A Great American Painting Counted Cross Stitch

http://www.moonlightinspirations.com/great-american-painting.htm

From time to time I get the urge to design something more detailed than the whimsical counted cross stitch designs for which I am most known. This counted cross stitch design entitled simply, "A Great American Painting" was inspired by just that, a great american painting. :-) It's a very rich looking design. Hope you like it.

Cross Stitch Pirate Series

Hi all and Happy Canada Day to all my fellow Canadians!

The second design in our "Pirate Critters" counted cross stitch series is available online. He is a cute one and sure to be loved by you.

Another Counted Cross Stitch Design Finished

Good morning everybody. I just finished an adorable new counted cross stitch design. This design is called "Sleeping Bobcat" and is now available for purchase.

And don't forget to sign up for our free monthly newsletter. All newsletter members get a free counted cross stitch pattern each month.

Peace

Our latest design is the third in our primitive annie's series of counted cross stitch patterns. This one is called - A Special Love. The verse reads, "A Special Love Lives Here".

It is shown here on dirty linen. I love the dirty linen for our primitive cross stitch patterns.

Biscornu

Ok, I finally have the biscornu on our website and it is available for purchase. I'm working on an old masterpiece right now and I'm giving it a real, antiqued look.

My First Cross Stitch Biscornu

Yes, I finally designed a biscornu and I love it! These are much easier to finish that I thought. I haven't added this design to my site yet as I am still writing the easy instructions but it will be up sometime tomorrow. Hope you like it!

New Counted Cross Stitch Design

Dance in the Moonlight is our newest counted cross stitch pattern. I have a few others on the drawing board right now so be sure to check out all of our new cross stitch designs.

Today's Breakfast

Ok, today is a "Fruit Only" day except for one meal where I can eat a deli meat sandwich. I will save that for dinner.
Breakfast - A large bowl of grapes, orange slices and apple slices. I ate enough of this until I was satisfied. Oh, and I am on my second cup of coffee. I usually like quite a bit of sugar in my coffee but can't during the next 11 days but still want my coffee lol. So I am learning to live with sugarless coffee for now. Not a big deal.

Side Note: Yesterday I kept forgetting to drink water which is a huge no no. I need 10 glasses of water per day right now and only drank 5 yesterday so today, I am going to make a better effort to have all 10 glasses of water.

Beginning With Yesterday - Day One

I am going to chart my progress here. I'm not going to tell you how much I weigh, hehehe, but I will tell you how much I lose in 11 days. I am hoping to lose 15 pounds in 11 days so wish me luck!

The nice thing about this diet is that you know exactly what you can eat each day and it's all foods you have selected so you won't be made to eat stuff you dislike. Four meals a day. No snacking in between. At each meal, you can eat as much as you want of that meals list of foods. So you never walk away hungry. You're not starving yourself. But you want to stop eating when you are satisfied, not completely full. You could eat something else but you won't. So you are not hungry when you stop eating.

Breakfast Yesterday - Scrambled Eggs ( I used four eggs) and one apple. - Again, I can eat as much scrambled eggs and apples and I want here until I feel satisfied. After the four eggs scrambled and the one apple, I was satisfied.
Lunch Yesterday - A plate of deli ham slices and roast beef slices. I had 5 ham slices and 5 roast beef slices.
Dinner Yesterday - Bacon - lots of it and a glass of low fat milk. I love bacon so I ate an entire package of bacon. It didn't stuff me too full. But I was satisfied.
Late Night Snack - 4 hard boiled eggs.

Side Note: I used to drink 2% milk. I really disliked low fat milk. But I had made myself only drink low fat milk on this diet and I grew to really like it. Now, low fat milk is the only milk I drink. This is one of the small changes I have made to my regular daily food schedule and one of the reasons I was able to keep the weight off.

I Started a New Diet Yesterday

Yep, I did.

A little over a year ago I went on an 11 day diet. During those 11 days, I lost 23 pounds. Not bad for 11 days eh? After the 11 day period, I didn't diet again. I didn't even weigh myself again until yesterday.

So when I woke up yesterday morning, I jumped right on the scale. I had decided to do this diet again and wanted to know a couple of things, - what is my starting weight as I begin this diet, and how much had I gained back from the first time I went on this diet.

I did not gain even one pound back in the little over one year that I had been on the diet. I have been able to maintain beautifully. By just making a few adjustments to my daily eating regime, I have been able to keep off the 23 pounds I lost. And that is certainly great news.

No, I didn't take away the chocolate I love so much, my once a week fast food frenzy, chocolate ice cream, chips, etc. In sum, all foods that I like, I have still eaten. I've learned it is not so much about what I eat, but HOW I eat that makes the difference. I have always eaten junk food in moderation. Most days I am not a heavy eater at all. My metabolism is just not doing its job properly (I also have hypo-thyroid disease as well as chronic anemia) I am a walking proof it works. And nothing else has ever worked for me.

Tribute to those Special Things

This new counted cross stitch design pays homage to what is really important in our lives - good stitching and good friends!

Another Musketeer Done!

Good morning all. I just finished the second design in our "Musketeer" series of counted cross stitch patterns - The Three Musketeers. I love this series!

Pirate Bear Done!

The first counted cross stitch pattern in my "Pirate" series is done. Pirate Bear is a cute little pirate sure to make your little one smile.

Pirate Bear Update

Ok, well I am still working on my Pirate Bear counted cross stitch design but I really do think I can get it done sometime today. This flu is slowing me down but hasn't completely stopped me.

Another New Counted Cross Stitch Design

I wanted to post a quick picture of another of my latest counted cross stitch designs. It's a bit different than my usual designs but lately I have been drawn to some more abstract design concepts and will be doing a few more of these counted cross stitch patterns.

