Great Magazine

I am a magazine junkie. I have magazines in almost every nook & cranny of my home. :) Efforts to dwindle down this abundance of magazines have often been in vain, as the next time I pass by the media section of a store, I find more I NEED to buy. Despite this weakness of mine, I have succeeded in reducing quite a bit of my collection in the past year, and I'm already kicking myself over some of the cross stitch ones I let go! Does anybody else ever feel a little disappointed though, when they get the magazine home and have time to thumb through it to find that it's lacking some real substance? I have to share with you a magazine I bought the other day that I am really impressed with, it's called 'Create & Decorate' . If you go to their website, and click on 'see complete table of contents', you can see thumbnails of all of the projects packed into this one issue. Holy Moly!! It's absolutely packed with projects, many are primitive in style, but not too too primitive for me. Since I am interested in other kinds of stitchery besides cross stitch, this was a real treat with several designs for punch needle and stitchery. There are also painting and paper craft projects that look cool, but I'm resisting the paper/scrapbooking bug and can't paint. I'm just now getting a good look at this magazine and am so impressed that I had to share with other crafty, stitchy people. I hope it stays so good!

Spring!

Well, our spring weather has finally arrived some time after the calendar indicated it is spring. :) I'm always beyond ready for things to warm up, as well as 'green' up.
Above is my Spring House exchange project that I made for Becky and since she has received it, I can show it. This comes from Rose Cottage by Country Cottage Needleworks. I had fun tweaking the colors for and stitching this!
Although it wasn't in the plans, I have picked up my Birds of a Feather 'Happy Hearts' sampler and worked on it for the past few days, and thoroughly enjoyed it I might add. I started this exactly 4 years ago and I manage to work some on it every year. It is stitched on 36 ct. meadowlark linen with one strand of WDW. I think I might be close to halfway, whew! This sampler is a lot more stitching than I thought it would be-but I love it.
Lately, I've been feeling somewhat overwhelmed by all of the wonderful cross stitch projects I have waiting in the wings. I want to start something new and am having a tough time deciding what. Working on WIPS means I don't have to decide just yet. LOL Actually, I have been stitching on a particular motif in Happy Hearts that now only requires being filled in with one color, thus no chart or counting to complete it.......which makes it a perfect waiting room/hospital project. We found out yesterday that my son has to have surgery Friday a.m. to remove some hip hardware. :( It will be a 7-10 day stay for him. An addicted stitcher must have plans for stitching for such an occasion, including back-up projects in case I finish one or get bored with it. I'll have an ornament (DT freebie) , Happy Hearts, an over one project (spring quilts on a line from the last Cross Stitch and Needlwork, formerly Stitchworld), and a notebook kit by Handwork Samplers.
I'm tempted to kit up yet another design or 2 from the stash: Gathering Room by Little House Needleworks and maybe even Home of a Needleworker , since it's been an obvious must-do from the moment I first saw it. See what I mean? I need a few more sets of hands to get all of the things stitched that I like!