Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells...

I am VERY proud to announce that I've finished another project on my StRIP list!

At around 3 AM this morning, I secured the last button on JABC's Jingle All The Way. It is stitched on 18 ct Christmas Red Softana (Thanks again, Michelle!) with GAST in Shutter Green, Blue Spruce and Brandy. It will become an ornament for our Christmas tree!

Two finishes! Is that a record? LOL

I have two new finishes to report! It's true! I promise! hehehe

I'm a member of Tranquil Stitches and we just started out second "Mini Mystery Exchange". The first one was the Tiny Tuck Exchange, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

This time, our "assignment" was to stitch a piece for a little keychain. I received the honor of stitching one for Shirl, the owner of Tranquil Stitches. Shirl loves samplers, so I chose a "When this you see, remember me" design for her. She's already received the finished keychain, so I can post pics.








This past Saturday, I decided to stitch on the first UFO/WIP that caught my eye. My eye landed on Waxing Moon's You're My Sunshine. It was my first time to stitch on 32 count and/or opalescent fabric, and using the three strands called for in the directions, I had become discouraged. When I set it aside, I'd only finished about a fourth of the border.

However, when I picked it up again, I found it a joy to work on. Three short evenings later, it was done!






I think I'm done updating my blog for the night. That means it's time to work on JABC's Jingle All The Way. Good night, everyone!

More Birthday Fun!

Just when I thought my birthday was over, the fun continued :-)

After a slight shipping glitch, my mom was able to present me with my last birthday present from her. She gave me an awesome (and furry!) micro bead pillow, with a matching eyemask. Of course, both items are purple! I have to fight with my kids for the pillow, but they know the mask is not to be touched, except by me. I love both!

Then, just over a week ago, a package shows up at my house, from Down Sunshine Lane. Now I knew I hadn't ordered anything, so I was really puzzled as to what was in the envelope. To my extreme delight, sweet Jorja had sent me a Stitchaholic T-shirt! I love it and have already worn it several times. Even Steven agrees that it's very fitting! Thank you, Jorja!!!

This past Thursday, a package showed up from my oldest and dearest friend, Matt. We met when I was in junior high, as his dad was one of my teachers. We've been friends ever since. Matt is currently living in Hawaii and we all miss him like crazy. Thank heavens for email & phones! Matt spoiled me rotten with LOTS of Hawaii goodies! He knows my weakness for good Kona coffee and sent me three bags, along with Hawaiian tea, lotions, chocolate covered Kona coffee beans and some mad money. Now I simply HAVE to go stash shopping...darn...LOL! Thank you, Matt!!!

And, last but not least, I will soon have the fabric for Stoney Creek's The Lord's Prayer...all thanks to Sandy! She is truly a gem and a fabulous cross stitch designer to boot! She knew I was despairing over no longer being able to obtain this rather large (but odd-sized) cut of fabric from Silkweaver and gifted me with it for my birthday. Thank you, Sandy!

I've done some shopping with my birthday (& babysitting) money, but I'm also hoarding the majority of it until something calls to me. I have some ideas of what I might want to purchase, but I want to wait until something "talks" to me ;-) So the fun can continue until the stash money runs out...woohoo!

Let's Do the Bunny Hop!

We had a wonderful Easter weekend!

On Good Friday, my mom took my kids to a nearby park while I ran some last-minute errands. After those were done, it was back to my house for some Easter fun!

We made a bunny cake, yarn "baskets" (which need some work...LOL), dyed eggs and ate entirely too much candy. Oh, we did eat dinner, but only to justify eating so many sweets...LOL

Saturday, my mom came over again :-) There was more eating, game playing and ummm, eating. The poor bunny cake lost his ears...hehe

Here are some pics!

Andrew, my handsome young man, on a slide at the park...





Annemarie, my beautiful blonde, on the balance beam...





Olivia, my beautiful brunette, on the monkey bars...





And last, but not least, my mom's fabulous bunny cake...

