Fourteen Countess turns one!

Today is my blog birthday! It's hard to believe that a whole year has passed since I wrote this. To celebrate, I'd like to share a special WIP that I'm working on.


It was Stitch in Public day on Saturday, and that motivated me to unearth a project that I've been meaning to finish forever. My mom started stitching this project over twenty years ago, and I've finally picked it back up:

When it's done, it will be the Serenity Prayer:

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;

Courage to change the things I can; and

Wisdom to know the difference.

I've been focusing more on stitching things that I designed myself in the last year, but it's kind of nice to work on something more traditional again, especially something with a message that I have found so helpful over the years. It will be even nicer to finish up a project that my mom once worked on. Is anybody else working on an especially meaningful project these days? Please feel free to leave a comment and share it with us!

Last three handmade tree ornaments!

I've got three more handmade tree ornaments to share before Christmas comes tomorrow!

My mom crocheted this rose ornament at least 25 years ago. It has a tiny music button inside that is still working after all these years! It plays White Christmas when you press it:

I made this one when I was a little kid. I am pretty sure this was from an ornament kit that someone had given to me. 

Here's another one made by my mom. She stuck some pins into a bit of styrofoam, and then wove her orange and gold embroidery floss around it to create an ornament frame. Clever, right? This is one of my favorites because of the cute photo of my little bro in the middle.

Soon I'll reveal the tree itself! Merry Christmas eve, everyone!

Sparkly beaded ornaments

I should really share a photo of our entire tree one day soon! In the meanwhile, here are a few more ornaments crafted about a zillion years ago by me and my mom, this time from the beaded category:

 

Next up: plastic canvas! Yes, we dabbled in every craft imaginable when I was growing up!

Felt mitten clip ornaments

My mom and I crafted up these little felt mitten ornaments when I was still in grade school:

These are a super-simple craft to make with kids, because once the mittens are cut out from the felt, they are simply glued to an alligator clip barrette like this:

photo via Too Cuties Boutique

...and then decorated with whatever little sequins, rickrack, yarns or other doodads you can find in your craft stash. 


And they're a breeze to put on the tree, since they clip easily to the branches! Next highlight from our house: beaded ornaments!

Crocheted plushie Frosty and Santa

I've always loved these plushies that my mom crocheted when I was small:

there must have been some magic in that old silk hat...

santa claus has got a hot rod sleigh

I've tried my hand at knitting, but I've never learned crochet... maybe I'll have to add it to my list of things to try in the new year!

Mr. and Mrs. Frosty

A couple more tree ornaments from mom's ouevre:

Mrs. Frosty, rockin' the sequins

Mister Frosty's not afraid of a little bling himself

Next up? Crocheted plushie Frosty and his friend, crocheted plushie Santa!

Plushie ball ornaments

When I was small, my mom decided that she was tired of me, my brother, the two dogs and the four cats wreaking havoc on her fragile Christmas tree ornaments every year. Her solution? She crafted up some unbreakable plushie ball ornaments!

 

Next up on our stroll down Christmas ornament memory lane? Felt Mr. and Mrs. Frosty, coming soon!

Happy Mother's Day!

This mother's day, I am really fortunate to have two very wonderful moms to celebrate with: my mother-in-law Lisa, and my sister-in-law Sue.

Today I'm giving each of them some cross-stitched button magnets for their mother's day gifts. I had so much fun coming up with magnet designs that make me think of them and reflect some things they like.

My mother-in-law Lisa is about as addicted to playing solitaire on the computer as I am to messing around with my blog! This was the first design I made for her:

I can't remember all the details, but an imaginary bug features in the story of the night Lisa met my father-in-law, Jack. Over the years of their marriage, Jack has given her some very cute bug-themed mementoes, so I decided that one of her magnets should be a little Japanese beetle. I used this photo as a model:

photo via: www.ces.ncsu.edu

Japanese beetles feasted on our hedges last summer; I hope they leave our leaves alone this year! Even though they're very destructive in our yard, I can't help finding their shiny green and coppery-colored bodies kind of beautiful.

I also made her a flower magnet, using the same fabric that I used in my spring-time give-away back in March:

I was also really excited to put together some designs for my sister-in-law, Sue. Sue writes a terrific blog about fashion and style called The Zhush. I decided that her blog banner was a phenomenal subject for a magnet. Here's her banner:

Isn't all that purple so much fun? Here's the cross-stitch version:

On the Zhush, Sue has a weekly feature called the "Random Chanel Item," where she posts these incredible photos of all kinds of crazy things with Chanel logos on them, from topiary to footballs to cupcakes! Here's where Chanel meets cross-stitch:

And a flower for Sue as well:

And here they are all wrapped up:

I'm so lucky to spend today with these very special ladies and the rest of my husband's family. Happy Mother's Day, everybody!

Home sweet home

Happy Valentine's Day!

February 14th is a big day in our house, as it's also my birthday! It was my mom's birthday too, so I thought I'd post one of the cross-stitches she made about a million years ago. Here's a detail from the piece:

And here's the whole thing. I have been meaning to frame this forever. It doesn't really match our decorating style, but we might find a place to put it up anyway.

Here's a closer look at the stitching. I just noticed that she forgot to finish crossing one of the squares in the letter T! I inherited a very bad case of perfectionism from my mom so I think this is pretty amusing.

Have a lovely Valentine's Day! xoxo

First post!

I still remember the first cross-stitch that I ever made. I was probably about eight years old when my elementary school class was learning about "life on the American frontier," and one of our assignments was to do a cross-stitch of our initials. An experienced crafter and cross-stitcher, my mom helped me lay out my design, choose my floss colors, and stitch the piece together.

I've made countless cross-stitch projects since then, and for most of them, I based my work on commercially available patterns and design books. But as my tastes have changed over the years, I moved away from cross-stitch because most of the books and patterns had a fussy or cutesy style that didn’t speak to me anymore.

But then I started experimenting with making my own project designs, and I realized that this richly historical, old-school stitching technique lends itself perfectly to the clean, simple, modern designs that I like to work on. I have also found that with four hours of train commuting to do each day, I have all the time that I need to dream up new project ideas and even get a good deal stitched as well. Now to find the time to photograph and blog about it all...