Top 10 of '10

I saw this linked on Rachel's blog and decided that I would participate as well. If you would like to join me you can link up here. Caitlyn joined our family at the very beginning of 2010 and many, many pictures have been taken of her through out the year. Here are what I have chosen as the 10 I would share in chronological order:

1. This was taken about a week and a half after little one was born (January). I was taking pictures of her laying on my lap and just really like how she's looking at the window behind the couch.

2. I love, love, love this picture. I love the look on her face as she watches her mobile in her crib. I took this in February while I was still on maternity leave and spending all day with the little one.

3. Another of my favorites. This was taken at the end of April in our backyard. It was a gorgeous day and we were watching a bunny or two that were hanging out in the backyard. I think I had her propped up on my knees when I took this picture.

4. I had to include this picture from June. My husband was on his last underway before detaching from his sea command. We watched videos of him reading to her often while he was gone.

5. This photo is from July ... we were hanging out in the office. She has the greatest expressions and I just love how she looks like she was caught red handed doing something.

6. Caitlyn had to be put into a Spica cast back in August ... this photo is from shortly after that. You can just see it in the photo but I wanted to include it since this demonstrates her personality and just how happy and well adjusted she was even in the cast. Nothing can get this girl down.

7. I took this picture during one of our many visits to my parents this fall. I love the look on her face and how excited she is with her book. This particular picture is from early September.

8. This photo is from a session that we did in our back yard in the fall. It was a fairly warm day for November and we had a lot of leaves on the ground. Her intense study of the leaf in her hand is what made me chose this picture out of the many I took that day.

9. This is just a random picture from December when she was climbing on her bean bag chair. I love the pictures I take when she is looking over her shoulder back at the camera. You can see some parts of what we like to call the results of Hurricane Caitlyn.

10. We love to rip tissue paper. We went to my sister's house for Christmas and the first day she was there, one of the packages caught her attention and she just needed to pull the tissue paper out and start ripping.

It was very hard to narrow down the many pictures that I took this year to just 10. I hope you enjoy a small glimpse into our year. Thanks for stopping by. Thank you to Amber's Articles and her fellow bloggers for hosting.

DPP - Day 16 -23

December 16 - Snow in Virginia Beach ... still had a few pumpkins out from the fall.

December 19 - Hanging out with our cousin!

December 21 - Cookbook for Christmas cookies

December 23 - Stockings at my sister's house

Trying to catch up ... unfortunately we have a few days with no pictures since we have been on the road a lot. Merry Christmas!

DPP - Day 9 -15

I have been taking daily photos but haven't been able to post so here's my catch up.

December 9: The centerpiece at my command's Christmas party.

December 10:

December 11: The table at my MIL and SIL cookie exchange.

December 12: My little one playing with her first puzzle.

December 13: Snow!

December 14:

December 15: One of the ornaments I made from little one's left over birth announcements.

My "Grown Up Christmas List"

Today's question for the Wives of Faith Christmas Carnival is:
Write your own “Grown-Up Christmas List” (taken from Amy Grant’s song of the same title)

-For no separations
-Love for every child
-Food, water and shelter for every person
-For everyone to have their basic needs met
-To really understand the meaning of Christmas

This was a hard question for me to answer and I'm still afraid that my answers are the stock answers. Thanks for stopping by.

DPP - Day 8

The results of a hurricane called Caitlyn and playing with the settings on the camera for color accent of the greens in the room.

A Stitching Post ... Finally

This blog has been becoming more than just my stitching blog and that's alright by me. However, since stitching is one of the main reasons I started this blog, it's only right to show case what I've been working on once in awhile. I haven't been doing too much stitching recently since I have other projects to complete for the holidays. The first thing I have is a sneak peak of a Christmas gift (so I don't want to show too much). I'm sure some of the veteran stitchers may recognize the design.

This has been finished into a cube and I look forward to sharing the complete project with you. Next up is the ornament I stitched to exchange with Vonna. I enjoyed doing this exchange and it sounds like she likes the ornament.

Design: The Christmas Cross (JCS Ornament Issue 04)

Designer: The Stitchworks, Ltd.

Fabric: Unknown from stash

Threads: DMC substitutions

In return, Vonna stitched this beautiful angel for me. I love the finish and it has a prominent place on our tree.

In addition to exchanging ornaments with me, Vonna also finished a few stockings for me. I've shared pictures of them before but here they are in all of their finished glory. Both were designed by Joan Elliot as part of her annual series in the Cross Stitcher. Now I just need to stitch one for our daughter.

