Keebles World

Considering it is so close to the end of the month and I've been working on Happy Haunts, I won't have a stitchy update this week. I still have two more days to work on it before I have to post over at A New Stitchy Start Blog , so I'm going to try to take full advantage. This has been a horrible week at work and next week won't be much better, but I do have some fabulous news to share...my Sister and I have tickets to see Duran Duran in Dallas! I haven't even had a moment to think about it, let alone process it. It's not the farthest I've even gone to see Duran, but it is the first time I've seen them in a few years and I'm way past due. When it comes to work, I'm just not sure what to do anymore. I've got a shrink appointment in the morning (if they don't cancel on me...again), but I don't think that's going to help. I'm not sure how much more I can handle, but I can't buy a house unless I have my job. I'm ...

First with the stuff... Introducing Bugsy! He's still pretty sick...not from the heartworms but rather from the infection in his lungs caused by the dying of said worms. He's not allowed any stressful activity, which includes bathing or hair cuts and we all know how I feel about hippy Shih-Tzu's! Guess I'll just have to deal as best I can. He's quite a bit bigger than Bam, but they had an almost immediate connection, so what could I do? So huge vet bills and hippy dogs I must deal with because I'd do pretty much anything for Bam. Bugs is about 2-3 years old and has had a pretty rough life, but not anymore! Tomorrow is his first real day with Bugs without me, so I'm still a bit worried, but I'm hoping it will go well. Knowing me, I'll probably be checking in on them numerous times throughout the day. As far as the stitching goes...last week I left off here: and I FINALLY finished the first page and a bit: It's confetti hell, but I...

May I introduce Bugsy Blair: More details to follow.

When it comes to travel, I don't think it's a secret that I typically only go to one place...Disney World. Granted, I have a mile long list of all the places in the world I'd like to go but, for some strange reason, I always end up at my happy place. I debated whether or not to make this list up with dream places or my happy place and, just by digging in my stash, I found tons of Disney park-related charts and kits, so I just figured I'd hit up my own stuff. 1) Happy Haunts by Neni Designs - I haven't officially started on this project yet (so the link will be an empty album, at least right now), it's my A New Stitchy Start Blog project for the year, but it's still my favorite Disney park-related chart I own simply because it's of my favorite ride, the Haunted Mansion. 2) The Disneyland Map by Neni Designs - Whether or not I'll ever get around to stitching this is another story (and the park will be completely different by the time I do a...

One week I'm blazing through stitching, and the next week I barely had any time. But first, A better picture of Lilo and Stitch Otherwise: Between work and other things, I barely managed a day's worth of stitching all week. I started on Sleepy Hollow Mural and didn't make it much further than a start...not even a fifth of a page. It's my first time working with a q-snap and it would only fit in my worst lap stand. The stand is too short for me and I have to sit it up on my leg instead of the desired underneath. That puts it too high and I'm stretching in weird ways to reach the upper corners and it makes my arms sore, so I can't stitch for very long anyway. Until I can figure out a way to extend the leg of this monster, my stitching will be limited on it. Funny thing is, it's the most expensive stand I've ever bought. My cheapo lap stand works a thousand times better. But I'm so into Sleepy Hollow Mural right now, I'm not ready to stop,...

I was a bit perturbed when I got Stitch framed. I went in with the intention of picking out a standard frame and then waiting two weeks, but instead, the dude framed it right then! They've never done that before and I wasn't prepared for the expense. I spent the entire time it took him checking my credit card balances to find one with enough space on it to cover the price. Plus, it was the bad guy and he screwed it up twice and had the gall to tell me it was because I hadn't stretched it evenly. I guess he's never stretched a cross stitch project before because they are rarely absolutely perfect (at least mine aren't). If I had the money (and it bothered me), I'd pay a professional framer hundreds of dollars to do it for me, but I'm poor, so I do it myself and crookedness is a way of life. It was pretty darn close to straight. I attest he just cut the mat crooked! Don't worry, I did clean the fingerprints off...I just forgot before I took the p...