My 30th Birthday was WONDERFUL!

I must say, 30 isn't all that bad...at least not day itself...LOL

The morning of my birthday, Steven headed off to work, with plans to meet up with the rest of us for lunch. At 11:17 AM (the time I was born), my mom rang the doorbell and was immediately attacked by her grandchildren...hehe From home, we headed to one of my favorite restaurants, Summer Palace.

They had a great table set up for us, and while we were waiting for Steven, my in-laws and grandmother-in-law to arrive, my mom & Andrew headed back out to her car. They returned carrying my cake, balloons and a big bag of presents & party decor. Pretty soon, the table was all decked out for a party! And the cake...all I can say is WOW!







Once everyone arrived, it was present time! My children gave me "30th Birthday" themed gifts, including a magic wand (supposed to make me younger), a beaded necklace and a coffee mug. My in-laws gave me two wonderful books by different Christian authors. Steven had me order some cross stitch goodies and I'll be picking out a new griddle. He's so good about honoring my wishes for practical gifts, although he does occasionally sneak in a great surprise. My mom had already already given me with some "mad money" for a recent out-of-town trip and she'd ordered the curtains I'd picked out for my living room. At my party, however, she surprised me with a STUNNING Brighton organizer, to replace the wallet I've been carrying for 12 years. She knows I would never treat myself to something so wonderful and she picked out the perfect one for me! She had also tucked $30 into the wallet ($1 for every year) and had printed off oodles of family pictures, for me to put in my wallet. I was spoiled rotten and I loved every minute of it!

After presents, we ate and ate and ate. Did I mention that Summer Palace has the most fabulous Chinese buffet? All the traditional favorites, including several seafood dishes. Yum! None of us had any room for cake, so it came home with us.

Once lunch was over, everyone headed off to work and my mom, the kids and I headed for the mall. My mom wanted to take me to the Brighton store, to look at some other wallets. She wanted to make absolutely certain that I was happy with the one she picked out and I was. While we were there, I treated everyone to Cherry Limeades from my favorite little ice cream shop in the mall. They were delicious!

After a quick stop at my mom's house to pick up some things, we all came back to my house. We lounged around, talked, watched the kids on their bikes and such until Steven arrived home. He cooked for us that evening...all the fixings for yummy burritos. After we ate, we finally had cake and ice cream. We were all stuffed and vowed never to eat so much again (yeah, like that will happen...LOL).

We also played a couple board games and it was after 10 PM before my mom called it a night. We were all falling asleep at that point. It was a fabulous, fun-filled day...exactly what I wanted!

Crabs-R-Us

A little sidenote to the presents from Olivia's party...hehe

Andrew & Annemarie decided that they wanted to give Olivia her crab, but they gave us permission to pick it out. In keeping with the Little Mermaid theme, her new crab is named "Sebastian".

Of course, Steven still didn't have a crab at this point, so we purchased two new ones. Steven's happens to be a female, which finally has a name, "Boo". Suffice it to say, he wouldn't go for "Ariel"...lol "Boo" originally started out as "Blue", because her shell is painted that color. However, we know they do change shells every so often, so Steven shortened it to "Boo".

Now, to recap, we have (in the order they joined our family) "Hermie", "Two Claws", "Shelly" (our other female), "Sebastian" and "Boo". Our second crab ever, "Crabby", perished after a "shell fight" with "Two Claws".

A while back, after her first molt, Shelly abandoned her pretty little spiral shell, in favor of a "normal" round shell. Since then, she has molted again, just a few days after Two Claws decided to molt. Now, all three of our oldest crabs have been through at least one successful molt while in our care. Yay!

The two newest crabs have settled in nicely and now that there are five of them in one tank, we're noticing more activity overall. Everything we've read says they thrive in groups.

