I did it again !

Yep, I finished my banner on saturday ! It's so nice to have another happy dance. It's not hard to have a happy dance so soon after the last one when you choose a small project AND when you don't correct your mistakes !!! So here it is:

Stitched on a 32 count blue Diamonds by Silkweaver. Too bad, I don't know how to finish it as a banner ...

So you may wonder (because we all know how curious you are !!! ), what's next ? I hesitated between three projects ( all Lanarte's) :

The kiss by Lanarte but that one is huge and I didn't want a big one this time.

The three bird houses: I like the hand dye fabric.

and Nesting box: I want to stitch that one but without the little birdies on the bottom. The only problem was the fabric: it's a linen and I hate linen. I didn't want to dig into my stash to find the right fabric (and yes there were lots of greens ... )

So what made me decide to stitch the three bird houses? My working copies were made a long time ago !!!

Here is the first pic of the first bird house I'm stitching on. As you can see, even though I ironed my fabric prior to stitch on it, we can still see the line in the middle ! If you know how to get rid of those lines, please let me know! Thanks !!! It's a Lanarte so it's a great pleasure to stitch !!! Large chart, barely any back stitches: after a Dimensions, it feels like heaven !!! And it makes me feel I stitch very fast as well.

On that picture, you can see the hand dye in the middle of the fabric.

Sunday was my birthday: I look terrible on the pictures so here is Emma bringing me my cake. I strawberry cake !!!

and the winner is .........

Once again we used the red bowl to serve as a bowl of destiny. Twenty six stitchers decided the last issue of the magazine de fil en aiguille was worth it and they decided to enter this giveaway. Emma was spending two days at a friend's so I had to find another innoncent hand and I pick: Steb!

So he tossed and tossed more (he could have gone for hours !!! ) He took his job very serioulsy !

Then I told him he needed to pick a paper (because I was ready to shoot a picture and also because I wanted to know where in the world the mag will go !!! ) And the innoncent boy picked ............

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . K A R E N !

She doesn't have a blog but now, she has to start one so we can see the picture once she receives the magazine, right? !!! Karen is from Mexico and I'll remind you that's a half mexican boy who picked her so I wonder if there is not a secret connection between the two ??? ( Ahora dame tu direcion senorita )

I'm not done with my banner and I even added another mistake on the lower green leaf on the left ... oh well .. it's only the 5 th one ...

Update !!!

On saturday, we celebrated Pierre and Chuy's birthdays (two october babies). Pierre turned 13 on october 7 th that makes him an official member of the teenager club. Already 13 yo ... Time flies ...

Steb was so happy when Pierre was opening his gifts. Mickey is not really apropriate for a 13 yo but I didn't have another wrapping paper. He got a MP3 player and now feels he belongs to the world !!! (then he took forever to figure out how to download some music to his player but this is a totally different story ... )

In this portrait, Pierre looks so grown up: I think that's what he could look like in some years from now. The kids are on vacations for a week and a half so we have to find some things to do. I bought two little clay items to paint. Emma got a little lady to paint and was very happy to paint it but almost at the end, the little lady fell off and broke. She was very disapointed and it was hard to stop her tears ...

Steb got a little car and he loved painting it (in blue and only in blue !!! )

So Halloween is around the corner and my kids are pretty excited. Emma decided it was time to have a Haloween snack time so she dressed the table all by herself (note that we don't have any table cloth yet: she used some of her blankets !) Will you believe I was crazy enough to invite some kids over for a Halloween party on saturday? ... I should have 9 kids (mine included ................... )

Mid october, we got our christmas toys catalogs. (this is soooooooo crazy) Pierre and Emma love to circle what they want so Steb had to do the same. He was so funny to watch.

I have three big mistakes in my stitching now but I won't frog it ... I only hope it won't be a problem when i'll have to stitch the Wecome message on the middle. Before my Facebook life, it would have been already finished ... I'm working on the second bird. The design is so cute but it's a Dimensions and those designs are often very pretty but a pain to stitch.

it's friday !!!

