Did I make it?

Well... I've been dreading posting how badly I did on my goals from the beginning of last year. But hey things get in the way.
It's been quite the tumultuous year. Between my emergency operation and multiple hospital visits, to my Grandfather passing away, to having to put down one snake and getting a new one. It has been a learning and growing year for me and for my B/F. It will be two years in February that we moved into our place "officially" together. And while we've had a challenging year I can't imagine having done any of it without him. I am so thankful to have such a compassionate and considerate man to share my life with.
Okay... enough of the sappy stuff right. ;)
Onto how badly I did at my stitching goals this past year.

- Judgement Dragons - 4 pages (at least) 4 pages complete DONE!
- Romantic Rose Garden Chatelaine - finish (9 pages of cross stitch) 1 page completed
- Soul Mates - all half pages & 3 regular sized pages - 1 half page complete
- Elfland HAED SAL SK - Finish it (2 pages) 1 page completed
- Castles in the Air SAL - at least 6 parts Part 4 complete
- Ornaments - 2 or 3 (yet to be picked out) #1 Smoke - Complete, #2 Fa la la - Complete, Autumn Ornament - Complete DONE!
- Pirate - Sue Hillis Argh Pirate finish
- Cheryls Bouquet - finish DONE!

Added on Projects for the year:
- Hummingbird bell pull Complete
- Rose HAED SAL SK

Yes pathetic I know.
So... for next year, I will have less goals and ones that I know I can achieve, and then everything else on top of that is just icing on the cake.
So here they are:
- Judgement Dragons - 4 pages (at least)
- Wedding piece -finish (wedding is in July so there is no choice)
- 3 small Stockings - these are for my Mom and two siblings. They are to pick out their patterns shortly and I'll share with you in the next little bit what is happening with this, the stitching part is just ornament sized.

That's it! I know I can do these. :)
A few new starts for this year will include:
- HAED QS SAL, I chose Faerie Bride. Got the first page the other day just have to get some more supplies and start it.
- Wedding piece, I started this one but one of the colours is an issue, so need to get to the LNS and pick another one, I will share that one soon as well. (It's barely been started as I knew right away I had a colour issue)
- Canvaswork Carolyn Mitchell piece, yes you read that right. I'm gonna learn canvas! My guild is doing a class for it that starts in mid-January. I still have to get to my LNS and get my supplies (see a theme here, I really need a trip to the LNS, but it snowed this week and the roads were too bad to get on the highway to get here, gotta get there next weekend).

And there will be other projects I'm sure.
In the meantime... I will be stitching Dragons most of this weekend, maybe some work on Rose as well. I have almost a half page finish on Dragons, as I have been off all this week. (I could have had more but a video game I got for Christmas was too addictive, lol).

Hope you all have a lovely New Years and see you all in 2011 for more stitchy fun!

We have Winners!

I've got winners (generated from a random number draw) for the blog packages. Thank you to everyone who commented and entered. There were 80 entries into the Christmas package and 71 into the Halloween one. Absolutely awesome!
Without further ado... the winners are:

Package #1 goes to Terri (bronzemom)!
Package #2 goes to Lisa V!

I have sent you both an email for your addresses.
Congrats!


I hope that everyone has had a fantastic holiday. Mine has been good. I've been stitching away and video gaming. I got an awesome new game for Christmas and it's very addictive, but I'm making sure I stitch too! Might even have a half-page on Dragons done by the end of the week. (it will be sad to go back to work after all this progress that is for sure).

I had a lovely surprise in my mail on a day when I needed a pick me up.
The lovely Evalina sent me an awesome kit for Christmas. It's from Mill Hill. I've already started it!
It's the first time I've used perforated paper and I gotta say it's a nice change from the usual small stitches I do. Thank you sooooo much Evalina.
Here is the one she sent me:

Hope everyone is doing well. Especially those that have been having bad weather and snow. We've got snow today, I figure it's because I wanted to go to the stitching store that is out of town. Maybe I'll get there tomorrow. (I got gift certificates for Christmas that I am itching to use to get more stuff!)

Winner Announcement Delayed

I'm sorry everyone, I will not be announcing the winner of my giveaway today.
There has been some very sad news in the stitching community this morning and I just can't bring myself to compile names and set it all up for the draw. Forgive me.
I promise to do it after Christmas.

