Grow Your Blog

2 Bags Full is hosting a party in the blog land again! And if there is a party I'm in! For the whole weekend I'll be traveling through Blog-land discovering new blogs, making new friends, learning few tips and tricks and I'm so excited!

I have been blogging since February 2008 (wow, it will be six years soon!). I blog about everything, my hobbies, the beautiful cold North, current events if they touch my heart. 

I live in Canada's true north, in the Yukon. I'm not very far away from the Arctic Circle. So many people are telling me that I'm crazy, why in the world I've chosen such a cold place to live. Well, yes, it is cold here but we do not have:

• freezing rains
• ice storms
• earthquakes
• floods
• hurricanes
• tornadoes
• fleas (poor bastards can't survive in the cold)
• snakes
• worms (too bad for fishermen)

I was terrified watching news when practically all the east coast was without power around Christmas time. I had my wood stove going, was sipping wine and enjoying a REAL winter wonderland.

And there is more benefits to living here:

• less taxes
• more jobs
• summers with 24/7 daylight
• occasional Aurora Borealis (spectacular!) in the winter
• beautiful winter sky with millions stars that look so close that you can almost reach them
• wild life (it's heaven if you like it)

About 25 years ago I fell in love with embroidery and still love it. I think that most of this whole blog is about stitching...

I'm also very passionate about mysticism and searching for the unknown and unexplainable... Fifteen years ago I've joined AMORC , a community of Seekers who study and practice the metaphysical laws governing the universe. I've learned a lot and still learning.

There is no party without a give away.  The lucky winner will be announced February 15th and will receive:

• 5 blank postcards from Yukon
• tiny address book, and
• dream catcher

So long my friends,
Evalina

Stitch from stash

January was a great month, I bought only one chart! Rovaris had a new chart, a lovely horse and since we are having Chinese new year and this year is a year of a horse, and it is my birthday year (yeah, I am a wooden horse) I decided to stitch some horses, and I couldn't say no to this one

 

I have a fabric and floss in my stash for this project so really this month I spent only 19.62 Canadian (13 EUR). If I round this up to $20 - I have $5 that I can carry over to the next month.

 

stash and the start

 In January I participated in Crazy Challenge. I did 15 more new starts, all from stash. Stay tuned to see them 'grow'.

To see what others are stitching from stash click here

So long my friends,

Evalina

Third finish!

I have another finish from my crazy challenge! It's 'Friendship' by Little House Needleworks.

button or no button...?



promised picture of the progress on Halloween house

and the Spooky Welcome

So Long my friends,

Evalina



Not one but two finishes!

It was an excellent stitchy weekend. I was hermitting with over 75 other stitchers and look what I have accomplished

Beautiful ABC Heart is finished



and a lovely bookmark is also done! For this bookmark I used pattern from Just Nan 'Christmas Secret' and floss from Carrie's Creation 'Jewels of the Nile'.

Both pieces were started this month and are part of the Crazy January 2014 Challenge. I also made a little progress on 'Spooky Welcome' and Halloween House'; unfortunately batteries in my camera died and I couldn't take pics. Do not worry, they will come in the next post.

So long my friends,

Evalina

Full moon and WIPocalypse

It's time of the full moon and time to work on these WIPs. Melissa of Measi Musings is hosting this challenge again. And I have big plans for this year - I want to have at least fourteen finishes! I will work on all my new starts and some of the old ones... here is my list:

1. Halloween House
2. Love (Christmas ornament) 
3. Songs of the Season
4. ABC Heart
5. Spooky Welcome
6. Vultures Welcome
7. Irish Prayer
8. Horse from Rovaris (It will be a new start, I'm still waiting for the chart)
9. Enchantment
10. Sailboats
11. Rose Sampler
12. The Provence
13. Protective Care
14. Ann Kirby

The pictures will arrive as soon as I stitch something. This weekend we are hermitting and stitching and I'm planning to finish ABC Heart and work on the Enchantment.

So long my friends,
Evalina

Done! Day thirteen, fourteen and fifteen of the crazy challenge.