We gave them all a bath on Saturday night and really enjoyed watching them run around in the water. On Sunday morning, I peeked into the tank to see what they were up to and found that Two Claws abandoned his shell in favor of Shelly's original shell (the pretty spiral-shaped one). Now, Shelly has changed shells once and Two Claws has completed his second exchange. It gives a whole new meaning to the term "shell game"...LOL

I simply must remember to take some pics of them the next time my mom is here with her digital camera. They're alot of fun to watch and play with.

30...here I come...

Oh my, it's been nearly 2 weeks since I posted to my blog. Amazing how the time goes so quickly.

Here goes my attempt to bring everyone up to speed on life in the Harris household.

March 24th was my baby's 5th birthday. I still find it difficult to believe that Olivia is 5! Where did the time go?

As much as I didn't want to, Steven & I had to leave her on her birthday. We dropped all three kids off at my mom's house and headed for Dallas. Steven's company hosts a regional meeting each March and it's a do-not-miss event. As for the kids, I knew they would have a blast with their Mum Mum ;-)

My weekend was wonderful all the way around. Steven sat in meetings during the day and I ran around shopping (a little) and enjoying some quiet time in our lovely hotel room. I can't remember the last time I lounged in bed, watched TV & read a book, all at the same time. We also ate out both nights, once at On the Border and the next evening at Medieval Times, courtesy of the company.

On Sunday, we were up bright and early and on the road home. We made several stops along the way, arriving home at 1 pm. We spent the next two hours finalizing preparations for Olivia's party, which was at 3 pm on Sunday afternoon. Her chosen party theme was The Little Mermaid. Here is a pic of the partygoers, cake, balloons, etc. It was a great party, with LOTS of Ariel-related presents.

Back row, l to r: Meme (my grandma-in-law, Ann), Me, Steven, Nana (my MIL, Martha) and Paw Paw (my FIL, Ray)
Middle row, l to r: Lindsay (niece) and Andrew (son)
Front row, l to r: Katelynn (niece), Olivia (daughter), Mitchell (nephew), Annemarie (daughter) and Mum Mum (my mom, Mickey)




The few days following the party were a blur as we all tried to get back into our normal routines. It's amazing how one weekend trip and a party can disrupt everything when you're a stay-at-home-mom...LOL

This past Thursday and Friday, I enjoyed the pleasure of babysitting two of my nephews, Mitchell & Malachi. Mitchell is nearly 4 and Malachi is 6-months-old. They're awesome little boys.

On Saturday, Steven spent a good amount of time doing yard work. He dug a trench between our walkway and driveway, which will eventually become a stepping stone path connecting the two. We chose to dig out a path, which will add some sand & gravel to, for drainage. The we'll place the stones and some topsoil. After that, we'll be planting some ground cover to fill in the spaces around the stones and install some solar-powered walkway lights. We also planted some seeds in two of our planters. I can't wait for everything to be finished and/or blooming!

As for today, there's not much going on. I'm enjoying some quiet time here at home, while the older two kids do their schoolwork and my youngest enjoys a movie.

Tomorrow, however, will be fun! Tomorrow...I turn 30! Ack! LOL

I'm looking forward to lunch with my hubby & kids, my mom, my in-laws and my grandmother-in-law at one of my favorite restaurants. After that, who knows? Perhaps a quiet afternoon of stitching? I'm also eagerly awaiting the arrival of my new living room curtains, which my mom ordered for me as my birthday present. They're so pretty!

Okay, I think that's it from my end...for now, anyways. Hopefully, my next update will be much shorter...LOL

Mermaid Musings

Ariel (aka Disney's The Little Mermaid) needs a haircut...LOL

I finally made myself sit down and finish stitching her face. Oddly enough, the kit calls for her hair, eyes & lips to be stitching in two strands on 14 ct, but for her face to only be in stitched in 1 strand. I thought it would look awful, but I was pleasantly surprised at the outcome. The peach-y thread is so pale, any white that shows through lends an ethereal look to her face, while the areas done in two strands really "pop". Once I backstitch everything, I think I'll be even more pleased with the overall look. But I digress...

