A to Z challenge

I was traveling in a blog-land and lately I came across an interesting blogging challenge to post for 26 days (Sundays are off except April 1 when the challenge starts).  Every post is designated to one letter from the alphabet (as the name says: A to Z challenge) and there has to be a theme. I've accepted the challenge and for my theme I chose ancient Egypt. Starting April 1st I'm inviting you on a journey - you will meet Egyptian Gods and Goddesses and I will share with you some stories about lives of people in ancient Egypt. To make this even more interesting I will be stitching Teresa Wentzler's Egyptian Sampler and you can follow my progress as we go along.

So long my friends,
Evalina

I can't believe it!

I've done some serious stitching this weekend!  My "Let's Sew" is done and now I'm trying to figure out how to finish it... It's not a big piece, it measures only 7.5" by 5.5". I've never done no sew cube - who knows, maybe that's what I will do!

I've also finished first part of SAL "Dawn of Spring" host by mouse in one of my yahoo groups.

I guess I was influenced by St. Paddy's Day and pick for this project a lovely green floss named Lucky from WDW....

And I was stitching an ornament from 2011 special Christmas issue of Just Cross Stitch - Christmas Cat Tree:

Many of you enjoying spring and warm weather, I still wear parka and boots. Days on the north are longer and warmer but we still have a lot of snow on the ground. This weekend I had an awesome visitor:

Yep, that's a lynx! For the first time I saw lynx so close, he came right to the cabin and was sniffing under bird feeders and Topaz's house. He has a beautiful face, we were maybe 10 feet away from each other. I run to the cabin to get the camera and took this picture when he was just leaving. Can you see that smile?

So long friends,
Evalina

Human Achievement Hour

I am a human and I'm proud of it. I'm proud of humanity achievements and I do not want to go back to dark ages. I love my computer, and my car, and my refrigerator (I live on the frozen north but still need that appliance), and I love my washer (why should I do laundry by hand if I can better spend my time stitching) and I love every single other appliance I have and my awesome stitching lights. To make this story short: on the 31 of March between 8:30 PM and 9:30 PM I'm celebrating the Human Achievement Hour. I'm turning all lights on and do some serious stitching!

So long my friends,
Evalina

Irish luck - or maybe not...

It was not fun! My email have disappeared from one of my accounts... I stared into the screen and could not believe my eyes. My hands and forehead were covered with a cold sweat, the whole body was trembling. Emails were there a night before, in the morning all were gone... Somewhere I read that a dying person sees the whole life like a movie in their heads, well in my head all the memories of previous computer crashes were popping up. Without further delay I drove to Staples and bought a new backup system. Ha! Now I'm safe.  And fortunately for me my email is back. My host was moving all my domains into a new server and by mistake deleted one of my accounts. He had a backup so a few hours later all was up and running.

Next morning - another surprise... my TV has died! Just like that, no symptoms just a little smell of burning wires and then, it was gone. And what Evalina does? Sure, goes shopping to buy a new TV. After all I'm not so sure about that Irish luck... on other hand now I have a great backup system and a new TV! And I managed to stitch a little. I had to start something new and Friday's mail brought a chart titled Let's sew.  When I spotted that chart it was a love of first sight, I had to have it. It was on the back order for some time, I even forgot about it - now it is all mine! Here is the progress:

So long friends,
Evalina

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The story of St Patrick's Day
Began so long ago
The lyrics in this song
Will tell you
All you need to know
The seventeenth of March
Is when this joyous holiday
Is celebrated happily
With colorful parades

Dee Lai Dee Dai Dee
Dai Dee Dai Dee
Lai Dee Dai Dee Dai
Hummm...Hummm...

Patrick was only sixteen when
The pirates captured him
They sold him to slavery
And took him to Ireland

He kept the faith
And made his escape
When he was twenty-two
And made it back to Britain
'Twas the only home he knew

Patrick had a vision
To return to Ireland
And vowed to teach Christianity
Until the bitter end
Legend says that Patrick used
The shamrock to explain
That the Father, Son and Holy Ghost
Are all and one the same

On this day the Irish dress
In many shades of green
And some are feeling lucky
With the leprechauns they've seen
It's music and fun for everyone
We'll party and we'll play
Come one, come all
Come join along
On this St. Paddy's Day!

 

So long my friends,
Evalina 

the unicorn

look what I found in my stash

a beautiful unicorn from Kustom Krafts! Now I will have to kit it up and that will take some time... In the mean time here is a sad story explaining why unicorns are not here anymore. Since I'm in the lucky Irish mood lately, the story is told by The Irish Rovers (they did it some 40 years ago).

A long time ago, when the Earth was green,
There was more kinds of animals than you've ever seen.
And they ran about and played while the Earth was being born,
And the loveliest of all was the unicorn.

