Happy 10th Wedding Anniversary!

My husband and I are celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary today.  (And tomorrow will be 10 years to the day of our engagement).  We'll be together 22 years in June, and it's been a pretty awesome ride so far.  We are not without our ups and downs, but we have learned from the difficulties to put our faith and trust in each other.

Without getting too mushy, my husband is the best man I know and I am so proud of how hard he works for us, how smart he is, how good he is with our son, and how understanding (and wise) he is with me.  Happy Anniversary, Mr. Sweet Pea!

And now a look at some of the pieces we've stitched over the years.  I will have our 10th Anniversary piece in a few days as I got a bit of a late start on it.

We stitched this piece together before our wedding.  Our wedding colors were blue and silver, and there was a running theme of stars throughout.  (Yes, it is mostly because we are Dallas Cowboys fans, though it was far less embarrassing to admit that 10 years ago than it is now.  But let's not talk about that.)

Count the Stars - Dimensions kit

We had just started stitching, so we relied on this kit from Dimensions that we modified as a wedding record.  We changed the wording to the line we used from an ee cummings poem that has special meaning to us.  When we were in college, my scientist husband (then chemistry student boyfriend) would send me ee cummings poems as love letters, something I thought was incredibly sweet).  We used line from another of his poems on our wedding invitations, "one's not half two.  It's two are halves of one:"

Several years later, I stitched this piece as a Valentine's / Anniversary piece for him (It was stitched for Valentine's Day, but I didn't end up framing it until our anniversary that year.

It's Peas in a Pod, Me and You by Sue Hillis designs.

Sadly, the last "anniversary" piece I stitched was for our fifth anniversary, you know, five years ago.  It has yet to be framed (I do HAVE the frame, I just have to convince my framer - Mr. Sweet Pea - to get it done.  Why yes, I do make him frame his own gifts.)

This is Always and Forever, by Little House Needleworks.  You can get the details here from our fifth anniversary post.  I ordered a somewhat ornate black frame for it, and it's all ready to go.  Perhaps it will get framed AND hung up sometime this year.  Won't that be exciting!  I actually have a spot on the wall all ready to go.  We have a corner area in our front hall where we've hung some old black and white family photos, including some wedding photos.  We even have a black and white wedding photo of our own hanging up, and I'd like to hang this piece along with them.

As I mentioned earlier, the 10th anniversary piece is currently in progress.  I had put it out of my mind for the longest time, and when I was at my LNS a few weeks ago, flipping through the racks, it occurred to me that MAYBE I should stitch something for our anniversary.  Nothing was really working for me, and then I spotted a chart I already owned (yay!) and was able to pick up the fabric I needed for it.  So now it's one of four (five, six....) projects on scroll frames sitting next to my stitching chair.  It's a fairly easy stitch (compared to the Sampler Cove and Long Dog pieces I am also working on), so it should be done soon.

Two finishes I am really proud of

I finally got around to taking pictures of two pieces I finished earlier this year. I try to photograph and/or scan everything that I do, especially pieces I make as gifts. The first piece is something I stitched for my husband for Valentine's Day. I worked on it in secret when he wasn't home so it was a surprise for him.
Well, sort of. I ordered the frame and mats from PictureFrames.com.

When I went to put it together though, it seemed that the top beige mat was slightly off. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with it, or if I was doing something wrong, so I ended up showing the piece to my husband before it was completely finished (he was still surprised). It turned out that they cut the top mat to the same dimensions as another mat I had ordered at the same time for another piece. The sizes were similar, but just different enough to really mess me up. I called and explained the problem and their customer service person was VERY helpful and apologetic. She checked my order, said it was completely their fault and they sent a new mat out at no charge the next day. She even told me to hang onto the old mat in case I could use it for something else. The new mat arrived shortly thereafter and we put the piece together.

I've ordered from PictureFrames.com several times and would not hesitate to recommend them to anyone, especially if you're not framing a complicated piece. It's definitely a lot cheaper than having the piece framed at a shop or craft store and the quality of their materials is excellent. (We'll stick to having things framed at our LNS for really complicated pieces). It's a little difficult when you can't see things in front of you, but I've chosen well so far. Also, I HIGHLY recommend you ask them to send you a set of sample mat pieces. There used to be a link on their site to order a set for free, but I can't seem to find it. I'm sure, however, if you call and ask them to send you a set, they will. The mat colors look very different in person than they do on a monitor, and it's really best to have the sample in front of you.
One of the things I like best about their website is that you can upload a scan or a photo of your piece and play around with different combinations of mats and frames to see how it would look. You can even change the wall color! If you want to try framing some of your own pieces, they're definitely worth looking into.

This is one of the other pieces I photographed yesterday, Celtic Seasons by Vickery Collection. I started on this piece last year when my husband was in the UK for six weeks for work and finished most of the color stitching. I set it aside when he came back, but picked it up again earlier this year.

I finished the last of the color stitching and started in on the outlining. I love the look of outlining in a piece, but I really hate doing it. Mostly because I am obsessive and for most backstitching I force myself to do it square by square (over 2 if that's how I did the cross stitching.) In most cases, it looks neater and stays tighter - you don't have long stretches of thread that can sag or droop in a finished piece.

It took weeks to finish the outlining in this piece, but I think it was well worth it. It's still unframed, but it's one of the few pieces I've completed for myself.