like everything is an essential, even though I know that's not true. It looks now like we'll close on May 29, only 2 weeks later than we thought. We'll ask the landlords if we can pay for a partial month of June so that 1) Hallie can finish the school year in the same house/same bus stops and 2) we have a chance to remove weird borders and paint. And move a few boxes at a time, unpack and bring back empty boxes to refill. I think that's the way I prefer to move. After 10 addresses in less than 10 years, I've moved all different kinds of ways!

I'm still deciding if the sewing machine sewing will be accomplished here or after we move. I think my dresses will have to be done here, since the dresses are in lieu of shorts/capris for me. And I think it gets hot here in May. Hallie can wait a little longer for dresses. But then again I may just do them all at once, when I finish Dove Love.

Saturday Update

Only WIP pic is BoInk. Motif #1 is done! The red is DMC satin, and the difference is subtle, but significant, lol. I really like my color choices. They look like jewels and precious metals to me, and they seem to be working together really well. I think tomorrow I will work on the yellow frame around the motif and extend my gridding. I get tired of counting 10 rows over-2, so I only grid more as I need.

All the rest of my stitching this week was on a gift, so I can't show it. I got ink last Saturday (yes, I'm weak), so I printed some patterns for the cancer ornaments.

Family busy-ness today - 2 birthday parties this afternoon, a trip to the post office (yes, Theresa, your bracelet is coming with me!), during birthday party #1 I'm going to spend my Joann gift card (yay) and maybe have an iced latte and read a book without pictures. It's been one of those weeks.

Positive house news - the "seller" was at the house with a work crew remedying the items in the inspection that needed remedy, and was supposed to go to the title company to get himself from "seller" to actual seller. He told our agent that he's still planning to close on the 15th. And I guess, all that remains is the appraisal and whatever the financing guy does. :)

Saturday Update

Only one pic update today. Most of my work this week has been on the Dove Love finishing, and I'm not showing that!!!! Okay, that's more for me than for you. I need to keep it a secret.

Here's BoInk from this week. All the black and orange on Motif 1 is done. It looks kind of cool like this! I'll do more color on it tomorrow.

We have a busy day today: town egg hunt, meeting the realtor to go over the inspection report and decide what to ask the seller to fix, Hallie and I both have eye exams, and at some point we need to color eggs!

On the topic of egg coloring, here's a note for Heather's "Mommy Fail" Friday - well, an almost-fail - on the way home from the communion service last night, we stopped at the grocery store to get an extra dozen eggs and color pack (they had plenty - yay). I was going to cook the eggs last night so they'd be all cool in the morning/afternoon, and there would be no delays in the joy of egg coloring. I put the ham for Sunday in the fridge (again, yay), and left the eggs on the counter to remind me to go get the big pot out of the garage. Okay, here are a couple of important things to consider: 1) I've only been back on my anti-depressant for about 2 days, so I'm still a little scattered. 2) We got home from the communion service at 9:15, and my kids are usually in bed by 8. Yeah. 3) The kids didn't get to bed until 10!!!!! You can imagine that someone with depression and social anxiety was pretty much on edge by that point, and wanted nothing more than silence. Not complete silence, just not the sounds of arguing children. So I watched the baseball game and tried to do some work on the Dove Love finish, and decided it was too much trouble to go to the garage to get the big pot. I did not at any time go back into the kitchen. This morning, I jumped out of bed with a start, as that was the first moment I remembered that I'd left the eggs on the counter. Yes, that's right, they sat on the counter all night. Fortunately, my mommy lives with me, and reassured me that if you're going to boil eggs, it's okay that they were unrefrigerated for less than 12 hours. So there will be colored eggs, and there will be deviled eggs and potato salad for days and days.

Just a quick post...

My stitching focus this week has been on the gift for my mom. I Fray-Checked it yesterday afternoon, and should be ready to finish this afternoon. I'll cut out the photo frame, and consider embellishing the Lizzie*Kate portion, or maybe just go glue happy so it can dry and be done.

