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Viewing 1 - 9 out of 9 Blogs.
Well, my little girl is turning 16 in September and she LOVES everything Egypt. So for her invitations she wanted me to create her one that resembled Egypt. We scoured through books and finally came across a nifty little scarab and Joanne's Fabrics had all of their card making supplies 60% off. I WENT CRAZY! Of course, so did she. After I gave her the task of the list of invitees, I realized after she had finished that my making 40 inviations would be a tremendous task, especially since I have so many "me" projects I am working on. So I employed the WHOLE FAMILY! Including my fiance! Thank God the man loves me! So here is the finished "prototype". Only 39 more to go!  
So for the last several weeks I have been taking my sweet old time making some baby announcements for my girlfriend in South Africa. The twins weren't due until sometime in August and can you believe the little angels decided to come early?! A whole whopping month early! Babies and mom are doing great, but this little lady is pulling her hair trying to get the announcements done and sent out to South Africa so Marcia can at least send some out before the kids are out of diapers! So, off I go to stitch my little fingers off. Woo hoo!
I have been showing my daughter the wonders and joys of cross stitching and wouldn't you know it, my son wanted to be included as well. So the little guy set aside his Apache Helicopter model to come and do a little cross stitching yesterday and lo and behold, he actually finished it while I was cooking dinner! It looks like there will be more than just me with a cross stitch habit in the house...I need another stitching haven! Mine is quickly getting busy!!!!  
So I have this nifty new sampler to make and I was at the local cross stitch shop looking for all of the nifty threads I need to make this sucker gorgeous, when the gal helping me suggested I try using a thread other than DMC. She recommended I use au vera soie. I have NO CLUE as to how to pronounce this myself, but it sounded so yummy, so I had to go with it! Apparently it is pure silk thread and it's suppose to be heavenly to stitch with. You use it just like you would DMC, but it gives your project a nice glossy sheen to it. So I figured what the hey! I only have 4 colors to work with so it wasn't that big of a deal. She helped me pick the colors that would best match my DMC colors and off I went. I am DYING to try it out, but first things first...ok, fine, maybe I'll break down and do a row just to make sure I like it!  If you have used the au ver a soie threads you must tell me what you think!! 
My craft room is complete, my skeins of thread have been transformed into bobbins, I have my projects marked and properly organized, and now I have gone completely mad! I know I have extremist tendencies, but having my Shopping Wish List in an Excel spreadsheet is a bit overboard, even for me! Although I have been desperately trying to rationalize my insane behavior, I think I may have found a single thread of purpose! - A girl must always be prepared for whatever mood strikes her. Translation: I should have all of my goodies for every project just in case I get a wild hair up my keister.
- It is good to be organized so you can see what you need, what you have, and only purchase the necessities. Translation: Controlled impulse shopping. I have listed everything I may impulsively buy!
- I can sort by Beads, Fabric, and Threads to see what I need to buy by Type so when I stand at the Mill Hill rack I can grab what I need and look really organized while I am doing it. Translation: I am way too lazy to run back and forth from the thread section to the bead section and I am tired of talking to myself saying, "I thought I needed another bead of some sort. Where did I write it at???"
- What better way to combat a recession than by supporting the Cross Stitch stores! Translation: I JUST LOVE SHOPPING!
I suppose I could have a worse vise like spending all of my money at the bar or on smelly things to hang in the car. And so far no one has complained yet!
My new little stitching haven is done! Here are a bunch of my goodies on nicely organized on my new little work table when I need to pull out floss for new projects, cut fabric, or make one of my designs into a card. =) It only took me 45 minutes to create and I absolutely love it! My comfy chair looks right at it and makes me so stinking happy! I also had my daughter and two of her friends wind all of my floss.  I think they hate me, but I paid them for it so they can't complain too much! Now if I can just keep the family out of my room life would be enjoyable!
Today is the day we head to San Diego to hit up several Cross Stitch stores in San Diego! I have 3 on my list and then a fabric store, I am just beyond excited!!! I already pre-ordered several charts from The Needlework Cottage and the latest additions to my growing Mirabilia collection are: Lady of the Mist Crystal Symphony Lily of the Woods Athena Of course, during the course of time between my order and our trip I found a few other charts that I have put on my wish list! I have completely fell in love with Sweetheart Tree and they have a couple of adorable designs that I am dying to try and find!
Thistle Welcome To Have and To Hold Lavender Luminescence Lovely in Lavender So wish me luck in my findings and have a wonderful day of stitching! 
Tags: Mirabilia Sweetheart Tree
I love to use bobbins for my threads and that's what I used to solely do. Buy a new skein, wind it up, label it and put into my box. However, when reality smacked in the face and I realized I needed to purchase 100's of new floss I thought to myself, "Are you out of your frikken mind?!" So, I decided to check out what other options I had for organizing my floss. I searched around and there wasn't a whole heck of a lot of options, but I thought I would try the StitchBow system from DMC. I went out and bought the travel bag, a bunch of the plastic skein holders, 3 of the floss storage boxes and went to work putting in my Garden Verses threads and materials in it. I HATED IT!!! Some times the floss would cover the number on the paper so I couldn't see what number it was. There was no where to put my snippings, when I would pull out my thread the paper wrap would inevitably fall off. I was beyond discouraged! Besides, do you know how much valuable real estate that sucker takes up? Sheesh! So, I needed to go to Plan B. Find another system or just go directly to Plan C - back to my roots and back to Bobbins. So, other than leaving them as they are on the skeins, the Stitchbow system, or winding Bobbins, are there any other choices out there for organizing all of my skeins of thread? How do you organize your floss?
Tags: Skeins Bobbins Floss Dmc
Remember in school when you would goof up you would ask for a "do over"? Wouldn't it be nice to be able to do that as adults? You don't like the choice in a husband, you get behind on some bills, you date a total loser, you get into a car accident; you scream DO OVER! If only that were the case! Unfortunately I can't "do-over" a bad choice in a husband, but I can do over all of my cross stitching goodies. As much as it pains me still, my ex-husband decided NOT to give me all of my cross stitching goodies.  I fretted and whined for a while and then I realized that I COULD just go get all new stuff! True, I can't replace work in process projects. True, I spent $1000's of dollars on all of the floss, fabrics, books and embellishments. True, I can't physically replace what was mine. True, I have lost all of the pictures of all of the projects I have ever made. BUT, I am getting an adult "do over". Which means I get to go shopping AGAIN! Yippee!! Once I made this conscious decision, you have no idea what a whirl wind I have turned into! In the last month, I have spent more money on magazines, new floss, fun designs, fabrics, Mill Hill Beads. Shoot! I am flying to California just to pick up more goodies because Arizona is sadly lacking what I need to complete my little passion. CRAZY FUN! So, I figured I would take my love of my blogging and my passion for Cross Stitching and combine the two. I am starting from scratch and I am going to have fun doing it! From determing which organizational system I am going to use for my floss, to finding the perfect Stitching Haven. I am going to enjoy my do over and pray that I NEVER have to do this again! First "official" topic will be how to organize all of my floss! (Did I mention I went and bought all of the DMC colors?!) I told you, I'm a crazed woman on a mission! Happy Stitching! Suzanne
Tags: Cross Stitch Organizing Bobbins
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