Welcome to Friendship Crossing!

Where strangers cross paths to become friends, sharing their love of PRIMITIVE/SEASONAL decorating, CROSS STITCH/ WOOL/SEWING/QUILTING/CRAFTING, recipes and home life.

**I have an Etsy shop filled w/the newest PATTERNS/SUPPLIES/KITS that are mostly PRIMITIVE, SEASONAL or WHIMSICAL in style. To take a peek, just click the button below on the sidebar .

***I LOVE reading your comments and thanks to all who take the time to write them. If you ever need to contact me, the best way is to just leave a comment on the most recent post and it will go directly to my email inbox first, w/out being published.

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you enjoy your visit!!

Tanya (pronounced like the color TAN) : ))


Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Craft Room pics ~ Part Two

Some of you might remember this plaque that used to hang out in my craft 'barn', but now it's inside, warm and toasty, along w/all my other crafty stuff. This hangs in between the closet and the hanging thread pegboard.Let's continue around the room, shall we??The cheapy light fixture I bought at WW(Wally World), but that second light really comes in handy when I'm ironing. I can twist it any which way I need to.These 3 black shelves hang in the corner, over on the opposite side of the room. The two top shelves hold some of my favorite pieces that I've either made, collected, or sweet blogger friends have sent me. The bottom shelf holds baskets for trim, round pearl cotton, rick rack, extra bobbins and machine needles, etc.Down below is my collection of older thread and in the clear plastic basket w/handle, holds all of my newer thread.Yes, I know I need to make some valances for the windows. (there is another one I haven't shown yet).This counter has a drawer base on either side(that holds more STUFF)~lol, and butts up against the drop~leaf table that holds my ironing pad, etc. The counter is about 7 or 8 ft. long. I think hubby had to cut a little off of the right side to fit in the space out in the barn, but it worked just fine inside. I really tried hard to make use of everything I had out there that would fit in the new room.Underneath the old black drop~leaf sits my little stereo unit. (Hey, a gal's gotta have some music while she works), lol. The 3~drawer plastic bin holds more cross stitch charts and kits.

I guess this means there will be a third post~ LOL! I will show you the other half of the room next time. (it contains all my FABRIC and WOOL)~tee hee Also, I can't wait to show you a couple of things I've made recently.

Keep saving up those pennies, as I'm gearing up for a big SALE soon, don't forget!!

As always, I appreciate your stopping by for a visit and hope you enjoyed your stay!
Happy Crafting!

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Craft Room pics ~Part One

Ok, I finally got my C.R. (craft room) all cleaned up a couple of wks. ago so I could start the new yr. off in my craft room w/a clean table, so I thot I'd show ya what the room looks like. Most of the time it is way more messy than this and over the holidays it became our 'throw it in there' room, LOL. I'm gonna break it up into 2 or 3 posts so as not to 'overload' blogger again.

As some of you might remember, this room used to be our oldest son's b'room, but last spring it became my new c.r. and let me tell you, it is a very small room. However, I feel I'm much more productive(well, if I could stay off of the computer), in this room than I was out in my craft barn(due to no potty out there and all), which had a LOT more space. It's way more compact, but very conducive to sewing/crafting, at least most of the time. :))

As you walk in the door, this peg board holding most, but not all of my overdyed floss, is on the opposite wall.
Yes, I once owned a cross stitch shop several yrs. ago.........can you tell???
Even more thread hangs on the back of the door.....I wanted the closet to be 'open' so I could find things easily. Next to the closet on the left, sits my bins full of cross stitch material in all different sizes, colors and counts. I bought the 9 cubby bins at Target a few yrs. ago. The black baskets I found at the $$ store for a dollar each. I have several more bins that hold all my sewing fabric and wool, that you will see later on.


I try to tag or label everything so it saves me time when I'm looking for something in particular. I just pull out a basket or sometimes two or three at a time, lol.

That's it for today, but plenty more to share in the next post. Plus, I will be having a BIG sale soon for my older craft patterns/kits, so start saving up your pennies!!

Have a lovely day/night! Happy crafting!

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Organizing Still Coming Along....

I must confess I haven't been quite as productive this wk. as last wk. in the C.R.(craft room), but this 'organizing' bug has really taken hold. The meal planning I mentioned in my last post got quite a few positive comments, so I just wanted you to know that I have stuck to it like glue. It seems to be working out great! I now go grocery shopping on Mondays and only try to buy ingredients for meals chosen for that wk. (ok, well, I overshot my budget this wk., but other than that.....)LOL. Still need to work on that one!!