House update - the selling agent has officially taken the house off the market. I'm glad that our realtor is looking out for us. There were some confusing boxes marked and not marked on the MLS, and he did a title search, and found some paperwork had not been filed, so he is amending the contract to state that all previous sale paperwork must be filed before we will move forward with inspection. This step could take until the end of April. The positive news - the seller obviously intends to get rid of this property, we think he was hoping to save some money by skipping a step and hoping no one would notice. We noticed. ;) That's where my mind has been yesterday and today - tough to focus on stitching anything, since the project I want to work on has to be done when my mom's not home.

Bunco at church tonight! I haven't played since college, and I'm looking forward to a fun night getting to know some other women from church.

Goal Review Time (You want to read this one!)

Recap of March Goals

Stitching:

Complete 3 new items for Etsy - no - I think I posted one new item, I have another one waiting to be finish-finished.
Stick to my stitching schedule (posted on the right) - weekly progress in each category - I'm going to say yes
Finish stitching Dove Love by 3/25 and move on to finishing - Completed 3/29!!!!!!!!!!!!
Stitch and finish Lizzie*Kate gift by 3/31 - will complete stitching today (3/31)
Stitch, finish and mail TTE Biscornu exchange piece by 3/31 (deadline) - mailed 3/28, and Dawn has already received.

Beading:

Organize stash (I know, too general) - no
Try one new seed bead stitch by 3/17 - no

Blogging:

Maintain posting pace (I'm happy with it, are you happy with it?) - yes
Create widget for bracelet giveaway - yes
Comment at least weekly on fellow stitching blogs - yes

Miscellaneous things I hope to attain by 3/31:

Find a house!!!!! - yes!!!!!!! We just heard back from the agent on the house we saw Saturday - the only change the seller wants is to exclude the storage shed in the back yard. Um, okay! Pending inspection, closing May 15!!!!! Pics later when more docs have been signed. But we were praying for a quick answer and we got one - the offer was sent at 6 last night, with a response by 10 this morning.
Potty train Katie!!!! - I'm gonna say...yes!!! She's been dry all day every day since Friday afternoon - Day 3. She's in pull-ups at night still, but I'm good with that. She even made it through Costco on Sunday without an accident, and I got out of Costco for less than $100.
Regular fitness routine - no, but I've been busy! And I always lose 5 pounds when I move, and it's almost time to start mowing the lawn again, and my size 14 jeans have a hole in them, so I have no choice but to fit into the size 12. Motivation, right?

So, goals for April:

Finish-Finish gift for grandparents (that's Dove Love, if you haven't been following along)
Stick to weekly stitching schedule
Pack 2 boxes each week (maybe starting with beads)
Focus on what I'm doing in the moment instead of being distracted by paint colors, new drapes, etc.

Saturday Update

I've been focusing this week on what I do have, what I've been able to accomplish. I'm trying to keep that positive attitude in every aspect of my life. I was so determined to finish Dove Love this week! And then this darn cold/flu thing knocked me on my butt! It's annoying, because I had enough energy to sit in the chaise and watch TV, but not enough to stitch. The last 2 nights I was in bed, lights out by 10 (early for me). So keeping that in mind:


I'm grateful to only have about 6 rows left in the tail. I'm grateful to only have about 6 rows left in the tail. I'm grateful...you get the idea. Maybe next week I'll just post a pic of the back. :D



BoInk - I decided to start Motif #1, and I'm glad I did, because in stitching the black tops of the knotwork, I discovered that I am not off at all in my count. Yippee! I really like the orange I chose - alone with the black, it looks like gold/copper filigree.


Housey-ness: No response from the seller on the cute blue house. Our offer expired at 7 pm on Friday, so we're not obligated. We looked at some more today, and found one that's very similar to the one we're renting - exact layout, somewhere, it's 400 square feet smaller. There's one less bathroom, and I think most of the lost space is in the kitchen/dining room. So we'll be talking about whether to wait for the sellers to come back with a counter offer or walk away and go for the one we saw today. I'm not as excited about it, but it is still in this area and in our price range. And it's pretty much move-in ready - just depersonalizing and repersonalizing bedrooms, and removing borders in all the main living areas. Holy cow, border-happy people!

