It all started with this plant:

I got this Christmas Cactus way back in 2006, when we were still living in Buffalo.  It has survived 3 moves since.  I now have a second pot just from little bits I pulled off of this main plant.

This summer, I got this guy on sale at the supermarket.  Can’t beat a price of 99 cents!

I got a couple more at Lowe’s, but I managed to over-water them and one of poor things did not survive.  This one seems to be doing okay. He got all crazy in the living room and stretched to this current state.  I think he’s much happier on the porch window sill than the fireplace mantle.

Another trip to Lowe’s led to this Elephant Ear:

And Ayame and Reeve picked out their own “alien plant”:

And on our most recent trip to Lowe’s, T gifted me with this:

Aren’t they gorgeous?  :)  I hope I don’t kill them!  I’m trying very hard not to over-water.  I have to remember that they’re drought tolerant and don’t need to be watered as much as the hostas or the hydrangeas.

Do you have indoor plants?  What kind do you have?

I’ve decided to spend some time finishing off some cross stitch projects.  First up is an ornament that I finished stitching in 2009.  It has been sitting in a box since then.  It is so nice to finally have it stuffed and displayed. 

I also, finally finished what was supposed to be Ayame’s first Christmas ornament.  I have no idea when the stitching for this was completed.  The photos I have on my gallery were from December 2007, and the snowman still needed a hat.  Anyway, here it is, finally finished into a flat ornament.  I made the cord with white and 816 DMC.  This was stitched over 2 on 40 ct linen.

This blog was hacked in February last year… so I was not able to blog about major life events.  Thank goodness for FB and Twitter!

Anyway, this time last year, I was about 30 weeks preggers with #3 aka FML aka The Giant Viking Baby.

Around this time, I also gave birth to a stitching baby.

Wildlife by Eva Rosenstand was started on November 26, 2003, ignored for most of 2006-2009 and finally finished on July 22, 2011.  I haven’t framed it yet.  I would love to send it to Jill Rensel, and by send I mean personally deliver and pick up because I’m not mailing something so massive and so important.  I would also have to visit her shop daily to make sure the piece is still there and hasn’t gone missing or had any accidents.  So yeah… I think I will have to find foam core or a mat board big enough to stretch this piece on and frame it myself… I could order a frame at Michaels or a local shop after stretching and just bring it in when the frame is done.  We shall see.

I started this project back in 2005. I purchased the chart, fabric and floss after seeing MLI’s model at Golden Thread in Rochester, NY. The model was soooo beautiful. I made awesome progress in 2005, up until early 2006. Then it got put in the back burner. Maybe I brought it out once a year after that. I’d like to finish stitching CB this year. Maybe even full on finish it as a bell pull before the end of 2012. But don’t quote me on that.

Hello?  Can you see this?

We’ve been hit with so much snow, it is beyond ridiculous.  We were lucky enough that we didn’t have to deal with the first snow of the season, but we’ve gotten hit almost every week and I AM DONE WITH THIS SNOW BULLSHIT.

There is a pool hiding underneath, I promise

This was taken before even more snow was pushed towards the house to help clear the road

I miss the days when I can take the kids out for a walk and not have to worry about anyone slipping on ice.  It would be so nice to be able to go outside, feel the sun on my face, take a deep breath and NOT have my nostrils freeze.  I cannot wait to go outside and see this instead:

I had TWO stitching finishes for 2010.  I stitched up an ornie and I finished Coffin Buzz.

That’s pretty bad as far as stitching goes, BUT 2010 was a very busy year.  We traveled, we packed up, we traveled again, we fixed up bits of the house, we moved, we cleaned the nastiest pool on earth, enjoyed the summer, enjoyed the fall and I made awesome progress on Autumn Wildlife.

The goal for 2011 is to finish Autumn Wildlife.  Ideally, I’d like for all four of us to have stockings by Christmas 2011, but I know that’s not realistic at all.  I don’t even have designs picked out for the kids yet.  Finishing Wildlife would be awesome.  I started it in 2004 and its long overdue for a happy dance.

It has been crazy, crazy, CRAZY!  The end of the year is always super hectic.  I had a lot going on.  Work had to get done before we left to visit family.  Then we were gone a day longer than planned (thanks a lot, snow).  This week was spent just trying to get back to normal.

We were gone for 6 days but it has taken me over 3 days to catch up on laundry.  How is that possible?!

The good news is, we only had to shovel a teeny, tiny bit of snow.  A lovely neighbor played with his snow blower and cleaned up our driveway!  I only had to clean a path to the back and front porch.  Easy peasy.

Christmas was great.  My kids opened presents for FOUR DAYS straight.  Then we got home and there were more presents to open!

Anyway, Happy New Year everyone!  I hope we all get more time to stitch! 

The last time I blogged, I whined about summer ending.  And now, here we are at the end of Autumn.  The leaves in the front and side yards have been raked, the Christmas tree is up and it now gets dark at 4:30 PM.  I find myself being incredibly restless around 2pm.  I think this is my body going nuts as there would only be a few hours of sunlight left for the day.  That’s just something I never really got used to.  I grew up with the sunrise at 6 AM and sunset at 6:30 PM schedule.  Dark at 4:30 just does not agree with me.  I suppose I could always get up early to enjoy more sunshine, but I’m thinking maybe not.  LOL.

And to prove that I do stitch, here’s some progress on Wildlife.

Summer is ending and there is no way for me to stop it.  Last night, I actually had to turn the porch lights on when DH got home.  It was that dark out.  *sob*

Last week, it was so nice.  We were able to swim and hang out on the deck.

This morning, it was barely 70F and the kids had to wear hoodies.

Maybe being indoors more will mean more stitching time?  We’ll see.