We Have A Winner!

But first...a little summary of my day and a look at my stitching, as it is the end of the rotation week, after all!

Today, I took the train to the State Fair of Texas with a troop of excited Daisies (and lots of Texas/OU fans, as the Red River Rivalry was at the Cotton Bowl today). We saw Big Tex (and even more Texas/OU fans), had a picnic lunch outside the Hall of State, enjoyed the impressive Girl Scouts 100th Anniversary Experience at the Fair, took part in a scavenger hunt all around the fair for a badge, talked to the Ford Automotive Robot (who talked to our troop and had everyone at the Auto Show cheer for our Girl Scouts), ate a delicious Deep Fried Samoa, navigated a lot of not too happy and rather intoxicated Texas fans spilling out of the Cotton Bowl while the game was going on, and then took the train home! We got lots of comments of admiration about our Daisies in their uniforms, and those bright blue vests and tunics were very visible in the sea of orange and maroon at the fair today. We had a wonderful time, though I must admit, I'm exhausted and hurting from all the walking tonight! I am out of shape. Don't get me wrong, stitching is my hobby to get me to relax, but it definitely doesn't keep me in shape!

Here are just a few pictures from today:

Girl Scouts Rule!

Inside the 100th Anniversary Experience

Ready to try some Deep Fried Samoas!

Deep Fried Samoas - YUMMY!!

After resting when we got home, having dinner, taking baths and putting the kids to bed, I sat down and did some more stitching tonight! Here is the progress I made tonight:

As of 10/13/12

 And here is how the frame looks in full as of tonight:

As of 10/13/12

 So since this is the end of the rotation week, let's look at how much progress I made this week! At the beginning of the week, Christmas Countdown looked like this:

Christmas Countdown - Start of Rotation Week

 And here is where I ended up this week:

Christmas Countdown - End of Rotation Week 11/13

Ornaments done, frame started - I think that's good progress this week! Tomorrow starts me working on my next WOCS contribution with May Lily of the Valley Teacup. I'm excited for the new start!

Now, the moment you've all been waiting for. We put all of the entries into a bowl tonight and before bed, my daughter picked a name out of the bowl! Sorry for not taking pictures, but congratulations to the big winner!

hkittypink from Stitchy Sam

Please send me an email (the address is on my profile) with the best email address to send your gift certificate to, and let me know your choice between 123 Stitch! or Heaven and Earth Designs. Congratulations!

Now I am off to bed! I hope you're all having a wonderfully stitchy weekend!

Until next time!
~Katy

More Border, Girl Scouts, and Giveaway Reminder

So I had more time today than I anticipated to stitch! My son had an ENT checkup today (just following up on his tube surgery back in February), so I got home earlier than normal. After a brief nap, I was able to get several things accomplished today!

First, I was able to get all of the patches sewn onto my Daisy's uniform in anticipation of our field trip to the State Fair of Texas tomorrow where there will be a huge 100th Anniversary of Girl Scouts exhibit and scavenger hunt. We're looking forward to it!

The Front of my Daughter's Daisy Vest as of 10/12/12

The Back of my Daughter's Daisy Vest as of 10/12/12

She's going to look great walking around Fair Park tomorrow with her uniform full of awards she's earned. Even if it is Texas/OU football weekend, which if you're not from Texas is a HUGE, annual game that always takes place during the State Fair, we should still have a blast with her troop! I am going to try to spend a few extra minutes in the exhibit hall that houses all of the arts and crafts entries to see what cross-stitch inspiration I can find! A few people who are members of various cross-stitching groups on Facebook have talked about having pieces entered, and I always enjoying seeing what won each year!

Once the vest was finished and after dinner was eaten and kids put to bed, I was able to settle down with Christmas Countdown. Not only did I get the red border finished in the space available in the hoop:

Look at all that red!

 But I also went ahead and moved the hoop over and extended the red of the middle divider of the frame out on the right side all the way to where the right hand border will begin.

Even More Red!

Depending on how tired I am tomorrow after wrangling nine first graders at the fair, I will try to make some more progress on this piece before putting it away for this rotation week.

Also, one last reminder that tomorrow is the drawing for my Fifty Follower Giveaway! Amazingly, I've gone well over fifty followers since the giveaway was announced, which I think is awesome! If you haven't entered yet, now's your chance, as my daughter will be drawing the winner's name tomorrow after we get home from the fair. Check back tomorrow to see if you win!

Until next time!
~Katy

One Day More!

Great, now I want to sing along to Les Miserables...sounds like the perfect soundtrack to curl up with some stitching and listen to!