Katie-ness: I think she's made herself "sick" - her tummy hurts and she has a fever, and you know, I'm pretty sure it's been since Monday or Tuesday that she pooped. But she's been dry all day, including wandering around strange houses.

While I wait...

We found out yesterday that we were the 3rd offer in on the house. They have until Friday evening to get back to us. They also discovered the 500 foot discrepancy between the listing and the actual house size, so I won't be surprised if they don't accept any offers and relist at a higher price.

I've nearly finished Dove Love. All I have left is the tail portion on the heart! My goal was to finish by yesterday. I think under the circumstances 1 day late counts. I'm determined, even with a cold/flu, to finish that tail today. I will do as much stitching as I can before my eyes feel like they've shrunk inside my head.

Yes, my wonderful children have shared their germs, and I have a fuzzy-headed, volcanic-sneezy cold/flu thing. I have little appetite (Mommy's sorry, girls) and I feel yucky (again, sorry). Why does Mommy always get the sickness last? I'm the worst about telling my kids "it's just a cold, you don't feel that bad, go eat your dinner, I got pizza because I know you'll eat it" - oops. Yesterday I managed to make meatloaf and get it out of the oven before my hips and shoulders started aching. It wasn't so much that I wasn't hungry, I just didn't feel like eating until later. I warmed up a can of cream of chicken soup and drank it, along with some 7-Up, just cuz.

Otherwise, I'm chilling (literally) and playing games on Facebook, oh and trying the 3-day potty training method. Yesterday was day 1 - the only times Katie went potty and stayed dry were when I told her to go before nap and before bedtime. It's the "tell Mommy" that seems to give her a hard time. We've been "going potty" for nearly 2 years - she has to get it soon, right?

Thanks for visiting me - at least you can't get germs through cyberspace.

House update

Yesterday was a rollercoaster day - there was a question on the assessed value of the house, and the tax status, and how that would affect our monthly payment. We finally got those numbers sorted out this morning, only to hear from our agent that there are multiple offers on the house. We are still submitting an offer. Like so many have said, if this is the house for us, then it will work out. I just pray for a quick, clear yes or no - no more of this drawn out "should we or shouldn't we" stuff. We do have a "back-up" house that we're not super excited about, and we are by no means about to be on the street. I'm grateful that we are in a position where we can walk away if the deal doesn't work.

Thanks for your encouragement and prayers, everyone. I feel it. Faith (and strength) are found in uncertainty!

Good stitching news and good waiting news...

Good stitching news first. On BoInk, I miscounted when I recounted my miscount; anyway, I started stitching the first motif with my adjusted alignment. I stitched straight across the top row, and found that I didn't need to adjust at all! So I was able to pull out that row and get back in line. That made me feel good. This motif is inspiring me more than the frame - it was hard to put it down last night, and it will be hard to wait until next Sunday to stitch more on it.

Good waiting news - we made a decision to make an offer on the blue house! My mother is going to the realtor's office tonight to sign the paperwork. Because it's bank-owned, we have to wait 3 days to find out if our offer was accepted. We see 3 doors that could shut on this - the bank not accepting our offer or getting multiple offers; the house not qualifying for FHA financing; or the inspection finding major problems that the bank won't fix and we can't afford to fix before closing. We are stepping out on faith - this was the first house we felt excited about, and we know that if this is the one for us, then God will hold those 3 doors wide open. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers for this. I'll keep you updated.

Update: The realtor confirmed that the seller will not accept an FHA offer, based on a preliminary inspection. However, there is a way to do a conventional loan, with an inspection contingency. So after this evening, we wait 3 days to find out if they accept our offer.