However, I do want to wish everyone a wonderful, happy, safe and warm holiday! I hope that everyone has time to catch up with family, friends and some stitching.
All the best to you and yours.
Mel.

Cheryls Bouquet & Row on Dragons FINISHED!!

I'm very pleased to announce two finishes. (okay one finish, one row complete)
Let's start with the official finish. Cheryl's Bouquet. This is a free pattern by Needlemania. I used Rainforest thread from Wildflowers as the variegated colour. I chose not to do the square border that is in the pattern and will instead frame it as a square. I'm quite pleased with the colours and how it turned out. Here she is:

The second 'finish' is not really a finish but it's a huge milestone for me. I have completed a row on Dragons!! This was my goal for the years, to complete one row,which is four pages, and I have done it! It was very exciting to put in the last stitches of this row last night. Only three more rows to go.  This piece is about 1/3 of the way done now. Here it is to date:

If you haven't already, check out my previous post and enter my giveaway. You still have time drawing is not until Yule (Dec 21).

I have confirmed that I am not working at all next week, or the week after! I am sooo excited. I see some stitching time in there for me. And of course hanging with some friends and family and such. We are celebrating Christmas #1 with B/F's family on Saturday. Should be fun as my nieces and nephews love presents (they are kids of course they do, lol).

Hope everyone is staying safe and warm. it's snowy and cold here. But I know other places have been getting way worse snowstorms than us!

200 Followers Giveaway

Well I've *finally* got my act together and have the giveaway ready.
It's going to be two different ones as the consensus seemed to be that more people winning is better.

Giveaway Rules:

There will be two packages and therefore two winners.
All winners must have their email address available in the comment they leave or in their profile. (If I cannot find your email address another winner will be drawn).
You must enter by December 21 at 5:00pm MST.
Ways to enter:
1) Comment gets you an entry for both packages (if you don't want to be entered in one of them let me know, otherwise I'll assume everyone wants in on both).
2) If you are a follower you'll get a bonus entry (just let me know in your original comment that you are).
3) If you post on your blog you get a bonus third entry (please post that you did this).
I will ship anywhere in the world. Shipping will occur AFTER Christmas so I don't have to stand in a huge long line-up.
The packages all contain brand new items.

Package #1 - Christmas (forgive the slightly blurry photo)

Package #2 - Halloween (cause how can I not keep giving away things for my fave holiday)

I want to thank everyone so much for your continuing support and for reading my blog. I read all the comments and enjoy each of them (except the spammers, lol).
I have made so many fantastic friends online through this blog! So thank you, thank you.

Coming up: I will have the dragons page done before the week is out, so watch for the row finish. Cheryl's Bouquet is pretty much done, I have to make some decisions and then I will post a pic.

Ooopss...

Forgive me, I got caught up in a bunch of stuff last night and forgot to take pictures for the giveaway... so it's delayed until next week. But I promise it's worth the wait.
Sorry everyone... :(

Rose & What's Happening

Well as Christmas approaches it seems that things just get more and more frantic. But I did manage to get 1/2 of my Christmas shopping done. All the easy stuff. lol. ;)
We are having two Christmas' this year. One on the 18th with B/F's family and then with mine on the 25th. Seems odd to me to celebrate twice… but hey should be twice the fun then right?

As for stitching. I have been at it. Cheryl's Bouquet is closing in for the motif (then it's just the border which will be super fast I think). Dragons got neglected this past week but I will get that page done before the end of the month.
However, it was the last SAL for the second half of the year SK from HAED. So here is Rose. I gridded down (something I rarely do) so that I could still work from bottom to top. There is a giant section not stitched at the top, it's all one colour so I figured I'd save it for a day when I don't want to think at all and just stitch rows and rows.
Here she is:

Giveaway will be posted before weeks end. There is one Christmas item, One Halloween item and maybe some bonus stuff. I might split it into two haven't decided yet. I guess maybe I could get opinions. Do people rather have one big win, or two smaller wins so that more than one person gets picked?

I will also post some Cronus pics soon as he is growing so fast! We got him a new water dish that is larger and he seems to like it. So watch for more on my snake hatchling soon (and if you don't like snakes then don't watch for it. As always I will have a warning at the top of the post that there are snake pics below as I know some people just cannot deal with them due to fears)

Hope you are all staying warm and stitching!