I had a very busy night tonight with our first Girl Scout meeting of the year. The highlight was working on the Daisy Safety Award, which included teaching my first graders the Heimlich maneuver. They all did really well! I asked my daughter after we got home to tell me what she would do if she saw someone choking, and she was able to give me the step by step instructions and demonstrated the actual movements. I was so proud! I hope none of these girls ever need to use what they learned tonight, but it made me very proud to pass that on! Add a lot of giggling with some crazy Stop, Drop and Roll demonstrations and working with their parents on their addresses and phone numbers, and I would call it a successful start to the Girl Scout year!

Because I didn't get home until late, I didn't do much tonight on Christmas Countdown. It's been a very long week, despite having Monday off...it felt like it should have been Friday days ago! I did finish the present I worked on yesterday and started another teddy bear:

More ornaments!

There are twenty-four ornaments in all. I have seventeen and a half done. I am going to do my best to finish the remaining six and a half ornaments tomorrow both because I'm too eager to start Beauty and the Beast that I don't want to have this roll over into Sunday, and because I would love to know that when this comes up in rotation next, I'll be working on the calendar rather than the ornaments. Wish me luck!

TGIF!
~Katy

TGIF!

Thank goodness it's Friday! I don't know about you, but this week has been a long one for me and I am very thankful for the weekend! We have a busy day ahead of us tomorrow, with my daughter and I going out to our Daisy Troop's Build-A-Bear party, and I also need to swing by the craft store for a few things, but I hope to get some good stitching in!

Before I allowed myself to stitch anything tonight, I had to finish the back of T's Daisy vest so she can wear it to the party tomorrow and I can stop worrying about losing badges for at least another month or two. Olympics on, wine flowing, and it was completed fairly quickly!

That's A Lot of Badges!

I debated on what I was going to stitch tonight and was going back and forth between working more on Italian Vista or starting European Bistro......the wine decided it for me. It's much easier to continue a piece that's already started than to start a brand new piece when you have a little alcohol in your system, so Italian Vista it is! I have no doubt I'll be picking up European Bistro this weekend, though, and beginning my work on that!

As of 8/3/12

I didn't get a ton done between watching some of those awesome races tonight (15 and 17 year old gold medal winners? How would you like to read that "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" report!) and just unwinding after a long week, but the lighthouse is taking shape. I'm not sure how I feel about all the white part of the lighthouse that won't be stitched at all, just the fabric showing through. I think I'll like it more when I have the trees and such surrounding it.

I hope everyone has a great weekend with lots of time for stitching!

Until next time!
~Katy

Word of Advice

In case you were ever wondering if it was fun to fall down half a flight of stairs......I'm telling you now......it's not.....ow......

My klutzy self slipped on our stairs, which made me slide/bump/crash down about 7 steps until I hit the ground, and it feels like  a mack truck has run over me. So needless to say, no stitching for me tonight...

I did make some progress on a few things yesterday, though.

First, I picked out the fabrics for Knotted Heart and Have A Heart and put both in the mail yesterday to be added to their respective quilts. What do you think?

Have A Heart With Fabric

Knotted Hearts With Fabric

 I also got the badges done on the front part of my daughter's Daisy vest...one of my followers asked about a "sew your own badge on" badge. Trust me...once these girls hit Brownies when they're in second grade, I'm putting needle and thread in hand to teach them how to cross stitch and stitch on their own badges!

Front Is Done!

I have about four or five badges left to sew on the back. I had planned on doing that tonight, but that didn't happen......maybe tomorrow......

I also picked up The World of Cross Stitching Issue 192 and The Best of Kooler Design Studio while I was out getting the fabric......I don't subscribe to any magazines currently, and The World of Cross Stitching is a UK magazine that I cannot justify the price for a subscription. I figure I can peek in it when I see it at a store and if there are at least three patterns in the magazine that I can see myself doing, I will buy it at the store. That definitely happened this time as there are several projects I can see myself doing! And the Kooler Design Studio Book is just a treasure trove! There are very few patterns in the book I didn't like!

Hopefully I'll feel more like stitching tomorrow...I really wanted to get my daughter's vest done and work on Italian Vista tonight, but it just wasn't happening. Maybe tomorrow will be better! I can hope!

Until then!
~Katy

Have A Heart - Complete!

Wow, this one took no time at all! Between chores and such yesterday, I settled in and watched the Olympics and got this project done before bed yesterday!

Have a Heart - Complete!

Sorry for the not so great quality of the picture. Today, I'm going to head out to get the fabric for both this and Knotted Hearts and then swing by the post office to put them in the mail. I'll try to get another picture of each with their respective fabrics before I send them on their way!

Today I probably won't work on my WIP's as much, primarily because I need to work on my daughter's Daisy Scout vest. She has a troop event next Saturday, and I want to get the badges she received at the end of the year put on her vest before the event.

Here's her vest:

The front of her vest currently

The back of her vest currently

 And here's what I need to put on!

She's earned a lot of badges!

Once I have this done, then I will definitely be diving into Italian Vista again! Working on these other two projects has made me miss it!

Until then, happy stitching!
~Katy