Speechless

Anthony was speechless when he opened his gift - I've never seen him without something to say!  I am thrilled that he likes the design.  He even liked the colors I chose; I found an online image of  the Superman logo and tried to match the colors as closely as I could. 

Anthony's Birthday Gift

Anthony, Grace's boyfriend, is a huge Superman fan.  So much so, in fact, that he owns a piece of memorabilia from the original Superman movie.  Perhaps there are those among my readers who are more educated than I am, and know that an entire language has been formulated for Superman's home planet, Krypton.  Several months ago, Anthony challenged me to stitch the Kryptonian word Hope, which I have finally done.  This was part of his birthday gift.

 

 I made the frame, then painted it black.

 

Since I'm writing this post in advance, I don't know what Anthony's reaction will be, but I'm sure he'll like it!

Happy Birthday, Anthony

Today is Grace's boyfriend's birthday.

Happy birthday, Anthony!

Supplies:
Cuttlebug Embossing Folder - Happy Birthday
Spellbinders Nestabilities Dies: Classic Ovals Large and Small
Happy Birthday stamp by Stampin' Up!

(By the way, that's one of my favorite pictures of him, doing what he does best: read, think, and form ideas to use in his writing.)

Mystery Cross Stitch Project Progress

I have been steadily working on my mystery cross stitch project.  Here are several motifs:

 

  

 

Mother-of-the-Bride Wedding Planner

Now that Grace and Anthony have announced their engagement, I can share another project I finished a while ago.

We started planning the wedding quite a while before Anthony proposed, and I started collecting papers of varying sizes and shapes, filled with notes and price comparisons. I was afraid I would lose some of them, and then have to gather the information again. Sarah had created a altered notebook wedding planner for her sister, which she gave to Grace for her birthday, and I liked the idea, so I decided to create a Mother-of-the-Bride notebook for myself. I started with a 100 page composition book, and ended up with this:

Close-up of the front:

The back:

Pictures of the inside dividers, which I created by adhering cardstock to the front and back of a page. The tabs were created using the Round Tab punch from Stampin' Up!

The shapes below were created with Spellbinders' Nestabilities dies: Labels One and Classic Scalloped Ovals Large.

This is one of several envelopes I created to hold receipts and miscellaneous papers:

Made using the Top Note Die from Stampin' Up!

Another envelope:

I used a piece of gold-covered elastic to create a band with which to close the notebook and keep everything inside secure.

Things are going to be very busy in the upcoming months, and with Grace in school full-time and working, too, she's asked me to help with the wedding plans. I can't remember planning my own wedding over 25 years ago (except for shopping for the silk flowers), so it's exciting, as well as being a privilege, to have the opportunity to play a key role in planning my daughter's wedding.

What I'm Doing These Days

Summer heat and humidity have arrived in western New York!  Although we have yet to see 90 degrees, we'll get close this coming weekend.  I sure appreciate our air conditioning.

So how have I been spending my time?  There are the usual chores:  laundry, cooking, cleaning.  And the inevitable doctor's appointments for my husband.  Still, I make time to work on my cross stitch mystery project every night, usually for several hours.  The finished size of this design is 11" x 11", and nearly there are precious few squares which have no stitching in them.  I am making progress, though, and seem to have found a rhythm, which I was doubtful about at first.

I've also been doing some work with silk flowers.  It's been many years since I've played with any, and I'm finding it tedious, but rewarding.

This little guy showed up at our front door the other night.  He's so cute!

 

See, he's waving!

 

  

 

Keep cool!

Mystery Project Update

Fun with Words

I discovered Wordle.net a couple of days ago, and tonight I created a design based on cross stitching words. If you have some time to waste play, wander over there and create something!