Back in the Swing

This past month has been crazy. Working every day, running around buying Christmas presents, trying to get various home projects finished up... phew! Last night I finally found time to work on some things I've been holding on to since Thanksgiving. Getting back to my jewelry roots, I put together these 2 sweet little necklaces at the kitchen table. What do you think?

Sweet + Shiny

Vintage-y Goodness

Mmmm, map-flavored...

http://superpoop.com/

Yippie skippy! A map-flavored comic from Drew at Superpoop. I always hated these proportional symbol maps. Apparently I'm not alone. Map geeks of the world unite!

It's getting all Christmassy

Martha has some rocking gift tags to stick on presents this year - I'm partial to the x-stitch one.

Download them here.

HELP... from Italy

I just want to thank my old friend Shira for helping set up my new domain kateandicecream.com! What should have been an easy-as-pie transition turned into a weeklong project - all the work on her side. Thank goodness for techie friends! Come si dice "thanks a million" in italiano?

Grazie, amica.

Curvalicious - the encore

As promised, follow the link below to download K+IC's free "I Love My Curves" counted cross stitch chart!

ILoveMyCurves.PDF (then click "download file")

Pretty please drop me a line and let me know what you think. I love feedback - and knowing that people out there in cyberspace have somehow stumbled upon my little world. Send me your finished pictures or link to your Flickr and I'll post 'em!

Happy stitching!

Curvalicious

Last night I made all the final tweeks on my Curves chart that I finished stitching a few nights ago. It's looking really good - a pretty quick and easy project. The ladies at Mall Day should love it. I'll get it posted as a download soon so you can stitch along!

Embloggery

You have to check out this new Embloggery blog. I must admit it is the most ambitious undertaking I've seen in a long. Being a fellow needleworker I realize how much time and effort goes into these pieces. To do one every day is just, well... crazy. I salute you, Nicole!

Blogging is hard when your hands are tied up with floss

Howdy all! As you can tell I started working on my Told in a Garden chart. One amish man down (he says "what up") - 3 amish ladies, 1 amish baby, 1 amish tree, an amish house, and six quilts left to go! Moving right along. HA!

I also started working on a new K+IC chart on Monday. I recently joined Curves (which is awesome by the way) and when I went in on Monday there was a flyer up announcing that Mall Day is on Dec 15. So ladies that work out at Curves, that also have home businesses, get a day to peddle their wares. Most of it is just Avon and insurance but I figured that it would be a great opportunity to get something of mine out there into the world. So I came right home and started working on a Curves-themed chart. The basics are finished, I'm picking up my floss today after my workout, and I'm going to start stitching the model as soon as I can. So on Mall Day I'll bring the finished, framed x-stitch, a bunch of charts, and some business cards (which I still have to make) and see how they go over. I'm just going to give them away - publicity for my Etsy shop. When I finish all the final tweeks I'll post the chart here and you can stitch it too. Rock!

And you'll be happy to know that amongst all this craziness I finished something!! My first over-one attempt - and my first K+IC chart - The Frenchman is done!


But, of course, if you know me you know I can't sit still and empty handed for longer than a few hours. After all, I can't frame and hang Louis Dog until his counterpart[ner in crime], Boh Kitty, is finished. May I present... the Lioness.

Then it's time to refuel...

http://nataliedee.com/

My fabulous weekend with a frenchman

I've got so many things running through my head it's hard to keep them all straight. That being said I decided to jump ahead of myself again. Originally when I made my Frenchman cross stitch chart I also made one for Boh Kitty - and one for Jeremy and myself. Family portraits in silhouette...

I went to Salty Yarns, my local needlecraft store in Ocean City, and bought linen for each piece. Of course when I dug into my stash this weekend to get started outlining the cat I had already lost my $20 worth of fabric. The plan was, since Louis is almost finished, to outline Boh and then take both pieces to Michael's and look for frames. So, Jeremy and I got up bright and early and drove to OC to buy more fabric. Luckily they had something very similiar, heavier weight but same count and color. I bought a little piece to stitch the cat. But needleshops are like my candy store so I looked around and found a few more things. I got a bookmark chart to stitch, a scissor "sheath", and The Auction chart (a gift for someone who is probably reading this blog, so hush). Take a peep at the end product in my "In the Works" section - it doesn't really do the piece justice but... Whoever stitched the model at the shop was so creative. Instead of stitching the design as-is she stitched some of the quilts on seperate fabric and sewed them on to the piece so they looked like they were blowing in the breeze. This is going to be good.

So then we headed to Salisbury to grocery shop - and buy floss and fabric for my new project! Sometimes chain stores are just cheaper -thank you Michael's. Anyway, when I got back to the house I set up my new project in its home for the next few months - a very tricky velcro scroll frame (sooo much easier than the kind with split rails). I even got a few stitches layed down. I love new projects. The rest of the weekend was dedicated to cranking out as much of Louis' over-one as possible. Here are the results!