Counting issues and a lack of direction on a Slow Sunday...

Hello - hope you all had a good week... mine had some  unexpected events but everything got worked out so far... took care of Elliot several days as my daughter-in-law's family is experiencing medical issues with differing degrees of severity... they are in my thoughts and prayers as they are facing some difficult times.

The weather has been lovely ... sunny, temps in the 60's and 70's... doesn't sound like I have anything to complain about... but I always find something...  we could really use some rain... it sprinkled on Friday ... we need a nice day of gentle rain. Forecast if for maybe some precipitation on Thursday... which  is Halloween... hope it doesn't rain from 6 -8 pm.  Last several years have been crappy weather on Halloween night... cold  or rain or both... yuck... I'm not buying my candy till Wednesday when I have a better handle on the weather. A good night will bring me lots and lots and lots of trick or treaters... my neighborhood is great for it... sidewalks on both sides of the street and houses close together... it is fun to see the little ones in costume and there are always some adults who are quite imaginative with their outfits too. 

As for me... I got  a little crafty stuff done and I'm happy with my Halloween decor, but looking forward to bringing out my Thanksgiving stuff. Hopefully I'll be motivated next weekend. 

So, I finished stitching Harvest Tiny Town and didn't know what I wanted to do next... I'm lacking direction... I wasn't feeling a new start so thought I'd be virtuous and picked up a WIP sampler... as there are plenty of them in my stash. The Noel Sampler by WTN&T  was sitting my by chair and I was happy to work on it... for a while... according to my notes I started this July 1 for Christmas in July stitching ... it was originally one of my "7 for my 70th" extravaganza that went down in flames... well last week I got the BIG house outlined and the little copse of trees and a start on the alphabet... not bad... but, but, but and this is a big BUT... something is off...  

to start  the trees are 2 stitches too close to the house and about 2 stitches lower than the should be ...  they don't line up with the bottom of the house...

I can shorten the tree trunks and I can live with the distance between the trees and the house... however I counted everything below the trees off of the trees which are in the wrong spot... BUT somehow the bottom of the crown that I counted off from the trees,  lines up with the border ... and the letter K is counted off of the crown and is just fine... and the J is lining up with the K but it is two stitches too far down from the house.... ARGGHHH... so I'm okay in one direction but not the other and I'm not sure how to fudge it because there is no way on God's green earth I'm relocating the house, which does line up with the top border... and I vaguely remember that when I got the border done I'm off a stitch down at the bottom...and oh carp... I just counted the house and I can see I made an error on the placement of the windows... there should be 5 stitches between the top and bottom windows ... I only have 4 so the house is one stitch short ... I could fix that by adding a row at the bottom and making the door longer ... but I think I'm still one stitch off ... the more I think about this and the more I try to FIX it the more confused I get... 

Deep breath, deep breath... so I'll add a row to the bottom of the house ... and I'll shorten the trees and then I'll get the letters to line up with the side borders... I think that will get me sort of back on track... but this has  drained me of my mojo for it... and its going back into it's plastic storage bag for the moment.... sigh... 

I moved on and  I picked up another leftover from the "7 for my 70th" ... also from With they Needle & Thread... Every Opening Flower... I think this one is BEAUTIFUL... only worked on it Saturday but did add some leaves to the GIANT pot of flowers in the bottom right corner... 

Now I  should be thinking ahead for what I want to do for Christmas stitching... and it should probably be on the small side... I'm waiting on some new patterns from WTN&T... noticing a trend here?  I'm definitely on a WTN&T kick... oh you can see the 4 new patterns here... scroll down to Featured Products...  perhaps one of the angels would fit into this frame I picked up the other day at Home Goods...

I wandered into the store with the idea that I NEED NOTHING for Christmas... and I strolled out with the bell  picture frame, another gingerbread guy cookie jar, a gingerbread rug for the kitchen and a snowflake rug for the back hallway... telling myself you gotta start early as the good stuff won't be there after Thanksgiving... 

I would like to check out the Christmas decor at Micheals as I saw a couple of YouTube videos and there was some cute stuff  I want to see in person...perhaps that kind of shopping would help me focus on Christmas stitching... perhaps... but I'm not betting on it ...LOL.. I'm just in a bit of a funk... I know what I should be doing...making some choices and getting prepped for December... but I'm dragging my feet... I tell myself there is plenty of time till Christmas, but the reality is there are 59 days from today...  sigh... I'll think about this later...

Let's look at stuff I have done... as for the Halloween decor... I got 4 little pillows FFO'd  for a dining room table display... and I made a new runner for the table too! These little gals and the pumpkin are from the Teresa Kogut's Happy Halloween book... 

And here they are in the little tray...

I finish these little pillows with a slit up the back, so this time I covered it up with a witch hat!

The table runner is a disappearing 9 Patch done with Sandy Gervais Beggar's Night collection.

I'm very happy with how it all  looks on the table. 

The tray is from Walmart... you can find it here... this is the 3rd one I bought... I've got it in white and blue ... it is the perfect scale for my table and easy to pick up and move when we eat there. 

I've got a couple of small vignettes on the TV cabinet...first is October from Hands on Designs "A Year of Celebrations"... 

on the other end is a mini tier tray with lots of cross stitch... 

Trick or Treat and the pumpkin headed gal and the skeleton cat are snippets from Prairie Schooler No. 188 Trick or Treat  and the Halloween on the bottom is from The Drawn Thread's Little Bits of Halloween.

In the middle section of the TV cabinet  my giant mercury glass pumpkin and two smalls from Pineberry Lane's Fancey Blackett's Little Fancies.  

On the the big display ...

Here a bit closer of the top...

and the bottom...

from the top... Bent Creek's Spooky Row ...

moving down from left to right... Matilda  Hornbuckle  from  Not Forgotten Farms..

 and Prairie Schooler No. 188 Trick or Treat... I think this my favorite Halloween piece!

Next shelf has Boo to You from WTN& T and the little Spooky pillow is from Lizzie Kate... I think it was a freebie but I can't find it now... 

 and on the other side is  and in the truck bed another  small from Pineberry Lane, Three Little Witches.  

Finishing up with another pumpkin headed lady from WTN&T Tricks & Treats...

and  from Notforgotten Farms Halloween Queen...

I  wasn't aware of my obvious affinity for pumpkin headed ladies ...who knew?  LOL

So plans for next week... gotta get my teeth cleaned on Monday and Nick and I are having dinner with friends, Elliott on Tuesday, a dermatology appointment on Wednesday to get some spots on my face zapped, going to a Halloween parade at Elliot's kindergarten on Thursday and hopefully will have lots of trick or  treaters that evening... that's a pretty full week... I want to work in some stitching and some sewing... I've been trying to do a couple of blocks a day at my upstairs machine and I have a Christmas quilt I want to do... lap sized ... one layer cake... easy pattern I've done before... Still trying to motivate myself for more cleaning out and rearranging... gonna take more energy than I have at the moment... such is life... 

Hope you have a good night for Trick or Treat...unfortunately the time change I detest will be next Sunday... a rant will ensue as it always does...  I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... have a birthday lunch to attend today and then my plans are to return to my stitching chair on the porch... 

happy stitching-

carol fun