New addition to our household, and being busy

Well things changed a lot over the weekend, multiple different times.
I didn't end up going to 12 hour stitching because of some other things that came up. So I got almost no stitching done. I did finish the stitching and beading on my autumn ornament, but I can't share pics until it's been received by my partner (it's being finished this weekend and then sent next week).

I've not had a lot of time to stitch as I have been working on a political campaign here in town. So that has been taking up A LOT of time.
So no stitchy pictures, sorry.


(please note the next section of the blog is about a new baby snake and there are pictures. If you prefer not to see I understand and hopefully we'll see you back later in the week for my stitching giveaway)
Those that would like to see me share our new pet please proceed below the white box. He's really cute! :)

However I do have some exciting news… we got a new snake!
Many of you will recall that we had to put down Kihone (one of three snakes we had) back in May.
Well it was the reptile show this weekend and there was a guy with lots of hatchlings. As it was my decision to pick out which one (so long as B/F agreed) it was very exciting for me. This is the first animal I've ever had that has been my choice. I adore his plaid looking pattern.
So meet Cronus (named after the Greek Titan), he is a Florida (Brooks) Kingsnake. Just hatched in July.

Isn't he adorable??? :)
I love him already. We can't take him out for a few more days now so that he gets used to his new home. He was very very stressed out when we brought him home from being moved.


Giveaway: I know I promised one. I have not forgotten. I am at my LNS tomorrow night and gonna take a peak around, see what catches my eye. I have package 1 already at home that will be in the giveaway just need to get a package 2. (as I like to have two winners.) :)
So watch for it later this week or early next. It will be coming…

Cheryl's Bouquet & Car Update

Is it really Sept 22 already!?! Where does the time go?
I feel like I am doing well on somethings, like Dragons, and poorly on other projects, like Rose Garden & Papillion SAL that I have not touched in months! But I'm getting over it and just going with it all.
This week however was the Cheryl's Bouquet SAL weekend (these SAL weekends are great as they really force me to put in some stitches on some projects). I frogged almost ALL my stitches from last month… or darn close… as apparently I can't count. *sigh* But it's all fixed up plus some now. Here she is:

As for the car… thank you all for your comments and opinions. We have decided to keep the vehicle. It went in for some service today and everything seems fine. So just have to call the insurance company and get it all sorted out. We will have PLPD insurance on it, so if we hit someone we are covered. Just no collision for the actual car itself. This will allow us to put away the money that would have been car payments for things like our trip to Europe (my BFF moved there so we gotta go visit!) and a house down payment. It will be nice to have a little bit of money in the bank that is for sure.

Coming up this weekend I have another 12 hour at the Stitching Corner. However I am leaving it a bit early for football. I should also get some stitching in tonight and tomorrow evening. It is busy, busy with lots of things going on. Just a lot of stuff going on, so trying to make sure I find some stitching time so I can relax.

I've just realized that this is my 150th post… and the followers list is at 177! Thank you all so much.  So there will be a giveaway next week!! Watch for it...
Gotta see what the store has this weekend and come up with something awesome for the giveaway.
In the meantime hope you are all doing well and stitching up a storm. I am, as always, trying to get around to everyone's blog but sometimes it's just tough.

Page Finish!!! - Dragons

Yep you read that headline correct. I got the dragons page finished a few weeks sooner than schedule! So that is awesome. One more page to finish for this year to meet my goal which shouldn't be a problem (I hope). So that is exciting. (even if all my other goals won't be met b/c of it, dragons is the 'focus' project)
Here is the page area I just finished:

And here they are to date: (there is starting to be dragon looking items in there)

In other news... we had a bit of a mess on our hands yesterday (and it continues to be a mess).
(you can skip this to the last paragraph if you only want to read about stitching)

My car had gone in as scheduled (last week) to get the hail damage from the huge storm two months ago done. It had been quoted on and approved by insurance for the repairs.
So a week after dropping it off I get a call (yesterday) that the car is now a write-off because their estimator totally botched what it should have been double what they said it would be. (so essentially it would cost more to repair the car than to just pay me out for it).
So here's where it gets messy, we have 2 options:

