Cross Stitching

For a long time, cross stitching eluded me.  It was one of the very few things that I just couldn't seem to teach myself.  I would get so confused and then irritated and then frustrated and then things would be thrown.  About a year ago, when I started having my Skype chats with my dear friends, They helped me to understand it a bit more.  And slowly but surely I started getting the hang of it.

Fast forward to 3 months ago, when I went to Sewing Summit, in our welcome packet we had an awesome cross stitching pattern from the lovely ladies, Amanda and Ashleigh over at The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery.  I fell hard for it and I was determined to finish this pattern.  I used some cosmo floss in various shades of my favorite color, and some silver dusted aida cloth and got to work.

Well, I am thrilled to share that I finished it!!!!  My very first cross stitching project. It took me 3 months, but I did it and I love it!

I plan on making something with it.  I am not sure what yet, but I have some ideas floating around n my brain.

So while I am talking about the insanely talented ladies over at Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery, did you know that they are doing a Dessert of the Month club for 2012?!!!  My super sweet friend Jacey gifted me a subscription and I was SO surprised!  I am excited to get started on stitching up some sweets.

2011 in review with random geeky pictures for good measure

When I started out the year, I had very specific resolutions that I had given myself.

*Be the best Mom and Wife I can be

*Learn to play my ukulele well

*Slim down my fabric/yarn stash

*Be creative and believe in my creativity

*Learn to cook more than spaghetti

*Meet at least 2 of my internet buddies

*throw away my holey sweat pants

So let's review, and see how I did, shall we?  

*Be the best Mom and Wife I can be:  well, this is really an on going thing that I am constantly working on, but since my children are growing and I haven't killed my husband in his sleep, I'd say that things are going well.  :)

*Learn to play my ukulele well:  I started taking ukulele classes!  I am not a whole lot better, but at least I have gotten the hang of it and can play more than one song.

*Slim down my fabric/yarn stash:  check and check.  I had some huge destash sales and have been able to keep both stashes at a reasonable level.

*Be creative and believe in my creativity:  This was a big one for me.  I was master of always talking myself out of things.  Coming up with reasons why I shouldn't do something or why something I made wasn't good enough.  I am getting better at believing in myself and what I make.  I opened up an etsy shop AND started a blog.  Big steps, I'd say!

*Learn to cook more than spaghetti:  I can now add chili to that list,  hahaha

*Meet at least 2 of my internet buddies:  a BIG YES!!!  I went to Sewing Summit!  It was fantastic and I met a lot of my online friends and made some new ones!

*throw away my holey sweat pants:  Yes, I managed to do this one too, although I regretted it as soon as I did it.  lol  But never fear, I have a NEW pair of non-holey sweat pants that are doing the job quite nicely.

So what do I have on the books for this year? Hmm, let's see.

*I am going to keep being the best mom and wife that I can be.

*I would like to try and get out of my comfort zone with my photography

*Make things for my shop on a more regular basis

*and while I am at that, try to write my blog posts on a more regular basis also.

*Be better about getting things in the mail on time

*Try really hard to trust and believe in myself and what I do

*I have at least 1 meet up with an internet friend(s)

*....and if I happen to lose a few pounds, that would be ok too.

I still have lots of catching up to do.  So I will probably do a catch up post later on in the week.  There has been lots of sewing, I just have to write about it all  :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!