My supply run went better than expected today and I got everything I wanted at Hobby Lobby! A cute little frame for one piece, some backing for another, and some trim for the third. Getting so close!
To hold you over, 2 products that are NEW to me that I'm in love with and definitely count as necessary supplies for finishing fun stitchy items! Well maybe... :)
First, Cool Whip Icing. Coolest thing since Cool Whip! Comes in 3 flavors, chocolate, cheesecake, and vanilla. Listed in order of importance, of course! These little containers of joy are not available everywhere Cool Whip is sold so you may have to look a little. In fact, I found them only at Albertson's. Kroger & Wal-mart haven't caught up. It's probably a good thing I only visit Albertson's when my meds need refilling and therefore cannot make frequent purchases!
Second, Hershey's Special Dark Syrup. I love almost any chocolate in almost any form but was VERY skeptical that I would enjoy dark chocolate in syrup form. I was completely wrong. It is crazy delicious. While it is good on ice cream, never have I tasted better chocolate milk! And with fat free milk to boot. Not completely sure how this syrup made that milk taste so amazing but it is now a staple in our fridge!
Every once in a while the stitchy magazines &/or companies will post freebies on their Facebook page. I made an interest list on Facebook will all the stitching pages I could find. It's so cool to check-in with so many sites at once!
Cross Stitch Collection releases their February issue tomorrow in the UK and it's all about flowers... Full Bloom! Seems like it takes forever to reach us colonists. Leslie Teare will have a feature on daffodils and the magazine is offering a teaser daffodil freebie... here! Ms. Teare, at a quick glance, also has a lot of cute freebies on her blog Thoughts on Design. Check em out!
I'm working on completing the stitching on a small piece I started last year and then I have a day planned to get 3 pieces finally finished! Yay!
After years (and years) of subtle (and not so subtle) suggestions from my wise slightly older cousin that I should start cross stitching, I finally gave it a real try last January! I've started pieces over the years but never really got the hang of it and never even came close to finishing anything. So this year, with the help of detailed emails & cute illustrated cards from the aforementioned cousin and some videos on YouTube, my first completed piece took about a week! Let's review my rookie year!
First ~ My cousin sent me a cute beginner kit of a Panda from Bucilla for my birthday. LOVE the pink bow! You can also see I didn't have the hang of signing the piece in a good place yet!
Second ~ A birthday gift for my aunt who loves Hummingbirds! A pretty kit from Counted Cross Stitch for Dummies, Hummingbird Floral on 14-count white Aida.
Third ~ One of my favorite pieces of 2012 came next... a kit called Equestrian Duo from Dimensions for my mom's birthday. I changed the fabric from the included 14-count Aida to 28-count Antique White Evenweave.
Fourth ~ Another gift! This time for our family neurologist who was awesome! When her dummy of a husband got a shiny new job in another state, she made sure her replacement would still treat me uninsured! The chart was a full wreath in a Just Cross Stitch magazine... I'll have to look up the date. [Update: March/April 2012] Stitched on 28-count Country French Linen, I changed it to a smaller spray and changed the bird from a Robin to a Goldfinch to match the Wild Roses -> both are state symbols of Iowa, where our Doc was relocating. That worked out nice.
I did manage to complete the stitching on 2 more projects but they aren't finished yet. Pics to come when they are! Also looking forward to finishing my 4 WIPs, starting my list of 2013 charts, and finally making some progress on my first annual SAL with my cousin - the insanely cool, wait for it... Skeleton Crew from Cross Eyed Cricket!
Do you have a Stitchy New Year's Resolution? Don't go 3 days in a row without stitching at least 20 stitches. Let's hope this resolution will last longer than February! Happy New Year!!! (Yesterday.)