OK, my crazy starts are done and I'm cured for a while from startitis. Here are the last three:

Vultures Welcome

We are entering Chinese year of the Horse - my own sign. It only happens every sixty years, most likely I will not experience this again. I believe in magic so I decided to stitch not just a horse but a unicorn. Kustom Krafts have a beautiful one:

 Enchantment

and the last one, Spooky Welcome:

Stay tuned for tomorrows full moon WIPocalypse 2014.

So long my friends,
Evalina

Day twelve of the crazy challenge

I found a freebie "Alphabet Heart' and thought it's perfect for a little heart fabric that was gifted to me a long time ago. I decided to use Dark Variegated Pink from Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe and I really like so far

So long my friends,
Evalina

Day ten and eleven of the crazy challenge

Day tenth and eleventh of the challenge I'm dedicating to Irish. I love green!

Paddy's Luck

Paddy's luck WIP

Irish Blessing

So long my friends,

Evalina

Day nine of the crazy challenge

Isn't she gorgeous? She is my pick for the ninth day of the crazy challenge. I know I have so many  big projects and it's insane to start another one but how can I say 'NO' to this beauty?

 African Woman

So long my friends,
Evalina

Day eight of the crazy challenge

Life got kind of busy lately and for day eight I'm cheating. Protective Care I've started in 2012 January challenge and did not touched it for two years... I have no idea why because the project is lovely.

 

So long my friends,

Evalina





Turtle Trot - January

I'm so glad that Claudette is hosting that program again. Maybe this year I will have a little more finishes (smile). So here are my ten projects I will work on

 Guardian Angel

 Computer Catastrophes

 Seagulls and Sails

 Halloween House

 Love ornament

 Songs of the Season

 A Good Marriage

 Halloween Rules

 Jane A.

Shore Patrol

Wow, it looks like I have a lot going on... Thank goodness that some of these projects are very close to the finish.

So long my friends,

Evalina

Day seven of the crazy challenge

For the seventh day I have another sampler. This one is from Scarlet Letter

 Ann Kirby Sampler

So long my friends,
Evalina

Day six of the crazy challenge

Today was time for Just Nan to get started. I was planning to start with Christmas Secret and I did, kind of... This is how it suppose to look

but I did not feel like stitching over one on 32 ct... So I took the chart and start to stitch a bookmark. Instead of Christmas Red I'm using Jewel of the Nile from Carrie's Creation. Yes, I'm stitching it on 14 ct for a change.

So long my friends,
Evalina

Day five of the crazy challenge

Today's new start is 'Forget Me Not' by Nancy Turner from The Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe. I had a piece of evenweave just the right size and color (light blue forget me not) and a lovely floss from Nancy called 'Ocean Waves".

So long my friends,
Evalina

Day three and four of the crazy challenge

Here are my starts for the third and fourth day of the challenge:

 Shadows

 A Mind Independent and Free

I just noticed that I'm starting two samplers with same motto:

'No glory I covet,

No riches I want.

Ambition and beauty are nothing to me.

The one thing

I beg of good heaven to grant

Is a mind 

Independent and free.'

Hm... why that mind independent and free is so important to me?

So long my friends
Evalina

Crazy challenge - day two

Yep, Linda was right on! Today's start was 'Friendship' by Little House Needleworks.

I adore this chart and I'm sure I'll stitch it more than once...

So long my friends,
Evalina

Crazy challenge

Happy New Year everyone! This year again I'm taking part of the crazy January challenge where for 15 days (some more crazy stitchers do it for the whole month of January!) I do new starts from my stash and trying to stitch them through out the year. Today is day one and I started to stitch Snooty Parrots Sampler designed by Barbara Ana.

It wasn't a very good choice for a New Year day to stitch on 40 ct linen... you know - New Year celebrations with champagne, hard to see these fine lines...

I decided to stitch this piece with floss from Victorian Motto Shoppe (1 thread over 2) and so far I like it. I know it's just a few stitches there and you really have to use your imagination...

Can you guess what I will be stitching tomorrow? I can give you a little hint: it will be a piece from Little House Needlework.

So long my friends,
Evalina