Ariel has LOTS of hair. And I have to wonder...wouldn't living in the ocean result in massive tangles? I remember the times I went swimming without having my mom braid my hair...it was not a pretty site afterwards.

Perhaps Ariel should consider a shoulder length cut with some long layers or even a chic chin length bob?

Or maybe, just maybe, I need to get out of the house more often?

Tiny Tuck Exchange...My Turn!

On this rather dreary Saturday, I discovered a ray of sunshine in my mailbox.

I've already blogged about the shamrock I stitched for the Tiny Tuck Exchange on Tranquil Stitches, which I sent to Rae. Today, I received a tiny tuck from Julie & JoAnn.

Julie, a sweet lady from the UK, stitched these adorable mice and placed them in the tuck made by JoAnn. Not only that, but she filled the mailing envelope with shiny heart-shaped confetti, yummy mini chocolate Easter bunnies and a fabulous card. Click the thumbnails below for larger images.

Thank you, Julie!!!

I am truly blessed...

My sweet hubby, Steven, arrived home last night and rang the doorbell, instead of just walking in. When I opened the door, he pulled out a gorgeous bouquet of carnations from behind his back. Carnations are my absolute favorite flower. The ones he brought home to me are red, magenta and white tipped in magenta, along with tons of baby's breath & greenery. Everything was wrapped in cellophane printed with multi-color butterflies and then tied with purple, lavender and white ribbon. Does he know me, or what? They smell heavenly.

It was a wonderful surprise and reminded me, once again, how very blessed I am to have him as my husband.

What Flavor Ice Cream Are You??

I saw this on Nona's blog and couldn't resist. Wouldn't you know, Mint Chocolate Chip is one of my all-time favorite flavors!

You Are Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Creative. Expressive. Unique.

What Flavor Ice Cream Are You?

Yes, I really do cross stitch!

It's been way too long since I posted a finish!

I took part in a mini tuck exchange on one of the boards I belong to. JoAnn, seamstress extraordinaire, made these adorable mini tucks from various fabric, all with 2 1/2 inch openings. Each lady in the exchange was mailed a tuck, with instructions to stitch something for it, then mail it on to another lady in the exchange. Tuck themes varied, no one knew what theme they would receive and partners identities are only being revealed as the finished tucks are received.

JoAnn sent me an adorable St. Patrick's Day themed tuck. While going through some old Cross Stitch Crazy magazines, I stumbled onto a great shamrock design. I adjusted the colors to more closely match the tuck, stitched it up and sent it off to my partner, Rae.

Rae received the tuck this week, so I can finally post a pic of my latest finish. I love how it turned out! Thank you, JoAnn (for making the tuck) and Shirl (for arranging the exchange). I had so much fun!

Something's rotten in the state of Denmark...errr...Texas

I just couldn't resist the title for this blog entry. It just made me smile.

Great news! Steven qualified for two quarterly bonuses from his job. They will show up at the end of April, and I couldn't be happier.

Then a dark (and somewhat smelly) cloud threatened to blot out my sunshine. We came to the realization that we couldn't wait until his bonus check arrived to have our septic tank pumped. Our homebuilder (if you can really call him that) cut so many corners when he built our house. For instance, inside our pump tank, there is a high water alarm. From what I've read during the last couple of days, systems like this normally include a high water alarm light AND an audible alarm (usually located in your garage or under your kitchen sink). Wouldn't you know...there is a small light next to the outside breaker for the septic pump, but no audible alarm. We have no clue how long the alarm light has been on. Frustrating, not to mention potentially dangerous to our health AND our budget. Steven called around and found a good price on having the tanks pumped.

Of course, I tend to go into "worst case scenario" mode the moment a bump rises in the road. I hardly slept last night, convinced we'd be smacked with a large repair bill today, certain that our septic system was forever ruined (silly me, it's only 9 years old).