There was green alligators and long-necked geese,
Some humpty backed camels and some chimpanzees.
Some cats and rats and elephants, but sure as you're born,
The loveliest of all was the unicorn.

The Lord seen some sinning and it caused Him pain.
And He said, 'Stand back, I'm going to make it rain!'
He said, 'Hey, Brother Noah, I'll tell you what to do,
Go and build me a floating zoo,'
'and take some'.......

'Green alligators and long-necked geese,
Some humpty backed camels and some chimpanzees.
Some cats and rats and elephants, but sure as you're born.
Don't you forget My unicorns.'

Old Noah was there to answer the call,
He finished up the ark just as the rain started to fall.
Then he marched in the animals two by two,
And he called out as they came through,

'Hey Lord,'

'I've got green alligators and long-necked geese,
Some humpty backed camels and some chimpanzees.
Some cats and rats and elephants, but Lord, I'm so forlorn,
I just can't find no unicorns!'

And Noah looked out through the driving rain,
Them unicorns were hiding, playing silly games.
Kicking and splashing while the rain was pourin',
Oh, them silly unicorns!

There was green alligators and long-necked geese,
Some humpty backed camels and some chimpanzees.
Noah cried, 'Close the door because it's starting to storm,
And we just can't wait for those unicorns!'

The ark started moving, it drifted with the tide,
The unicorns looked up from the rocks and they cried.
And the waters came down and sort of floated them away,
That's why you never see unicorns to this very day.

You'll see some green alligators and long-necked geese,
Lots of humpty backed camels and some chimpanzees.
Some cats and rats and elephants, but sure as you're born,
You're never gonna see a unicorn!

So long my friends,
Evalina 

Doughffins

PEA of PEA's Corner was blogging about doughnut muffins and she was so convincing that I decided to bake some:

She was absolutely right, they are delicious! Freddy liked them a lot, we even came up with a new name for them - Doughffins! If you would like the recipe check PEA's Corner!

So long my friends,
Evalina

Happy International Women's Day!

Celebrate the Goddess in You!!!

more stash...

St. Patrick's Day is just around the corner. To celebrate I've added one more HAED (Heaven and Earth Designs) chart to my collection:

 I have the chart, floss and fabric are on the way - I think that will be my next start. For now I brought from the darkness of my stitching cupboard the Guardian Angel and decided to work on him for a little while.That's my progress so far...

I absolutely love this piece. Hopefully I can spend a little more time with it.

So long my friends,
Evalina

Happy Sunday!

For some reason time goes much faster for me lately. I wonder, it's just because I'm getting older or because my time management sucks? It must be the time management because I'm not feeling any older, the last couple of days I'm actually feeling younger!

Remember my shoulder problem and the awful doc who told me to "Google the net" for more info? Well I did and while searching I came across The Vitamin D Cure by James Dowd, MD

I bought the book a month ago and started to take vit. D immediately, 25IU per pound of my body weight. The result? Well, no more shoulder pain! It's gone! I can sleep a whole night and there is no pain when trying to turn. I can do my hair, it is easier do dress and my arm has about 50% mobility back. I can't believe it, I suffer for so long (almost a whole year!)and the solution was so simple and it came from the net! I think I will buy a hard copy of this book and send it as a gift to my doc.

And I was stitching... a little too much. I didn't budget my time well and got scared before exams... I decided to get easy on myself and I differed these exams to next session in June. By doing this I will have to write more exams in June but it will give me a little extra time for studying. Unfortunately (since everything has to balance and there is only 24 hours in a day) I will have to cut on my stitching time. I think I'll be able to spare few hours on Sundays for my hobby, otherwise I will go nuts and even vitamin D will not help!

In one of my yahoo groups was an emergency to put together a quilt from stitched squares and I jumped right into it (to stitch I mean, I have no idea how to quilt). I thought that squares are quick and easy, you know, like an evening stitching. I was wrong! Or maybe I'm a very slow stitcher... Anyway, Catia of Catia Crafts (check her site, she has some awesome ornaments!) donated patterns and we were stitching like mad. Here are my squares:

I loved stitching them, thank you Catia for lovely designs!

In January I was in that Crazy January Challenge and I started Irish Blessing Sampler from The Sweetheart Tree. Since St. Paddy's day is just round the corner (I'm not even little bit Irish but I love this holiday!) I wanted to stitch something Irish and green. With an ache in my heart I noticed that I used a wrong color for vines... so there it was - rip it, rip it, rip it - until all was gone. And I started all over again

I'm sure I'll not finish it before March 17 but I enjoy stitching it. There isn't many cross stitches in this design but a lot of specialty stitches. When done it will look like this:

So long friends,
Evalina