Life With Jules, and other stuff

Let's start with the cleaning house bit. No, not my actual house. I recently went through the blogs that I follow list and removed several from my list. Mainly due to inactivity for more than a year. While doing this, I noticed several are no longer available and/or have no way to "Unfollow." I wonder how I can remove those from my list? Life goes on, I suppose... I have done a bit more stitching on Praying Hands in recent weeks and have meant to share a post before now. I'm hoping to pick up my stitching again in coming weeks. For now, I am taking things slow as I continue to deal with some health issues. Have a few more tests to do and then I'm sure there will be consults. Possibly surgery. But all I can do is put my faith in God's plan for me.

As promised, an update. The first picture is where I left off. The second picture is what I completed recently. Mainly part of the left border to the top of the chart so I can complete that top section without getting off count.  I got this chart from Yiota's XStitch. You can view her stuff on Etsy or Facebook. http://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/YiotasXStitch https://www.facebook.com/yiotas.cross.stitch/

I am trying to get myself back into the world of blogging. It helps that a friend of mine is interested in starting her own blog and she's been asking questions. I am so happy to help her in her new adventure! So, now for an update... I have been going to a Discipleship study group at church for several weeks now. We are doing the Navigator 2:7 Series. I am really learning a lot; but not doing nearly enough reading. I know the discipline will come. I need to push myself to actually spend time in the Word. I don't understand why this aspect has been so difficult for me. Anyway, I am working on growing my discipline and relationship with God. It's important to me. Christmas is just around the corner and then the New Year. I don't know what 2016 will bring for me. I can only pray that God blesses me and my BF and helps us to continue to grow in our relationship with Him and one another. It's been a long and difficult journey together. Enough about that. As for my cross...

I can’t believe that I haven’t picked up a single project in at least 6 months now! Not that I haven’t wanted to work on anything because I have. I just had a lot of stuff going on in my life and couldn’t seem to find the time to work on any of my WIPs. Not to mention that a lot of my stash is safely packed away in the closet in the spare room. That’s a project that I will have to get to and soon! But I digress… Here are some pictures of my WIPs (that I have every intention on making a dent in over the remainder of this year): As you can see, a couple of them are nearly complete. Hopefully I will be able to get back into these soon! Oh, and please share my blog with your blogging friends. I would greatly appreciate it! :)

Is it really that time again!?! And I missed the supermoon (stupid monsoon season)!?!?!?! Where have I been lately? LOL Yeah, that's about how things are for me. Confusing as usual. I did finally finish all of the x's in The Gardeners and only have the backstitch details to go. Here's a pic... or two... On the bright side, I feel good about this piece. Can't wait to frame it and hang it somewhere in my home (once all of the house repairs/remodeling gets done and hopefully in this decade, lol). This month's topic: Tell us about your oldest and newest WIPs. Well, let's see. My oldest has got to be Coming Home for the Holidays . I was stitching this for my dad and nearly had the x's finished before he passed. I still have a little bit to go; mainly backstitch. He at least got to see it before he went to build my mansion in Heaven (he was a carpenter after all much like Jesus). Here's what it looks like currently, and for the past several m...

Where has the month gone? Last weekend I was thinking it was time to post my WIPocalypse update and realised the month had only just begun. Now I find that tomorrow is the date to post. Well, I am a wee early as I want to post an update on Praying Hands today so I will combine the two posts. Honestly, I think the only thing I have really worked on is Hands. It's coming along nicely as I fill in the holes and finish off the first 3rd of the piece. Here is what I've got: I also spent one Saturday working on my SAL with Joy over at A Joyful Stitcher. I previously posted on this one, but here is the latest snap again: Other than that, not much happening in my world of stitching. I'm finding myself concentrating on one piece for the month. This seems to allow me to get quite a bit in on the larger pieces. As to the question for the month: Show us your favorite places to stitch. I really don't have a favorite place to stitch. For a long time, I simply stayed in my be...

As promised, here is a picture of my progress on "Coming Home for the Holidays": I also managed to get some time in on "Praying Hands". I have been fighting a migraine all week, so I haven't done much stitching. I took last Monday and Tuesday off and planned to spend time stitching. C'est la vie!