Hubby's stocking

My stocking

I currently have three things that are in progress: a birthday present for my sister in law (that I need to finish the beading on which is why it's still in progress), my sister's wedding sampler (that needs to be finish in Feb) and the third of LHN's ornaments from this year. I stitched the first two over one but am thinking that it takes me a long time to finish them stitching over one so I might just start over and stitch them on high count over two. Let me know what you think. I hope you are all having a wonderful December! God Bless!

DPP - Day 7

Our mantel :)

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without ...

LOVE!

There could be so many answers to this topic, but Christmas is still Christmas even without many of the traditions that I have come to love and expect. As a military member and spouse, it is not uncommon to be separated from family during the Christmas season. Some of my favorite traditions are decorating sugar cookies with my sister, opening presents on Christmas Eve, going to Christmas Eve services at church, reading all of our Christmas books and so many other things. However, those don't make Christmas what it is. Christmas is about love ... love for our family and our friends, our neighbors and others around us. Not to mention, the greatest love of all ... God who came to earth as a little baby to redeem us from our sins. This season celebrates his birth. Jesus took on the trappings of human form to be savior for us all. Remember this Christmas, whether you are surrounded by family or separated by time and distance, God's love is greater than any thing else.


This post is part of the Wives of Faith Christmas Carnival

DPP - Day 6

Playing with Momma's cover :)

My Favorite Christmas Decoration

This week I am participating in the Wives of Faith Christmas Blog Carnival. The first topic is to describe our favorite Christmas tree ornament or Christmas Decoration. I don't know that I can pick a favoritee Christmas tree ornament. That is one tradition that I loved growing up and have continued since moving away from home. Every year, my mom got my sister and I an ornament for Christmas. We collected other ornaments as well through the years so we both had a significant ornament collection when we moved out of the house. I love the memories associated with each ornament. Some I don't remember the exact years that we received them, but I could tell you most of the ones that were our yearly ornament. I still continue to get an ornament every year for our family and started to do the same for my daughter this year. Here are our ornaments for 2010:

Caitlyn's First Christmas Ornament

The Family Ornament for 2010

Since we have so many ornaments it is hard to pick a favorite one. So in addition to telling about our ornament tradition, I will talk about my favorite Christmas decoration. My favorite Christmas decoration is my Nativity. I have one of the Willow Tree Nativities, which was a Christmas present about five years ago. Setting up the Nativity is one of my favorite activities. In addition to it being a beautiful set, I also love it for its display of the reason for the season. It is not elaborate and has simple colors. It is hard for me to put into words how much it means to me. So instead I'll let a picture do the rest of the talking for me:

DPP - Day 5

Sneaking a peak through the door before getting little one dressed for church.

DPP - Day 4

Today Justin, Caitlyn and I bundled up and went to Christmas Town at Busch Gardens. We got her bundled up better than either of us were though. It even started snowing on our way home.

DPP - Day 3

An early morning shot of my nativity:

DPP - Day 2

Today for the December Photo Project I bring you two shots ... first is Caitlyn helping me with the laundry:

The second is our basket of Christmas picture books (Caitlyn went for this before heading towards the tree).

December Photo Project: Day 1

I know I'm cutting it close today (not a great beginning I know). Here is my first photo for the December Photo Project:

I decided that a picture of some of our decorations was a necessity. Here are the stockings we purchased a few years ago to have until I completed our cross stitched ones. Those are in the place of honor on our mantel along with the stocking my mom made for our little one (and future little ones).

Quick Update

Stand by for a much longer post with more pictures ... I received my stockings back from Vonna (she did a great job) yesterday as well as the ornament she made me for our ornament exchange. I wanted to do a quick post to share that I will be participating in the December Photo Project this year. I hope you enjoy a peak into our holidays!

No Posting but Lots of Stitching

I know it's been awhile since I have posted. We've been somewhat busy around here so this has been the thing to fall off of the shelf. Around the time of my last post, my daughter was diagnosed with hip dysplasia so we have been dealing with that for the past few months. She has gone through being in a pavlik harness, an unsuccessful closed reduction, a successful open reduction, six weeks in a Spica cast, three weeks full time in an abduction brace and we're a few days into three weeks of the abduction brace only while sleeping. I think that about covers everything. She has been a real trooper through out the whole thing.

