Fabrics and Floss Tosses :)

Hello Everyone!  I'm super excited to show my progress on Persephone!  I've spent a lot of time with her this week!

I'm so close to being done I'm considering my next Mirabilia!  Floss Tosses aplenty today!  First, Merchant Mermaid.  I really want her to look like a vintage pub sign so I'm planning to stitch her on Ale by Picture this Plus.  Thanks to Amanda for recharting the words for me!

The next one I'm considering is Villa Mirabilia.  I love her dress!  I plan to stitch her on Fairy Forest Opalescent by the Crafty Kitten because I think the fabric and the very faint mottling won't detract from her very detailed dress.  It's also the only piece of fabric I have big enough for her!





The next one I'm considering is Enchanted Mermaid.  I'm stuck between Crystal Mirage and Crystal Meditation by Picture This Plus.  The colors shown are from the purple conversion I'm planning for her.  First, Crystal Meditation:

And this next one is Crystal Mirage:



I'm just not sure which one of those I want to stitch first! 

I spent some time this week dyeing fabrics!  I had a ton of fun!  Two of them are spoken for, but if you'd like to buy one of the top three, please let me know.  I'm selling them for $16 plus $2 shipping in the US.  For other countries, I'll charge shipping based on what the post office tells me.

This one is for my friend Vicki :

And this one is for my friend Cassie:

Thanks for sticking around for another long post, everyone!  TTFN!!!!



Liebster Awards!

Hello Everyone!  Until this week, I had never heard of the Liebster Awards.  Then both Kalu at Me, My Bubble and My Stitching  and Shazzump at Shuzzump's Stupid Little Corner both honored me by awarding a Liebster Award to my blog this week!  I have soooooo much  fun taking pictures and sharing all of my progress with all of you!  I can't tell you how much I appreciate the feedback and camaraderie I've experienced as a result of starting this blog. 

Liebster is a German word meaning favorite, dearest or beloved.  The Liebster Awards are awarded by bloggers to other, newer bloggers who have fewer than 200 followers to spread the word and help newer bloggers gain wider recognition.

The award comes with four conditions that each recipient must satisfy when accepting.

1.  Choose 5 up and coming blogs (with less then 200 followers) to award the Liebster to.

2.  Show thanks to the blogger who awarded the Liebster to you by linking back to them.

3.  Post the award on your blog.  List the bloggers you are giving awards to with links to their sites.  Comment on their blog to let them know you gave them the award.

4.  Share 5 random facts about yourself that people don't know.



So the five blogs I'd like to give Liebster Awards are...

1.  Melissa at Honeybee's Hive!  Melissa is one of my favorite people and she works on some really wonderful pieces.  Her Dance Of The Graces alone is worth checking out her blog!


2. TJ at The Mirabilia Stitcher!  If you couldn't tell by some of the projects I'm working on, I LOVE Mirabilias and Tracy is very good at changing the colors around and making each project her own. 


3.  Dana at Thutmosis's Thoughts !  She has so many pretty pics AND she does bead conversions!


4.  Kate at Sunshine Stitcher!  Kate has many projects worth looking at, some of them non-cross stitch!


5.  Mel at Melanie the WIP Slayer! I love watching Mel's projects come to life!




Five Random Facts about Myself...


1.  I LOVE stitching to the John Mayer Pandora Radioor while watching random documentaries from the History Channel on Netflix.


2.  I'm a Washington Redskins fan.  Sometimes, I think I should hang my head in shame.


3.  I really love cooking.  I enjoy playing with different techniques and seasonings.


4.  I'm a beer snob and a wanna-be wine snob.  I enjoy dark brown ales and ambers the best.  The Husband loves Porters and Stouts.  If I could afford to spend the money on more expensive wines, I'd probably be a wine snob too.


5.  I really love Phineas and Ferb on the Disney Channel.  One of the most clever shows ever.  I even downloaded the soundtrack and made ringtones for my phone.  When my mama calls, I get to hear Squirrels in My Pants hehe.


Some Honorable Mentions:  I want to mention a couple of blogs that I enjoy reading that have more than 200 followers.


1.  Andie at StitchitAndie.
2.  Mel at Colours of the Outback.
and
3. Lesleyanne at Lesleyanne's Life in Stitches.


This ended up being a pretty long post!  I have some floss tosses and some new dyed fabrics to show everyone so tomorrow or Sunday I'll post again.  TTFN!

Part Three is Done! Yay!

As of 4:45 PM CST, I am 1/4 of the way done with Deep Blue Sea!  All four Coral Motifs from Part Three are done!  And of course, I have pics of each one!