Also, I'm trying to incorporate NEW recipes each wk. It's another 'addiction' I have besides all the stitchy/sewing ones. LOL There are only about a thousand I want to try, so I bought myself a cute little folder (w/Beagle puppies on it) to store the freebie ones I run off of the internet. I also bought a BIG cheapie noteook, along w/some dividers, to hold them in after we see if we like that particular recipe. I do have a recipe box and an old smaller notebook that holds all of my recipes I've had for yrs, but this is just for the new ones. Before, I just stuffed the internet ones in folders and had to dig through each one looking for something new to try OR spent lots of time rummaging through all my bazillion cookbooks, so hopefully this will save me time in the long run.

When planning our meals for this wk. I grabbed one of my cookbooks(a Gooseberry Patch, for instance), got out a little notepad, wrote down the pg. number and beside it, the name of the recipe I'd like to try. Any ingredients I didn't have was written down on a separate grocery list. Then I went through my coupons to match up ingredients that needed to be bought. Waa-la!! it's been a hit so far!!


So as not to bore you w/all that~here's a few things I made last wk. Can't believe no one even tried to guess what they were. I even gave you all a HINT!!

This is called a 10-min. tablerunner, from that kit I won. Actually, I think they should name it 30-min. tablerunner, cuz it took me a bit longer than 10 MINS!!! :))) but I think the colors are gorgeous!

Very easy to make, but not sure how anyone could make it in 10 mins. LOL It took me awhile to get those seams just right.I had received one of these tissue covers in a RAK(you can read about on my last post) and had always wanted to make some myself. Talk about FAST and EASY!! I started out w/making two of them, then they multiplied.......and I ended up w/5, but gave a few away, so now back to two again. ha


I'm sure I'll be making plenty more of them in the future. I need to make one for myself too!

Well, thanks for stopping by~ I need to go start that new recipe for tonite's dinner(Enchilada Casserole and Taco Soup), so hope to see ya back on here again soon!

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Oops I forgot!!

I hope every one's New Year is off to a good start!! Mine is so far. I've been getting each room in our house back in order and ORGANIZED is my word for this yr. I want to be more organized w/my time, so making my house more organized and de-cluttered will make my time more organized and less wasted, hopefully. Actually I want to be more organized in all areas of my life this yr.

So, for instance, I have begun a weekly meal plan. I have tried this many times before in the past, but this yr. I'm hoping I can stick to it each wk. Only going to the grocery store once a wk., knowing what meals will be fixed for that wk. and buying only those items that I need for those meals. No more running to the store every time I don't have an ingredient or whatever.

No more wondering what to fix for dinner each night. I just look at my list that is hung on the refrigerator door every morning and plan for it early in the day. It has made my evenings go so much smoother.

That is just one area in my life, but there are many more areas I want to instill. I have always actually LOVED being organized, but for some reason last yr. was anything but that, esp. over the holidays recently. So hopefully I'm back on track to stay! We'll see how it progresses and throughout the course of the yr. I will be sharing other areas of my life as well.

Now on to the title of this post~ on my last post a few days ago, I forgot to show you what I was RAK'd with from Stitchin Sweet Sue recently. She sent me a cute little package containing a small piece of cr. st. fabric that I had mentioned I wanted to try and some homespun fabric, but included some goodies along w/it, plus a sweet little card. Want to know what was in the sweetly wrapped tissue paper? Scroll down to the next pic. :))This cute little tissue cover she made.....thanks again Sue~how thoughtful of you!

The other things I forgot to show was what I sent to Wendy for our gingerbread swap. Last post I showed you what all she sent me, but this is what I sent to her. I forgot to take a group pic of all the items together, so I'll show ya individually.

A stitchery panel...

A wool gingerbread towel....A little wooly pillow....A gingerbread man......I tried to make an ornament look like the ones Valerie made, but used a different ginger pattern.
And this sweet resin angel, because two of her children have 'Angelman Syndrome'.


I'd love to hear what your 'word' is for this yr. or if you have any goals/resolutions that you want to try, so just mention it in your comment.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I finally got my sewing mo~jo back yesterday and made several things, but if you want to know what they are, you're just gonna have to stop by next time. (Hint~some of them are pictured on this post). Can you guess what they are??? I know, I'm such a tease, LOL.

See ya next time and happy stitching!
Tanya