So in stitching news, I finished my Christmas stocking on Sunday. Here she is in all her glory:

Design: "Christmas Angel Stocking"

Designer: Joan Elliot (The Cross Stitcher Aug '06)

Fabric: 14 ct White Aida

Thread: Recommended DMC, Kreinik and beads

I started her at the beginning of Dec 09. So she took a little over 10 months to finish (I was able to cut the time that it took me to finish hubby's stocking in half). She and the gingerbread stocking will be heading to The Twisted Stitcher's Finishing Service soon. I can't wait to see what Vonna does with them.

On the subject of finishing, I also finished a couple of fall pieces that I had (both were squares I received in the Fair and Square Exchange). I choose to finish two as cubes. Here's one of my finishes (I still need to add ribbon my Halloween cube):

I love this fabric with this stitched piece. What do you think?

I have a few other projects that I am working on for the holidays. I have been keeping busy but don't have too many other pictures to show of my WIP (and most of them are for gifts). So instead I leave you with a picture of my little one and one of her baskets of books. Have a great night!

June's SBQ

Here's this month's stitching blogger question from Lee at Lake Stitcher:

Tell us about something that you have stitched or plan to stitch for any father in your life. Maybe it’s for your father, your father-in-law, your children’s father, your grandfather, your godfather, or someone who was or still is an important father-figure in your life. Why did you choose this particular piece of stitching? Tell us the story behind it.

And because a simple one part question is never adequate, let’s go some more:

Often times we identify our love of needlework and our skills with our mothers or grandmothers or other women. It’s understandable because often they were are first teachers or role models. Now let’s think about our stitching life as it relates to our dads. Is there anything about our approach to stitching that we can recognize as traits of our fathers? For instance, does your dad (or any other important man in your life) have an approach to one of his interests that you can observe and think, “Hey….if I substitute the word “needlework” for “fly fishing”, we’d be pretty darn similar!” So tell us about it.

The first piece that came to mind was "Thank You for Serving" by the Sunflower Seed. I stitched this for my grandfather in the summer of 2008, right before I left on deployment. When I saw the design I thought of him and the other military men in my life (my other grandfather, step-grandfather, father and husband). I stitched it to remember the years that he spent in the army. I was able to drop it off at my LNS before I left and my mom picked it up when it was done. She gave it to him when she saw him at Christmas time. It is a design that I hope to stitch again for others in my family as they complete their service.

As for the second part of the question, I think part of my love of cross stitch comes from having a very analytical mind. This was inherited from both parents but especially my father.

Quilting and Stitching

Well, back to my regular scheduled programming ... at least somewhat. I've started to get into quilting as well as cross stitch. I has a chance to finish a project this week, which I was really excited about. I still need to finish the second bag but one has been completed. My first project was a Child's Activity Bag. I found the tutorial on Moda Bake Shop and it was created by Melissa Stramel of Lilac Lane.

The Front of the Bag

Fabric: Sandy Gervais' Nautical and Nice

Pattern: Child's Activity Bag

Designer: Melissa Stramel of Lilac Lane

The Back of the Bag

My local quilt shop, What's Your Stitch N Stuff, is celebrating is 20th Anniversary this week. So I stopped by to pick up some backing and batting so that I could complete the strip quilt top I had finished (the kit was purchased from there as well). I picked up some brown minkee for the back of the quilt. Here's the top with the backing and binding:

I know that I still need to iron the quilt top. I had started one night but realized that I really needed to do it on our full ironing board downstairs instead of the little ironing board I keep in the guest room for my quilt projects (great for blocks and small units, not so much for long strips). I really love the different fabrics in this quilt. I have a few more strip quilts to make ... it's one of my favorite kits that my LQS carries.

I also picked up a kit for a Christmas present for my sister (hopefully for this year) as well as another strip quilt that used Wine Country by Barb Tourtillotte.

I have been spending quite a bit of time stitching as well. I completed the center part of my stocking (well, except for a small part of her hand since I didn't have the color at the time and wanted to start working on the bottom).

I'm hoping to complete this in time to be able to send it out for finishing and still have it by Christmas. I've also been working on the Letter L that I showed to you previously. I've almost completed all of the stitching and will just have the beads left to do. My other project at the moment is a wedding sampler for my sister. It's been a lot of fun to work on with changing the colors to match those she picked for her wedding. My daughter's birth sampler has been framed ... I just need to take a picture of it to share as well as actually hang it on her wall. I hope it won't be too long before I can share some more projects with you ... both stitching and quilting. Hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend! God Bless!