Top Coral Motif:

Right Coral Motif:

Bottom Coral Motif:

Left Coral Motif:

Here is a pic of the whole piece as of right now:

I'm hoping to be able to give Persephone some love right now.  Maybe I can get the bottom half of her tail done!  I've gotten the fabrics in that I've chosen for Merchant Mermaid, Enchanted Mermaid, and Villia Mirabilia.  I'll post some floss tosses when I get close to finishing Persephone and maybe yal can help me pick my next Mira!  Also, I'm just 3 followers away from 50!  I will hand-dye an fat eighth of fabric for one of my followers when I reach 50!  Any color/ fabric/ count you want!  When I make it to 100, I'll do a fat quarter!  Thank you for following me in my stitching journey!  TTFN!



First Day of Spring!

Well, it's officially the first day of spring!  Spring came roaring into San Antonio on the heels of some frightening thunder storms and tornados.  Today was beautiful but it is supposed to storm again tonight.  I spent the last week in Lousinana getting almost no stitching done.  I did a lot of drinking and eating though! 

I used the afternoon sun to finally get some progress pics!  I'm making some decent progress on Persephone but I'll be putting her away for a couple of weeks so I can get part three of Deep Blue Sea done. 

I messed up somewhere in the bottom of the tail.  I'm still not sure if I want to fudge it or fix it.  And Here is Deep Blue Sea as of this afternoon. 

I'm hoping to finish the Coral motif on the right side tonight.  Here is a close-up of the top motif.

These motifs are fun to stitch so far.  They have a variety of specialty stitches and threads.  I'm having a lot of fun with them right now.  Til next time... TTFN!





St. Patricks Day is Coming a Little Early This Year!

Hello Everyone!  It has been a cold, rainy dreary few days here in San Antonio.  Because of that, I have no new pics to show you. :(  I've made some progress but the light is just not good enough to take pics.  So instead, I'm going to share some recipes :)  Next Saturday is St. Patrick's Day but my family is celebrating today.  I'm cooking Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes, Cornbeef and Cabbage, Colcannon, and homemade Irish Cream. I hope that if you try these recipes, you like them as much as we do!

Corn Beef and Cabbage (**and Colcannon**)
 2 Cornbeef briskets (i get the biggest ones I can find so I have plenty of leftovers for Cornbeef hash)
1 large head of green cabbage
1 cup of Jameson's Irish Whiskey
1 16 oz. can of Guinness
4 cloves of garlic

Place all ingredients (except cabbage) and the cornbeef seasoning packets in a large roasting pan and braise for 4-5 hours at 250 degrees.  Turn the meat over after about 2 hours.  Remove from the oven and set aside.  Cut the cabbage apart into small leaves and rinse.  Place in a large pot over medium heat and add two ladles of the juice from the Cornbeef.  Cover and simmer until it reaches desired wilted texture. 
**To make colcannon, mix some of the cabbage with mashed potatoes.**

This cornbeef recipe so sooo good and the scent will drive you crazy while it's cooking!  The alcohol tenderizes the briskets and it eventually cooks off so it won't leave you drunk after eating :)

Homemade Irish Cream
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
1 cup of heavy whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon of coconut extract
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
3 tablespoons of chocolate syrup
1 and 1/4 cup of Jameson's Irish Whiskey.

Mix all ingredients in and blender.  Keep refridgerated and shake before serving.

I hope everyone enjoys these recipes!  First sunny day, I'll take some pics and show some progress!
TTFN!

In Like a Lamb...

Happy first day of March!  It is an absolutely beautiful day here in South Texas.  A pretty (but cloudy) 80 degrees!  Windows are open and fresh air in coming in!  I have had very little time for stitching the last few days but I do have some progress to show!  First, Persephone. 

I'm very close to being completely done with my color conversion and I will publish it here as soon as I get it all figured out. 

And here is Deep Blue Sea:

All I have left on Part one is backstitching so I am doing a little work on part three, more backstitching, then back to part three.  I had to break it up a little!

Now that I've shown you what I'm working on, let me show you all of my new fabrics I've received recently.  They are really wonderful!  This first one is a Sparklie's Solitaire Opalescent linen in 32 count.  I'm going to put Nora Corbett's Trick or Treat Fairy from the September 2008 issue of Cross-Stitch and Needlwork on this one.

This next one is a Silkweavers 28 ct opalescent called Mystical Seas and I absolutely love it!  Can not wait to see Nora's next mermaid because she will probably go on this!

And this last piece was hand-dyed by my friend, Jenetta and I LOVE it.  It is 28 ct jobelan.

I'm leaning towards Mermaid of Atlantis for this one but I may change my mind.  Thanks for reading and TTFN!