Free Cross Stitch

Our free cross stitch patterns are finally available in PDF format. It took me awhile to figure out the whole PDF thing but I have now mastered it and I love it. So all of our free cross stitch designs are ready for you to download onto your computer. I hope you like them.

And don't forget to sign up for our newsletter and follow me on Twitter to receive other, exclusive free cross stitch patterns.

I am fighting the flu right now but wanted to update everybody before going back to bed. Chow for now!

The Pirates are Coming!

Yes, the pirates are coming but they aren't very scary. :-) The counted cross stitch design I am working on right now is a pirate bear and I think I might be able to finish him by the end of the day. There will be an entire series of critter pirates and I hope you like them as much as I do.

Counted Cross Stitch - New Designs!

Well, what a busy few days it has been. After switching our website over to electronic counted cross stitch patterns only, we received quite a few e-mails from customers who said they would like the option of either an electronic pattern or printed pattern. So, after taking that into consideration, we re-vamped our website again and are now selling our cross stitch patterns in both formats.

So onto the next, new design! Max the Musketeer is such a cute cross stitch pattern. I am designing a series of these adorable musketeers.

Primitive Patterns

Good morning everybody! I just finished the fourth design in our Primitive Patterns' series and thought I would share these first four with you.

This first in the series is "Watermelon Annie". Stitched on dirty, 18 count linen, this adorable prim cross stitch pattern was inspired by the artwork of Cheryl Seslar. I love Cheryl's primitive artwork and will be adapting quite a few of her pieces into cross stitch patterns.

The next counted cross stitch design is Breast Cancer Annie. This Annie is holding a pink ribbon to symbolize our fight against breast cancer.

Newest Counted Cross Stitch Designs

Hi all. Well, it's a dreary day here, and I just so happen to love dreary days. They inspire me. There's a mysterious low-lying mist in the forest as I look out the window to the backyard and I wonder what it is that I can't see...

I have been designing like a madwoman lately. No particular theme. Just a little of everything and anything. When my brain feels scattered, as it does now, it influences my creativity. For better or for worse, I have no idea. It simply is.

I hope you like the new designs. Feel free to comment.

Snow Tonight (shown above) was done a while ago but it didn't get up on my site until recently due to some health issues that consumed me for a while. Nancy Murdock stitched this for me and did a fabulous job. It was quite a task too because it is a very large design. My largest in fact. It must have felt like forever to Nancy but she stuck with it and showed she is a true professional.

New Counted Cross Stitch Designs

I have been very busy lately creating some great new designs. All are available in electronic format and will be delivered as PDFs to your e-mail address. Because of this new format, we have been able to reduce the prices of all of our counted cross stitch designs.

Here are some of the new cross stitch patterns now available for purchase.

Our Twitter challenge is here!

We want you to follow us on Twitter! Click the Twitter bird on the left (a new window will open) and when you get to Twitter, click follow for MorningstarRock under my Twitter profile picture. I am also a singer/songwriter, hence the handle.

I am designing a special FREE counted cross stitch series, EXCLUSIVELY for my Twitter followers. You won't be able to get these counted cross stitch designs anywhere else. They are ONLY for my loyal Twitter followers.

Each month, one exclusive counted cross stitch design will be electronically sent to each person who is following us on Twitter.

After you click "Follow" on my Twitter page, send me a quick e-mail to let me know you want to be a part of our Counted Cross Stitch Twitter Challenge! Be sure to include your Twitter name.

After I have verified that you are now following me on Twitter, you will be added to my exclusive e-mail list to receive the monthly FREE counted cross stitch design.

It's really pretty simple isn't it?

So follow us on Twitter and get a FREE counted cross stitch pattern delivered to you electronically each month.

Thanks to everyone who follows me. I appreciate it more than you know.

It's Been Too Long

Wow, I can't believe it has been so long since I last posted. A lot has happened since then.

I am in the studio recording my first CD. I am a singer/songwriter and am looking forward to completing the CD this year and then touring. It's been a challenging road but worth every drop of sweat and blood.

I stopped updating my blog because my computer crashed and I went into a bit of a depression after that. The disc on which I had saved all of my cross stitch design files was corrupt and so I was unable to retrieve all of the designs I had created (over 50 designs). I had to walk away for a while and ponder my next move.

After taking a much needed hiatus from designing, I am happy to say I am back at it again and better than ever. I have switched from publishing printed patterns to electronic patterns. The costs associated with publishing and printing has risen and I would have had to increase my prices, which I did not want to do. Postal mail is also on the rise which was also a factor in my decision.

Electronically sending you the patterns you have purchased has several pros. I can sell my patterns to you for less and get them to you faster.

The same amount of time is dedicated to creating my designs. I haven't sacrificed quality. In fact, I have grown as a designer and I am very happy with the new counted cross stitch designs.

You can get more information from my "How to Order" page on my site - Moonlight Inspirations.

The patterns are sent to you electronically via e-mail in PDF format within 48 hours of receiving your payment (most are sent within 4 hours). You just need to have the free program called Adobe Reader installed on your computer (most people already have this installed).

PDF format is so easy for the stitcher to use. You open the pattern with Adobe Reader and can make the chart any size you wish and then print it out. Bam. That's it.

Please don't make copies of your purchased patterns and give them away to people. This hurts my bottom line and I don't make much money from this business as it is. If somebody you know likes a pattern, please send them to my website so they can purchase the pattern themselves. I appreciate your understanding. :-)

So hurry over to Moonlight Inspirations and check out the new designs I have added. I hope you like them as much as I liked creating them.

You can also find Moonlight Inspirations at Patterns Online.