Lost in the land of WORK,

can't seem to find my way out. Glad to have a minute to at least post a quick message here. Little to no stitching progress made although Ida Mae has a head, that's about it. My Victorian Skaters remain in the basket by my chair and the new counted canvas piece sits on my desk.

I did receive a nice surprise from Laurie the "Birds of a Feather" chart with her remaining silks, I had won in a drawing a few weeks back, arrived. Thought I could stitch this up in no time but it to sits and waits with the others.

I have a major project to finish up this week and then another waiting it's turn due next month, I wish I was talking about stitching but sadly it's work.

But... then there is spring retreat with my "Just for Fun" friends. It's only a few days but that thought keeps me going. And new fabric will arrive in the mail in a few days maybe I can sneak in a little stitching time then. In fact, I 've decided, to take Ida Mae to work with me, maybe just maybe I can take a little lunch break and stitch just a few stitches. And then tonight find fabric for Birds of a Feather and put it in the car for emergency stitch times. It could happen, right?

Well off to work.
CJ in OK doing OK.

But wait  -  a fish awaits

This is Stipey, he is not my favorite because he is very aggressive and somewhat a bully in the tank. Even though Chubs is much larger Stipey thinks he runs the place. Even in fish tanks the bullies are present. He does these little nip and run moves, picking on the smaller and weaker, but occasionally Chubs will put him in his place and there will be peace in tha tank once again.

Ok, really have to go now. Happy Stitching!

Overcoming Negative Progress or

"casting out the frog".  That's right the frog came to visit and my poor Old Crow was completely stripped of it's top border. But I was determined and I stuck with it today, that mean old frog would not rob me of my planned finish. I just couldn't have a post with negative progress.

So here it is -

OLD CROW

by La D Da

finished 03/10/12

I just laid the frame, I will be using, over the top for the picture, but I love how it is going to look.

Next up is Ida Mae Crow and I picked up the fabric Wednesday, it is 35ct Straw from Weeks. I pulled the DMC threads this afternoon and will get started after I finish here.

Of course there was more than this little piece of fabric, from my visit to the Silver Needle. But a picture is worth a thousand words and here are several pics of my new stash items.



And this was after I sorted through and put several things back. The Celtic Friends came with the threads and little charm. I loved the Chocolate Roses and have already ordered the fabric (Chocolate Raspberry linen) and the Dinky Dyes silk thread Choco Latte. Maxim and Zoya will be a fun stitch and I signed up for the auto shipments of The Flock from SamSarah (there will be 12) because I want to make the wired stand ups of them done on perforated paper.

Panoply of Posies was an impulse buy and when I looked at it later, I realized the count was 250 x 250 stitches. That's a little more than I would normally tackle but the colors are great so maybe this summer I will try to step through it one motif at a time.

The Vera bag was on sale at 50% off so I had to have it for my spring retreat stitching supplies. The JoAnn's in Tulsa is very well stocked and I managed to find a new Ott Lite floor lamp for beside my stitching chair. If that wasn't enough I dropped by Stitches of Tulsa another great shop specializing in needlepoint and knitting. They carry Caron Waterlillies and I picked up all the colors I needed to start the Dance of the Tulips that I had already.

I plan to order the fabric for this one direct from PTP, so that one will start during spring break, if I manage to get a way for a long weekend.

Absolutely, no more stash shopping for me, until the April retreat and then I have to go shop at least a little with the girls.

Now to finish off with another fish intro. Here is Lithgow in all his glory. You saw just a glimpse of him swimming under Chubs last post, so you can tell he is one of the smaller fish in our tank. I thought he looked hairy, with his coloring and fin, so my son asked who the star on Harry and the Henderson's was, that's how he got his name, after John Lithgow. This little guy is my favorite because he is small but mighty.

Happy Stitching,

CJ in OK ;-)



Two weeks flew by Too fast

Work has kept me very busy but some progress has been made. Even a finish so I will start with that.

I finished stitching First Bass from Ink Circles Thursday evening. This was after I decided to take a day on vacation on Leap Day. It was a reward I promised myself after making it through the week before and month end close. I made it a special stitching day, and had hopes to head to Tulsa for a little stash therapy, but I was making such progress that I decided to stay where I was. So here is the result.

First Bass

by Ink Circles

finished 030212

So glad I didn't head to Tulsa as I will have to be there three days this week for work. I will get all my stash shopping done Tuesday and Wednesday evening and then head to my hotel room to stitch.

I do have a little more progress on Old Crow and should be able to finish this up while in Tulsa. Here's where it is right now.

My Victorian Skaters were stitched on a bit, but not enough to bother with another picture. It seems Sunday evening I feel quilty for not touching it all week and then stitch a bit before bed, maybe that will just be my process for this one.

I have an old counted thread project that I think I will start this week too, since I had a finish and then I have another crow piece to start when the Old Crow is done. That one is called Ida Mae (just happens to be my Grandmothers name) Crow from the Goode Huswife. I will pick up the 35ct Weeks Straw linen to get that one ready to go. I can show the patterns with my new starts next time.

There was fun with fish this week, as we added a new member to the tank. Since I have not shared about the fish before I thought I would show one fish at the end of each post, until you have seen them all.

This is Chubs the biggest one in the tank although

it's hard to really show how big he is. Maybe 7 or 8" long. He really looks more like

navy blue, but the flash bounces off his scales that are irridescent.

(Lithgow is peeking out from under him but I will introduce him later)



I tried to catch up on everyones blog posts, but only got through the most recent ones this afternoon. Always inspiring. Thanks, CJ in OK ;-)