That's right, Top 5 Tuesdays (formerly Top 10 Tuesdays) are back! Head over to The Suddenly Kate Show Blog if you wish to participate or just read everyone else's posts. This week's selection is Top 5 TV Detectives. Other than British Detective Dramas, I don't typically watch detective shows, so this one might be a hard one for me. It might be easier for me to list my Top 5 Detective shows. 1) Midsomer Murders - Yes, I'm old because I enjoy the heck out of this show (and always have). Granted, it's hard to believe that there are any people left in these villages after all these years of murders, betrayals, cheating, etc, but coming from a small town myself, you'd be surprised how close to home some of the storylines are. Besides, you'd also be surprised how many big-named actors got their start on Midsomer Murders...seriously, I will never get the vision of a very young (and very hot) Orlando Bloom taking a pitch fork to the chest! 2) Lucif...

For the first time in a very long time, I had a really good stitch week. I left off with Alice and the B's here last time: And managed to get halfway through the row, finishing up two partial pages: I'm really into this project now, but I'm gonna keep to my rotation schedule and swap out to another project on Monday. I have an idea which one I'm going to switch to next, but who knows what tomorrow will bring and what my mood will be.

I've got my cross stitch mojo back, but my stash buying bug still hasn't gone away. I've added even more to my Neni Designs collection (and there are way to many to show), but I've found a couple of new designers I'd thought I'd show off. First up, I know I have already bought this pattern a couple of times from numerous other designers, but I've always found that I didn't particularly care for the level of detail in what I was getting. This is one of those pieces that requires a lot of detail, so I was so happy to find that Z Anna Cross Stitch finally did it in a size big enough to show the proper amount of detail! I'm most excited by another designer I just found, Addict 2 Cross Stitch . I found this one first, purely by accident: I was hoping there was a female version too, which I found today (the dangers of snow days...light work days which means more time to play online): As I started perusing her other stuff, I found three non Dis...

Only a few short days ago, it was 70+ degrees and we were under tornado warnings. This morning, I woke up and, to my surprise, this is what my world looked like: I hate winter. It's probably one of the few times ever we've just had snow (there is no ice), except on the roads...apparently melting snow, 17 degree temperatures, and a lazy county road crew means that the roads are veritable ice skating rinks. This would be perfect stay at home and stitch weather but I can't because some of our employees live out of town and can't get to work, so the rest of us have to pick up the slack. Yet another good reason to buy a house in my hometown...I wouldn't be able to make it work on days like this!

I'm not going to keep rehashing the horror that was 2016, but my goals were completely blown to Hades and back (sometimes literally). My two newest acquisitions...I call them the Power Couple! I also decided that it was time to set some New Year's traditions of my own. It's a big deal (especially in the South) to eat black-eyed peas with ham and collard greens for good luck in the new year. I can stand the peas if not the greens, but I've always been very anti-traditional and refused to participate. But, considering last year, I've begun to rethink the whole prospect...I mean, what could it hurt, right? But I'm approaching it in another way. My tradition will be tacos and purple cake, both of which I love. I made the cake yesterday morning: Not pretty, but purple all the way through and I had the tacos for supper yesterday. So here's to 2017, Keebles style! I'm still going to set stitchy goals for the next year as well in hopes of a better ...

I think it's pretty clear by now that 2016 sucked and I'm SOOO glad it's gone! Despite the blessing of two Disney trips, this has been an emotional terror ride of a year and it totally affected my stitching. I had so many stitchy goals and I blew almost all of them. If I wanted to look at the positive side, this was definitely a year for framing old pics and tons of new stash! I guess it's time to get down to the nitty gritty of the year though. Maleficent, my main project hasn't gotten any love since February. I left off here last year: And worked a total of 49.55 hrs on her and left off at the row finish here: Next up is Alice and the Bouguereau Princesses. Despite Friday's attempt at working on them, I still didn't get very far for the year. I left off here last year: And worked on them for a total of 57.31 hrs (including the little over 8 hrs on Friday): Cinderella Castle, which I had just barely started: Got finished and framed with ...