Excuses.....

Hi everyone!  I hope that all of you are doing well and that life has been a good to you as it has been to me this year.

I know that I have been a bad, bad blogger and a very bad blog follower for the last months.  I am not even going to begin trying to apologize for my long absence - but I do have some terrific excuses - I promise! 

The photos below have been uploaded and ready to go since October 2nd...  blush, blush.

So, let me move on to my List of "Grand Excuses"... 

1)  A wonderful excuse:  We bough a new house in a neighboring town last week and we moved our entire household over the Labor Day weekend!  I love the new house and I will be even more thrilled when we get all the boxes unpacked and all our stuff stored away.  The kitchen and the master bedroom and bath are pretty much taken done now.  Bubba and all the birds are moved in and Bubba is thrilled about our fabulous sun porch!  

(DH told me that he was on the verge of crying every time he saw a box marked XS tough... I don't think that he realized the extent of my stash collection until he had to move it out..  Luckily, he had help from 5 friends, so everything went smoothly. 

Oh, and I am turning 40 today, so yesterday we picked out my birthday gifts at Sears; a brand new washer and drier from Whirlpool in a yummy cranberry red.  I can't wait for those babies to arrive!!!!  Not until September 25th, unfortunately....  :-(

2)  A sad excuse:  Work has been very turbulent yet again and we just went through another gruesome mass-layoff - the third one since I started working here 7 years ago!  I was lucky enough to be safe this time again, but watching colleagues and good friends getting laid off is a terrible experience.  You can't help but worrying about them and feel really guilty about still having a job.

3)  A pathetic excuse:  I have been enjoying reading a stack of books on my iPad lately.  It started off with Hip^Hip tipping me off about 50 Shades of Grey.  I loved this trilogy and not only for the s-e-x, I promise (- seriously)!  (Don't judge me!  LOL) 

All right, I know that a lot of readers could not get past all the "kinkiness", the poor and very inhomogeneous language, or the parts that seem less than realistic - like the heroes young age, unlimited assets (money and "other things", ahem), his looks, and that the heroine is supposedly "plain" (an a virgin, of course...), etc, etc - but I still loved it!  There is definitely a love story behind all the "action" and the main characters do evolve and mature immensely throughout the books.

That said, I do agree with the less than impressive use of the English language (heck, I think Ithat I write better in English and this i only my 2nd language!) and how many young American females say "Oh my" to themselves several times a day?  Just wonderin'...
So if you have read 50 Shades, you may, just as me, still find it hilarious to read the reviews at Amazon (the favorite being this reviewer: cupcake on top - I love the "I gave this 4 stars. Don't judge me." comment) and I also found this article that made me laugh til I cried.  I tried to read it to DH, but I was laughing too hard for any of it to make sense.... "public transportation", oh wow!

4)  A tired excuse:  I was really torn up  and drained about losing Princess for a good week or two.  I could not stop crying and anything would set me off.  I never cry at work and now I found myself running for the rest-rooms or locking my office door, crying my eyes out.  I would cry while driving to and from work, while eating breakfast and lunch and dinner, while trying to go to sleep, while putting on make-up (that really did not work at all...).  After I had cried the worst out and a few weeks had passed, I suddenly realized that I was smiling when I thought about Princess instead of crying.  Bitter-sweet, but still, a warm feeling in my heart.  Bubba was confused for a while too, but she seems to be doing really well now.

5)  An ecstatic excuse:  So, something that DH and I have been working on together for almost a decade years finally happened!  We are going to be parents!  We are celebrating our 23rd week of pregnancy today, so I am starting to feel safer and safer for each week now.  I can feel them kick - yes, them - paternal twin girls!  DH is thrilled and I am starting to get relaxed enough to enjoy myself too!

Well, after all of my jabbering, let's get on to what really matters - stitching!!!!  ;-)

I could not pass on the adorable needle-roll from Just Nan, Lady Scarlet's Scissor Roll.  It looks like it sold out within just a few weeks, so I was lucky enough to grab one early.  It was a quick and easy stitch/finish and really very enjoyable.  I also appreciated that this "half-kit" called for DMC floss and not super expensive silks - always a plus in my book!.

This is the out-side:

Here it is rolled up - it looks tiny because it is!

Another view of the roll-up:

Last rolled up "side":

Here is the stitched and freshly ironed part waiting to get finished.  The photo is clickable, so you can get a better view, if you would like.  I love those little panels - they are just adorable!

This is another really fun, small and super-cute small; the Frog Pin Keepe kit from Schoolhouse for the Needle.  It was another quickie, even though the finishing took a little bit longer for this one.

Front:

Back:

Here they are together....

Remember this piece from my crazy post about crows and pears?  I finally stitched it up and it was a joy to work on.  I used hand-dyed chenille for the trim and I picked all the WDW floss randomly from my stash, as well as the linen cut.  The leaves are felt applique, which was not as hard as I feared, so one less intimidation on the "i-list"!  :-)

Here is the back.  I finally tracked down crushed walnut shells to fill the pillow with, so it has a nice weight and feel to it.

The third stocking got stitched up as well.  I did finish the fourth one yesterday - I am happy, since they are not real "fun" stitches.  There is a lot of areas to just fill, fill, fill and fill....  I think that the finishing will be a breeze though.  (If I ever find a backing and lining fabric, that is.)
So, now I have one each for the twins and for DH and myself stitched up!  Good, since the twins are due on December 20th!  :-)

The latest part of the EMS samples has been downloaded & printed and is waiting for me at home.  I tell you, it is just so hard to get started on each new part!!!!  Only 4 more sections to go - almost there!

And last, here is a photo showing why I have to throw so many of my Vera Bradley purses in the laundry machine repeatedly...  This is apparently the place where the cool birds hang out.  Some of them even get in to the purses and sit there until discovered and chased away by someone mean (=me!).  Sigh!  (This is why I don't own any crazy expensive designer purses....)

Well, I know that I have talked your heads off, so I'll let you go!  I'll try to post and keep in touch after we have the computer up and the Internet running at the new house.

Take care and Happy Stitching!