Is it near Halloween or Christmas?

  The weatherman has predicted snow this afternoon and I do believe that it’s cold enough for it. There is snow already in some places here on the east coast and it will be the first snow in October in our area in 30 years.  Anyway I’ve decorated my front door for Halloween with some needlepoint items I stitched on plastic canvas years ago, so I’m ready.

 I’ve made some progress on my Green goddess, I should be able to finish the wreath of leaves and moths around her face this weekend and start on the background and with this weather there is nothing better to do than sit back with a hot cup of coffee and stitch. 

I've even made a little progress on my other WIP; this is just the beginning of a larger project.  There are six designs I feel in love with when I saw them on this website      http://www.cross-stitch-patterns.eu/index.php?stat=a&fraza=dragon&x=8&y=13  they are designed by Niclole214.  My goal is to stitch all six and finish them off as a wall hanging, wish me luck.

  The current one I’m working on is called African Family and here is where I am on it.

Off to make more xxs.

I’ve spent a lot of the morning exploring other blogs and I noticed that there are exchanges and SALs and give-aways going on all over the place.  I also noticed that they were started at the beginning of the year and I’m too late for mostL   Not to worry I know what I will be doing in JanuaryJ  I’ve also noticed that a lot stitchers are cat people and include them in their blogs, I haven’t had a cat in years but I do have a very nervous dog. “Bud” is a 9 year old rat terrier with no social skills and no interest in getting any.  We took “Bud” to school several years back; his progress went from sitting under my chair in class on the first day to sitting on my feet on the last day of an 8 week course.  We’ve tried walking him through our neighborhood to get him use to seeing other dogs and people, he wasn’t having it.  People are okay if you greet him correctly (that is let him come to you) but he doesn’t like dogs of any kind or size.  We have this love/hate relationship, he loves for me to fill his food and water bowls and hates for me to go near his mom (my daughter) and his grandpa (Hubby) whenever I do he growls, but he also growls when those two get near each other. Bud’s motto is “No touching unless you’re touching me”. So without further ado here’s “Bud”

He’s a little camera shy at first but finally agreed to a good pose.

 Well I’m off to do some housework or I won’t be able to stitch and have some progress to show, can’t have that. 

I hope you enjoy my posts, thanks for stopping by.

DHAC

I wanted to post earlier today and say thank you to all of the people who have stopped by and made such beautiful comments on my first two ever blog posts, but of course life got in the way.  It is now evening, dinner has been eaten and everyone has settled in for the day, so here I am.  I was thinking a lot about the cross stitch abbreviations I mentioned the other day and I googled it and you would not believe what I found.  It’s a whole other language.  I didn’t know that there were STRIPs, WIPs, SINS and SEX in cross stitching; I must be shopping at the wrong LNS.  There are animals like SABLE, Frogs, SWANs, it sounds like some kind of zoo to me.  I even found two old guys name SAL and ORT and then there were OAAT and ONS who have got to be UFOs.  Well it’s time to let you in on my little secret:

·         STRIP – Stash Reduction Implementation Plan, never going to happen.

·         WIPs—Work in Progress

·         SINS—Stuff I’ll never stitch

·         SEX—Stash Enhancement Experience/Expense, always good.

·         LNS—Local Needlework store

·         SABLE—Stash Acquisition or Accumulation Beyond Life Expectancy, definitely what I have.

·         Frogs—Refers to having to remove stitches

·         SWANs—Society of Women Addicted to Needlework, I’m a lifelong member.

·         SAL—Stitch Along

·         ORT—Old Ratty Tails

·         OAAT—One At A Timer

·         ONS—Online Needle Store

·         UFOs—Unfinished Objects

·         HD—Happy Dance

·         WISP—Work in Slow Progress

·         DH—Dear Husband

These are I’m sure just the *TOTIB but I thought they were worth at least a mention and I may be able to help out someone in the process.  I do have one question and I hope someone will feel sorry for me and explain what the heck a TUSAL is? I know the words (Totally Useless Stitch Along) but how is it useless?  I **DHAC.

*Tip of the Iceberg

**Don't Have A Clue

It’s a new day and I’m feeling good.  Now that I’ve taken the plunge I realize that to blog I have to write stuff and it has to readable.  First off I would like to thank my Stitchy Sister Kirstin for the vote of confidence and link on her blog.  Also to my other two followers also Stitchy Sisters Irene and Rose hang in here with me, hopefully it will get better.  I was reading a gentleman’s stitching blog a little bit ago and it was funny that he mentioned “Man Law” and how it prohibits him from admitting he’s a stitcher and stitching in public, well I sometimes get a similar feeling.  Being a woman of color and enjoying cross stitch seems rare and sometimes completely unheard of, maybe it’s a "Black Law" and I didn’t get the email.  Anyway, I love to stitch and as long as the fingers and eyes hold out I will be doing just that.  When I get a little more experienced here I will show you pictures of my cross stitch stash, if I live to be 187 years old I just may be able to stitch everything in it if I stop adding to it today.  I have unopened kits I’ve purchased, books, booklets, leaflets, magazines, calendars, chartpacks and pages and pages of freebie charts downloaded from various sites on the internet (that magical place) that I want to stitch someday.  I have been giving the idea of stitching more than one project at a time some serious thought and have tried to do that, normally I am a one project girl but there are just so many charts and so little time.  In cross stitch there are a lot of abbreviations, kinda like the way people text on their smart phones and it takes a really smart person to understand what the message is, so you will see some of these abbreviations from time to time, I will let you try to figure them out before I tell you what they mean. One of my current project is considered for me anyway a BAP, it is the Green goddess designed by Joan Elliott the other is actually several small projects that will be combined they are from the Directory of Counted Cross Stitch Patterns and the designer is Nickole214. Well I am off to make some of those wonderful little xxs.

BAP – Big A$$ Project J  

This Is All New to Me ... Help

I have for some reason decided to start a blog, why?  I couldn't tell you, I don't have any idea what I'm doing or how long it will last.  If by chance you decide to follow my blog I thank you in advance and ask that you please be kind as I learn.  As I said in my profile I love to cross stitch, it is not something that my mother taught me long ago and has been passed down for generations, none of that, I actually taught myself.  It looked liked fun and now I am addicted.  It will probably end with me, daughter has shown no interest in learning but she does appreciate the things I've made for her over the years.  Well as I continue to learn the ins and outs of this blogging thing I will be adding pictures of my current projects but for the time being please feel free to go to my album at http://www.flickr.com/photos/X_woman/ to see what I've already done.