To my utter and total relief, the owner of the septic pumping company was done and gone within half an hour. During that time, he gave us a nice rundown of how our particular system is set up, how often to have it pumped (now that all three kids are potty trained), etc. We found out he's only been in business for 8 months and told him we would gladly refer him to anyone and everyone. I still didn't like having to write that check, but at least it's done now and I don't have to think about it again for 2 years.

The cloud is gone and the sun is shining once again.

Mermaid off the port bow!!

Okay, I admit it... I've been a very bad blogger for the last month. Up until last week, I was hardly stitching and just didn't feel I had anything meaningful to post. Silly me, huh?

Let's see... Steven & I went to see Dave Ramsey live on February 18th. It was a wonderful event and we learned a lot! It had turned bitterly cold here and was threatening to ice, but we still made the 2 hour drive. My mom stayed here with our kids and the four of them watched movies, played games and made crafts in front of the warm fireplace, all in pajamas...LOL They all loved their "pajama party". When we made it back home Saturday evening, we made Smores in the fireplace. Just a wonderful day all around.

What else? Hmmm, we sold Steven's pickup, so that's one less vehicle payment to fuss with. Not to mention, our car insurance dropped significantly, as well! Yay! I'm all for cutting our budget as much as possible. With Steven being self-employed (read: fluctuating income, lol) and me being a SAHM to three kids, every penny counts.

We've also switched our home phone service from a "land line" to VOIP, through a company called Lingo. We have had an SBC account ever since we got married and a couple years ago, we picked up their "all inclusive" plan. All of our local & long distance calls, call waiting, caller ID, voice mail, etc was supposed to be "only" $49.95/month. Well, after SBC tacked on all their taxes, surcharges & fees, our bill was routinely $75.00/month. Not such a bargain.

We would have switched sooner, but we had to wait for a competitively-priced VOIP service to become available in our area. Finally, Lingo made it to our part of Texas. Now my telephone is hooked up to my cable modem, via a small adapter and my phone number didn't even change. We absolutely love it! And the best part? We're getting ALL the same services we had when we were with SBC, PLUS I can now call various other countries outside the US/Canada/Mexico, all for the fabulously low price of $22.09/month. That's the final price AFTER their ONE tax ($0.64) and ONE fee ($1.50). I'm happy :-)

Now, onto the title of this blog entry...LOL Our youngest, Olivia, is turning 5 years old this month. I cannot believe my baby is no longer a baby, nor even a toddler. But I digress...

Olivia is somewhat Disney Princess crazy...just a little ;-) For her 4th birthday, she had a general Disney Princess themed party, with particular attention paid to Sleeping Beauty, Snow White & Cinderella. This year...she's all about Ariel from The Little Mermaid. So, if you've seen the movie, you might remember Scuttle the seagull saying "Mermaid off the port bow!" whilst looking through a small spyglass. (I really need more adult contact, no? LOL)

I'm currently stitching Ariel from a small kit that was free with an older issue of Cross Stitch Crazy (UK). Originally, I was going to frame it, but now I've decided to make it a patch and apply it to a dress or t-shirt, for Olivia to wear to her party. Between the patch and a surprise stitching gift that I can't post a pic of yet, I haven't done much stitching. But I've been stashing! I'll post more about my new stash, and that stitching surprise, later.

For now, I need to run and finish up Steven's end-of-week paperwork, load the dishwasher and make my grocery list. I was floored by a horrid migraine yesterday and got nothing accomplished. Thank heavens for leftovers, otherwise we would've been ordering out for dinner last night, which I prefer not to do.

I'll post more later! I hope everyone is having a fabulous day!

Bookmark & Blog Success and a Shelly Update!

My mom LOVES her bookmark. Steven did manage to stop by her place before heading out to work...yay! Happy Birthday (again), Mom!

On the blog front, I think I've finally achieved the "look" I want for my blog, at least for now. I'm considering adding a little jeweled border between my header graphic and the 3 columns, just to soften the transition a bit.