Yesterday I felt like it was already friday maybe because today was the last day before the kids are off from school for a week end a half. That also means I won't be doing my wednesday taxi chores for three weeks because we'll have a holiday on november 11 th (not a happy date for us but I'll take it !!! ) I love vacations !!!!

Yesterday I got a text message (yes, stores don't call you anymore, they text message you ... ) that our table was ready for pick up ! Great news as we were supposed to get it only on november 22 nd. Now I have two boxes in my living room. We checked the instructions sheets: four sheets, no words, funny pictograms (yes, I'll show you so we can share a good laugh !!!), should be lots of fun, right? Did I mention the assembling requires NO drill at all? Wonder if Chuy has noticed it yet ...

I'm still stitching on my banner but unfortunately, I made a mistake when I stitched the white frame. I don't know how I could made such a mistake but I did it and I'm not going to frog ! I think I can work around that mistake. I know the picture is not that great but the light was not the best today. I love the bow: backstitch make such a difference. I feel my progress is slow (I could blame all on jeweled Blitz on facebook ) but I noticed once again that I make slower progress on small pieces. You know how it is: you stitch 5 or 6 crosses and you have to change the color. That design is really pretty !!!

Have a great week end !!! Ours should be quiet (if nobody get kill during our assembling time ... ), we have two birthdays to celebrate though. Emma is at a friend house until sunday morning. Talking about Emma; we got her report card today: she's a straight A student !!! (but you know what I love the most about her? She actually does her homework willingly AND with a smile ! Priceless (if only Pierre could do the same ... )

New project

Our lastest project was to assemble ou armoire/wardrobe. Oh what the fun it is to assemble a piece of furniture with your spouse ... The joy of getting frustated, yelling at each others, getting arrested for attempting murder ( I swear: it was an accident : the screwdriver just flew to his head all by itself ... )

This is a before picture ( I didn't take a pic with the suitcases with our clothes inside: I want you keep a good image of myself !!! ) So here is the empty space:

And this is the kit we had. It felt like a Dimensions kit: lots of stuffs and us trying to figure out what was going to be with what...

Then we checked the manual: 26 pages: felt like a HAED chart suddendly ... And to make things easier (understand get the client crazy) , they decided to mix the instructions for the armoire with 2,3,4 or 5 doors ... So each time, you do something you have to make sure you are assembling what you bought and not another armoire ... ( that you didn't buy and could not complete anyway ... ) And of course, no a written words !!! That would be too easy: you have to guess looking at the pictograms ...

Here are two examples: First we had to put the rails for the drawers and literally guess where to put some screws ...

And I love that one:

Be careful caveman handyman, take your screwdriver, use your brain strenght BUT not a lot and please, please, put down the drill that is in your hand ! The engineers who create that manual know their customers: cavemen who are just waiting to play with their drills !!! Must be something with the sound ?

Of course, we made some mistakes like putting the rails the wrong way Could it be that the manual was not easy enough to understand ???

Anyway, the next day we realized our mistake

Look after some hours, we got some results !!! You may wonder: why an armoire? Easy: we don't have a walk in closet ( ) so we had to buy this armoire to store our clothes but look: you can also store your kids if they misbehave:

AND ... it also works for your husband !!! He bothers you? Store him in the armoire !!! ( perfect fit I shall say !!! )

We had another mistake that made my hubby quite happy deep down inside him.

One door had a problem: the little mechanism to close the door was not built the right way so someone had to use his drill special little toy !!!!

And miracle : tadaaaaaaaa

Assembling time : 2 days (we had to wait for the drawers glu to dry)

Yelling at each others: few

Nails broken : 2 (mine)

Happiness at the end: lots !!! I have an armoire !!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah !!!!!!!!!

Despite my facebook addiction, I do stitch a little bit (but less than before ... ) So I started a Dimensions banner that I find very cute. I have only the chart so I use a conversion to be able to use my DMC threads.

And here is my first progress picture: The birdie is so cute !!! (I'm stitching the backstitch along the way because they are lots of it ... )

Thanks for your warm response to my latest finish : you made my day ladies !!! And don't forget I'll have a giveaway very soon !!! So stay tuned !!!