1) Give the car to insurance and get a payout. (about 75% of what the payout will be has to go on the loan against the car, so we'd see 25% of the money)

2) Keep the car, and get 70% of what they offered above (almost all of which would go immediately towards the loan against the car). The car is drivable, a 2005 Corolla with 106,000 kms. It's mechanically awesome. Just has lots of dents from hail. However if we do this we can't have collision insurance. Which means if I hit someone or someone hits me I won't get anymore money for the car, it's value is $0.

So... what it really comes down to is this:
Option 1: means that we essentially have to refinance a new car almost from scratch as the 25% of money we keep from my current car is about 1/6th of the cost to buy a new one. So then have to pay each month a chunk of money to have new car. However in this case you have new car so no problems, warranty, insurance etc.

Option 2: Keep the car with no insurance, but pay off loan as well. This means I would have no payments to make on the car, and my insurance would be dirt cheap. Which puts money in my pocket right away. (I can gain back the 25% that they would have give me in option 1 in a year just on car payments alone).
So that would mean that so long as the Corolla doesn't get smashed up and keeps running we have extra money in hand. (maybe to buy a house, or you know more stitching stuff, lol).

I'm very torn on the issue... it's a tough call. So anyone that wants to chime in their thoughts by all means.
However this is the main issue that is stressing me out this week. But what can you do.


Coming up in my stitching, I am working on my autumn/fall ornament exchange for ILCS. As it's meant to be a surprise there will be no pics until my partner has received it.
Also gonna get some stitches into Rose and Cheryls Bouquet this weekend I hope!
Thanks for reading and your lovely comments.

Retreat!!!

I have lots to share, so grab a coffee or tea, settle in and I hope you enjoy this picture filled post, full of lots of stitching amoungst some other neat things. :)

First off, the retreat was amazing. I loved sitting around with everyone and just stitching for three days! There was a lovely group of ladies that took me under their wing and really made me feel at home. The pieces people are working on are just stunning. It's so great to see so many different techniques, fabrics and all the rest.

Of course, I did a lot of stitching while I was out there. I had a finish! This is Little House Needlworks Ornament #1 (in their series of 12 this year) called Fa La La. Stitched on Cafe 28 ct linen. (I substituted a some colours b/c I wanted more than just red and green in mine.)

Wanna see where I stitched this all up? This is a pic of my 'work' station at the retreat: (I do not have any other photos of the building or people as I want to ensure privacy is kept for everyone)

They also gave us the awesomest name tags! I will cherish mine forever. :)

And then there were classes! I took two classes. One on making bracelets with wire. The technique is eyelets and not that hard at all actually, perhaps hard to get perfect, but to just do up it wasn't too bad. I also took one on making a cute little ring. This was my first foray into wire work with jewelry, and I now have a plier set on order to make more! Here they are:

And more and more stitching. I worked on my HAED Rose SK as part of the SAL on the BB. Here she is so far:

There were also giveaways!! Our welcome package was this cute bag with some bonus little extras in it:
(there were also lots of free patterns and other little things through the weekend as well)

And then I won this awesome scissor fob that I will have to put together. More beading. Looks like I will need to learn how to do it all! :)

Who could let a weekend go by without buying stuff?! I got this pattern from Glendon Place called Sleepy Hollow. The fabric is just divine. The B/F also liked this pattern so it may get moved up on the list to be stitched soon.

Last, but certainly not least. Dragons. I have spent a lot of time with Dragons lately. I know I haven't shared them too much this month, but here they are. I am very close to a page finish and should be on par to get this page done by end of Sept, which is my goal, and then have the next row complete by end of the year. (at this rate it will only take three more years to finish, lol). Page to date:

Full piece to date:

Thank you so much for visiting and reading this far!
I am going to be catching up on BB's, groups and blogs over the weekend.