So I have managed to stitch a bit more on Praying Hands this week. Here is a progress pic: I also stitched up a little something for a good friend of mine up north. She doesn't know it's coming yet and sometimes visits here so I won't post a pic until after I have sent and she has received. This week has been crazy! Between work and home. I spent last Sunday evening in the Veteran's Hospital in Tampa. Nothing serious. Just needed a minor head wound checked. Not really a wound, but a cyst that keeps breaking open. I had several of these buggers removed in late 2008. Going for a general surgery consult on Wednesday afternoon to schedule more excisions. Probably 4 or 5 more will be removed. Then, praying that God will not allow these things to grow back again. But if He does, I will have them removed in a few years yet again. Keeping my thoughts on God more than usual lately. I am certain it's a good thing! I have a lot to be thankful for right now an...

Well, after my last post I found that I was off 1 stitch in a small area on the left side of the design. Sooo, I frogged until I figured out where. I frogged too much, but I quickly restitched and made some significant progress. Here are some pics: Total progress Angle shot Close up to see different shades  

I have been putting some time into "Praying Hands" the past few evenings and have some good progress to share! You can make out the shape of the hands. Keeping this post short as there's not much to say...  

Got a little more in on Praying Hands over the weekend. Slow progress, but steady. I am more or less forcing myself to stitch at this point. Not because I don't want to, but because I need to spend more time on other things besides Facebook and the internet, lol! And I have soooo many projects started on the stitchy front that it's a bit overwhelming. Plus, when I pop by your blogs and see all the lovelies, I want to start more. Nope, not gonna do it, not gonna start anything else until I get 1 piece completed in my WIPs pile ( Praying Hands not included). I had one of my colleagues take this on my cell phone at work today. Yes, I got the mop chopped! I now need a hair dryer, LOL. ;)  I got tired of my old one popping the circuit breaker 7 years ago when I first moved to Florida so I tossed it. Got lots of compliments today at work! An ego booster for sure. I had a good laugh at the salon yesterday when the stylist made the first cut. The poor gal next to me about h...

Welcome to my newest followers!!! Well, I made it back from Denver in barely one piece. Long story...my connection in Nashville was over 3 hours delayed so I didn't walk through my door until 2am Saturday. Went to the Tigers v. Rays game Saturday night and got home to a mess in my room. I left a cup (32 oz) of tea on my night table and my laptop turned upside down on my trash canister. Needless to say the cats wanted tea and managed to dump half of it on my laptop. So, Sunday after church I went to Walmart and purchased a new laptop. I now have an Acer Chromebook. All-in-all I like it, with the exception of the keypad. Takes some getting used to... I did take my Praying Hands wip with me to Denver. However I didn't get anything done on it while there. Here is where I left things just before leaving: I have tomorrow off for the July 4th holiday and plan to do a little stitching on it then. Maybe put some in tonight as well. ~~~Until Next Time~~~

I spent a little time with Praying Hands over the weekend. Here’s my progress as of Sunday evening: I hope you all had a truly blessed Father’s Day with your dad’s, husband’s, son’s, and other father figures in your life! Mine was a little different this year as many of you know my dad passed last September. I decided to cook Rosemary Chicken [tenders], baked Sweet Potato and French Style Green Beans for me and my sissy. We had a quiet evening together. Next week I go to Denver. Part of my job requires me to travel there for training at the National Veteran’s Training Institute (part of the University of Colorado). I am attending Labor Employment Specialist next week. I will have to go again a couple more times for other courses. It will be nice to get away! I want to take Praying Hands with me, but not sure of the policy with bringing a sewing needle on the plane with me. Any suggestions?? I don’t plan to check my bag. ~Until Next Time~

Haven’t done much on it this past week. Here’s what I have done since my last post: Hope y’all are having a great week!

Well, I started Praying Hands over the weekend and managed to get around 100 stitches in. Here are a couple of pics: Of course, the left photo is straight on and the right is at an angle.

I recently got a new cross stitch kit and I think this is the one that will get me outta my stitchy funk! The pattern is called “Praying Hands” and it is gorgeous; more gorgeous in person than what the image on the website show’s! Ordering product online, as we all know, can be a bit challenging. Personally, I prefer brick & mortar to online shopping (and that’s if I go shopping at all as I am not much of a shopper). However, not all brick & mortars have what we may be looking for. Step in, Yiota’s XStitch (www.yiotas-xstitch.com)! When I browse for patterns that may strike my fancy I keep in mind the different themes available. Lately, I have been looking for something more religious in nature. I happened across Yiota’s and saw “Praying Hands” and just knew I had to have that pattern. I really like how the package arrived in my mailbox. It took about a week to get from the UK to my home in the USA (quick by postal standards). Yiota took care in assuring the package didn’t g...