And one more little update on our newly-molted hermit crab, Shelly. After giving her several days to "harden up", we gave all three of our crabs a bath and put them all back into their tank. Shelly settled right back in.

When I passed by the tank yesterday, I noticed Shelly's shell lying in an odd position. I picked it up and it was empty! So I picked up the "hermit hut" and there were all three crabs...only Shelly was in a new shell! She apparently decided her old shell was no longer habitable. So, she abandoned it and settled into one of the empty "extra shells" we keep in the tank. Now she looks nearly identical to our other tiny crab, Two Claws. The kids were so excited by all the recent changes!

That's about it for today. I'm hoping to get more stitchy stash scanned in and uploaded to my sale/trade albums tomorrow. I've realized I have a good bit of excess that needs to go before it drives me nuts...LOL!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Well, I'm only seven days late in finishing this, but here it is! I wanted to stitch a little something for my mom and then I came across the pattern for this bookmark. Violets are her birth flower and I love purple.

I backed the bookmark with some sticky felt and I even used my pinking shears on the felt, just to "pretty it up". The thick felt also gives the bookmark some body, which I like.

Happy Birthday, Mom!!!

Template Tango

If you stop by and my Blogger layout happens to look very odd, it's only because I'm playing with a new 3 column template. When I get tired of working on it, I simply reload my "normal" template and everything is "perfect" again...LOL

Fabric Finds

I think I've finally found the perfect fabric for my living room curtains!

Quite some time ago, my mom & I stumbled upon some wonderful fabric for my kitchen/dining room curtains. It's called "Herb Text" and I think it's so "me". Instead of focusing on a solely herbal theme, we're going more for an Italian vineyard/bistro look.

Since then, I've been on a serious hunt for more fabric...this time for my living room. Our floorplan is such that the windows from both rooms are visible no matter where you are, so I knew the fabrics needed to play off of each other.

I requested a swatch of a promising fabric and it arrived today. I love it! Even my husband likes it! Yay! Now I just need JoAnn's to put all their drapery linings on sale! LOL Here are the fabrics. The one on the left is for the kitchen/dining room and the one on the right is for the living room.

Read a good book lately?

My kids are growing up...(sniff, sniff)...

We took all three kids to the library this morning and our oldest two, Andrew (8) and Annemarie (6), applied for their first library cards. I remember applying for mine when I wasn't much older than they are now.

They each checked out a book and couldn't wait to bring the books home. Andrew picked out an old favorite, but Annemarie went for a 6-in-1 volume of Dr. Seuss stories. My hubby, Steven, LOVES reading Dr. Seuss to the kids.

We made some other stops, then headed home for lunch. I had planned to go back out immediately to do our grocery shopping, but I was practically falling asleep sitting up. The (much needed) rain today made for perfect napping weather. Andrew & Annemarie each went to their own rooms and Olivia (4) snuggled in with us. We all fell asleep and woke up feeling very refreshed.

Andrew went with me to the grocery store and to JoAnn's, where we picked out a patch for a pair of Annemarie's jeans. She fell while outside playing and one spot on one knee has just started to fray. Andrew picked out the patch, it's a navy blue heart with all sorts of bright & fun embellishments on it. Annemarie LOVES it! Yay!

Loading up on groceries took a good 2 hours. This was our big stock up trip, and we nearly had to go to a second cart. It's amazing how much extra time it takes when you have to stop on nearly every aisle. Not to mention all the time I spent trying to convince Andrew that we didn't need every item on certain aisles...LOL

All in all, it was a wonderful day. Tomorrow I plan to do some laundry and dishes and then stitch, stitch, stitch. I feel the need to finish The Price of Freedom!

Soft Shell Crab...

It's official...Shelly, one of our little hermit crabs, has sucessfully molted!

She's our smallest hermit crab and the most friendly of the three we have. She's my favorite and I'm just thrilled that everything went well with the molt. We'll give her new exoskeleton a few more days to harden and then she can be re-introduced to the main tank. I'm sure by then, she'll be ready for a bath, as well.