Time to catch up

8 months? Holy cow!!!!! So much has happened in the last 8 months. My mom has moved and is loving her new apartment in a senior complex. She is no longer depressed and happier than she thought she would be. Yay for her! 

But my big news is that we totally remodeled our whole first floor basically. New kitchen, family and dining room. That was a 4 month project that we  did ourselves with a little help from professionals. We love the new look and now plan on staying here for another 20 years! You can tell its the same house by looking at the doggie screen door on the far left of both before and after photos. Since then my husband has also helped my son remodel his kitchen with our old cabinets. To say the least, he's looking forward to fall/winter to relax!

 

The finishes I've had this year have been Lizzy Kate's Halloween Rules stitched on PTP Monet.

 I needed to do something other than my Mystic piece.This is not finished yet, I just put it on the bell pull.

We went to the Florida Keys in March to get away from the AWFUL winter in Michigan this year. I took this little project....that had 50 colors.....and was over one on 28 ct! By Blackberry Lane called Snow Day
                              

I also kitted this one on vacation and finished it after getting back and still enjoying the winter....Sleigh Bells by LHN. I have several things now needing finishing.

But most of the year was taken up by remodeling and finishing Balcony View of Villa. 88,500 stitches on 22 ct over one with 2 threads. I started it 2-13 and finished 6-14.This is the finished photo, and not the computer generated one Mystic gives you! The doors look a little wobbly, but it wasn't stretched or framed yet. It's at the framers now and I should have it back sometime next month.

My current WIP's are a new Mystic, Bon Appetito

This is where I was as of July 13...... just a few more stitches before it's done!  :-)   That is the upper left corner if you can't tell.

And I also started another soldier memorial. It is for the other soldier that was killed the same day as Drew, my first soldier piece that I showed on my last entry. 

I guess I need to update you on my Grand daughter too. I know you are wondering! LOL Well she is now 5 and will be starting all day Kindergarten right after Labor Day. She has learned to swim in the deep end of a pool without flotation devices and she went tubing behind our boat too! Time flies. This was just the best Santa, and since I haven't posted since the beginning of Dec 2013 I have to share and then from this June.

Thanks for reading this photo heavy post, maybe someone is still out there! I've been hanging out on FB a lot more than blog post readings. I like these though so I can have a summary for myself. So there's my last 8 months in a nutshell!

Beads and a new start

I've slowed down a bit on my Cirque.....after getting all the stitching done,  I needed to start beading. Well the 3 big circles in the middle were no big deal. The first corner?? That's a different story. Even though I'm not using a dyed fabric, the 32 ct is just a bit too small for the Mill Hill beads I picked. So I am having to free hand the pattern to make it fit. I'm not very good at making things up, hence only one corner is done. I still want to add a few beads around the edges, but that corner is almost done. I've looked at the other 3 corners and YES those will all need to be "adjusted".
 Here is the overall

Here is a close up of the 3 big circles beaded

and here is a close up of the beaded corner (still needing a few around the edges)

And I am a member of The Stitchers Village (badge on the right of my blog) and each member is to stitch a piece of ribbon band for a sampler that Patty will then put together. I had a piece picked to stitch but it didn't "feel" like me. So when I saw the JBW design "Mitten" I knew it was meant to be. I stitched it in one day! I changed the "mitten" to say Michigan to personalize it. I did it in Waterlilies Mediterranean silk to symbolize the waters of the Great Lakes.

And I ended up finishing a piece I started a year or 2 ago. I would like to finish it into a rounded flat fold of some kind.....still mulling that finish over......

I'll end with the weather....as you know most of the north has been under a "cold spell" this week. We have not been in the 20's for over a week now, some days were a high of 6F. Here is my pond and waterfall now.......if you are outside, you can still hear the water running over the rock, but you certainly can't see it!

Brrrrrr

So what better to do when it's 6F outside??? Go to the INDOOR water park where it's 87F! Till next time....stay warm!!!

Watch out with the bucket spills!

Going down the big tubes was her favorite thing.

Leap frog on the bouncy "lily pads"