Saturday Update

Book of Ink Circles - I did not get very much done at all. Just enough to discover that I'm off one square each way on the outline of the first motif. I think Sunday I'll finish the outline of this motif and either start filling in the motif or do the yellow border.



Here's Dove Love! Okay, maybe it'll take me until next Friday to finish, but I'll definitely (I think) complete it this month. I've started thinking on paper and fabric about the finishing. And now my lips (fingers) are sealed, because otherwise I'll give it away.


House hunting! This one just showed up on our list this week, and it sounded really small, so we almost didn't look at it. I'm glad we did, because the square footage has to be a typo. This home is beautiful inside, well below our budget, needs some work, and we still love it. I'll keep you updated, it sounds like we're going to try to move forward on it. The realtor (foreground) and I went back with the camera and tape measures for a second look on the same day. I'm e-mailing 83 pictures to DH since he wasn't here to look at it with us. It's within 3 year-old walking distance of the grocery store, and still in the part of town where we live now. People who pray, please will you pray about this for us? It's scary, since this is our first home buying experience, it's a 70 year old house, and so many things can go wrong...but it feels right.

Thanks for reading! Have a great weekend.

Saturday update - March 7

Okay, progress for the week. First - Book of Ink Circles. 610 stitches in less than 6 hours last Sunday. A pretty good start, and by looking at the progress of the other SAL members, pretty average, too!

Dove Love - I'm on the home stretch of the red - finish the large heart and 2 smaller hearts, then on to gold. I really wanted to finish the large heart this week, but DH arrived home, and biscornu and a surprise date....well, it just didn't happen, that's all! In addition to adding a couple more rows this afternoon, I also worked more on my finishing ideas. Don't tempt me to tell you by asking - you never know who reads blogs, and this is a gift for my grandparents.

Emma has no new stitches on her - she stayed in her bag when I was distracted by my biscornu exchange. All the stitching is done, it's been "blocked" and pressed, and I'm forcing myself to wait until Tuesday to start assembly.

My date with DH last night was fun! What a surprise - not only dinner without the kids, but a hotel suite with a jetted tub. It was a great opportunity for us to be like we were before we became parents. No, I did not take any stitching with me ;).

We were home by 10:30 this morning - the hotel was hosting at least 3 basketball teams in the state tournament, and there was no breakfast left by the time we got to the lobby! Plus we missed the kids lots, so we went home and had breakfast, then went house-hunting, so DH could see the houses on the short list.

I hope you all are having a good weekend!

March goals

Is it possible that it's already March? Is it possible that I accomplished everything on my February goal list? Let's see!

Recap of February Goals:

Complete 3 new items for Etsy - well, I listed 4 things, only 2 of them were new finishes, but that counts, right?
Continue making strong weekly progress on Dove Love - yes! Yay! I'm estimating 2 or 3 more weeks of updates, and then it's back to the Secret Squirrel cave until the gift is received
Complete and mail 3 Ladies RR to Pixie by 2/24 - completed by 2/26, holding until Pixie is ready to receive
Stitch 2 hours every week on Emma #2 (8 hours in Feb) - 8 hours in Feb accomplished - the first weekend SAL on FB really helped me make that goal
Finish and mail 1 PIF by 2/14 - yes, and Laura has received

March Goals

Stitching:

Complete 3 new items for Etsy
Stick to my stitching schedule (posted on the right) - weekly progress in each category
Finish stitching Dove Love by 3/25 and move on to finishing
Stitch and finish Lizzie*Kate gift by 3/31
Stitch, finish and mail TTE Biscornu exchange piece by 3/31 (deadline)

Beading:

Organize stash (I know, too general)
Try one new seed bead stitch by 3/17

Blogging:

Maintain posting pace (I'm happy with it, are you happy with it?)
Create widget for bracelet giveaway
Comment at least weekly on fellow stitching blogs

Miscellaneous things I hope to attain by 3/31:

Find a house!!!!!
Potty train Katie!!!!
Regular fitness routine

Thanks for visiting and taking part in my creative life. I appreciate your comments.