Contest Winner Announced & More Finishes

Good Morning!

I'm participating in my first craft fair in about 10 years so every available minute has been going to stitching, punching, sewing, crafting, painting.... :)

First things first:  the contest winner who guessed how many ornaments I made in 2014.  The answer was 41.  Since no one guessed that number, I enacted "The Price Is Right Rules" (closest without going over) and Linda's guess of 36 won it!  Linda, please email me so I can get your mailing info and send you out your prize. Congratulations and thanks to all who participated!

Here are some more of the finishes I've been busy working on:


This is a great Dimensions punch needle design that was so quick to make up...

One of my favorite LHN designs...

And here it is again using vintage 1950's silk ribbon rouching and some homemade rusty bells, then distressed the backing fabric to make it look vintage...

Another favorite LHN design...

... haha... look familiar?...

This LHN was the more involved finishing I've done in a while -- added the red floss and beads evenly spaced around the ornament and then attached the mistletoe embellishments...

I can't tell you how many of these I have stitched up over the past few years...

LOVE this LHN pattern...

 ... so much that I stitched it twice (and LOVE this Moda backing fabric)...

WHEW! Like I said, I've been busy!  Would love to hear what you all have been working on!  You can see more of my stitching finishes as well as other crafting items I'm working on at:  Handmade Heirlooms by Nicole Facebook Page

Talk soon and just keep stitching!  ~Nicole

Sleep Deprivation

Good Morning!

It is with tired eyes I'm typing this blog this morning!  Why?  Last night Mary said "Mom, Senora Nunes is my favorite teacher! Did we get her anything?"  Gulp.  Nope.  Then I remembered that I thought I had a Lizzie Kate pattern perfect for her Spanish teacher...

Soooo... at 7:15pm I got to work.  Found a spare piece of evenweave and we put on "The Help" and off I went.  Fast forward to 12:30am... when I put the glue gun down and stumbled to bed.  Finished project is 5" x 4" which is a little large for an ornament but it looks BEAUTIFUL as a small wall hanging!  Thin batting glued to a piece of thin cardboard with the design wrapped around it and backed with red felt attached.  Gold cording from Michael's around the edges and affixed with hot glue and also made into a bow/hanger.  SO easy and I love the end result.  Not too shabby for only 5.25 hours, huh? :)

Fast forward again to 6:40am... Mary comes to the realization that Senora Nunes won't even be at school today so my sleep deprivation was for nothing! Oh, don't worry... there's PLENTY of house cleaning that needs to be done so child labor will be alive and well at my house today/tonight. On the up side, at least I know Mary's teacher will be especially surprised after they all return from Christmas vacation.

That's all for now and I'm planning on doing another giveaway contest so stay tuned for that!  Have a great day and just keep stitching.... ~Nicole

Cookies Up The Whazoo!

Hi All,

I baked/decorated/packaged cookies & candy from 8:15am - 2pm and 5pm - 9:45pm yesterday.  Made a couple of deliveries, too!  Still more to do but made a huge dent.  Tonight the Amaros will be having pasta with homemade marinara sauce & meatballs (aka "gravy") for dinner which is currently thawing because it was made ahead for nights just like tonight will be; I'll see if I can wrap it up (pun intended, haha) before it's time to call it a day.

Here are some photos:

Snowmen sugar cookies.  White royal icing "thinned" to flood, eyes are black confetti sprinkles from Halloween and the nose is an orange chocolate covered sunflower seed.  I can't take credit for the materials used; check out www.bakerella.com which I came across to help fuel my snowman addiction.  (Future winter post will be all my snowmen that don't get put up in the attic until spring)

Peanut butter blossoms

Chocolate dipped butter spritz

Pointsettia butter spritz

Bag to take to the office for some of my coworkers.  Some I swung by my office last night during my baking break because they were heavy! (see the snowmen tags?)

Some for the teachers...

All in all I ended up making (so far):

• 4 pounds of plain chocolate fudge
• 4 pounds of chocolate walnut fudge
• 10 dozen chocolate chip walnut cookies
• 12 dozen peanut butter blossom cookies
• 20 dozen butter spritz cookies - 1/2 poinsettias 1/2 trees
• 2 dozen sugar cookie snowman faces (love!)
• 8 dozen chocolate covered preztel rods (white and dark)
• 4 dozen butter spritz dipped in chocolate on one end
• 2 dozen red velvet cake balls dipped in milk chocolate
• 1 dozen almond clusters with milk chocolate

PHEW! Needless to say there won't be a photo of anything stitched today for obvious reasons.  Stitching related though I can tell you that ABC is having a large clearance sale on their website... don't ask me how I know or if I'm having anything sent to me for my stash, haha!  I've been to their actual shop and it is GREAT -- it was a 3+ hour drive round trip for me when my younger daughter Mary and I went a few weekends ago and well worth the trip.  You can check them out at www.ABCstitch.com (click on specials on the left hand side off the main page).  :)

Short lunch break almost over--have a great rest of the day everyone!  ~Nicole

Framed and Finished Part 2 & Contest Announcement

I was going thru my stash with my girls a couple of weeks ago and came across this piece already completed... I think it came out of a book I used to have (anyone know?) and believe it's stitched on Monaco fabric.  Took this one to Michael's for framing and love the color mat and silver frame.  This one will stay in the Amaro house and has already been hung up off the kitchen.

This one is from Cross Country Stitching circa 2000 and was another one I found completed and tucked away in my stash that the girls wanted me to frame.  Many, MANY winter Sunday afternoons were spent stitching this one and I love that Katie & Mary asked me to frame it and put it up.  My favorite part is the sheep--so cute!  Love this frame from Michael's and I love the way it looks with the details on the baskets in the design.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS! 
Bringing Christmas Joy by Stitcher's Hands:  did this one on Monaco last January and was SO HAPPY to put it up this year!  LOVE the buttons from Just Another Button Company and ordered all of it from http://www.123stitch.com/.  This one will not be leaving my house either. :)  I think I went thru a whole skein of that red.


CONTEST ANNOUNCEMENT:  "Double or Nothing"
As of this second I have 6 followers.  Not too shabby considering at the beginning of the week I was wondering if I was going to be talking to myself in cyberspace, haha!  If by Noon tomorrow I have my follower count doubled to 12, I'll pick a winner randomly and that person will win Lizzie*Kate's Snowman 2010 (chart only) as shown in my second blog posting.  Thanks for reading, help me get the word out, and good luck!  ~Nicole