Fun weekend and a thank you.

First I need to send a thank you to Sonda. She sent me this lovely fob and pretty pink floss. I didn't have time to get a picture and make a post before I left for the weekend. Anyway - I've attached a needle threader to the fob and I think it is perfect! Thank you so much Sonda.

We had a great weekend. I was 'restrained' and didn't over shop last night. I only came home with 2 pairs of scissors although there was a whole basket full of ones that I don't have (yet). I also picked up The New Cross Stitcher's Bible which I haven't had time to really have a good look at yet.

Not a very good picture I'm afraid. Raining and blah so not a good picture day, but don't you just love tin 'stash keep'? It is from Homespun Elegance Ltd. Can't wait to get it stitched and finished. Will be a while though - I have too many WIPs at the moment to start that one. I also picked up this chart from Country Cottage Needleworks ' Summer Garden'. I got the fabric for it, but will have to pick up the threads. It is charted for DMC and I'm not sure if I will use that or convert to an overdyed floss. Plenty of time to think about that.

This is all the other stuff I came home with. There is the project we were given to work on in class. (barely visible on the right side - told you, terrible photos) It consists of a set of a needlebook, scissor fob and there is another chart for the box top (very nice box by Olde Colonial Designs) The 'theme' this year was flowers - pansies in particular - and that is what the patterns are. The zipper bag with pansies is what all of our threads were in, then the big plastic bag in the back has the fabric and instructions for the box top. The designs are by Redbird and Company. Everything you see here was either from a gift bag, door prize drawing or gifts Pam put together. She really spends a lot of time putting this all together and even the ladies who work in her shop don't know what the project is until they get there, just like everyone else. This was the 10th year that she has sponsored this get-a-way and the second time my stitching buddies and I have attended. (because we didn't know about it before!) We left our deposit for next year before we headed out this morning.
I'll show a couple of 'action shots' in the next post. However, we were too busy stitching to stop and take pictures so there aren't many!
Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Mine was great. I'm beat, but it is a good thing!

Blooming!

Just a quick post. I took some pictures this morning because it is supposed to rain all weekend and that will probably be the end of these blooms.




While I was outside I spotted this guy on the window screen.

Too bad no one is working on an insect collection at the moment!
I'm heading out in a bit to a weekend stitching retreat. I'm sure I'll have something to report when I get back.
Have a great weekend!

Woulda, coulda, shoulda

What we should have done over the weekend was work on cleaning the house and yard. What we did instead is head to big D and bum around! We were planning to go on Friday and stay until Sunday but we had issues here that we had to tend to on Friday so we left Saturday morning with no real agenda. Sometimes it is nice to just go with the flow. The one good thing about having 2 kids (young men, but they are 'my' kids!) is that we don't have to figure out what to do with the dog if we want to go somewhere at the last minute! Our anniversary was Sunday so we said to heck with the house and yard.
The first stop was Aidaworks since they were closing early on Saturday. I tried to control myself and only came out with one small sack.

I picked up another SB stocking chart to add to the collection - I needed another girl one for my DIL. (by the time I get the 5 stitched I have ready to go who knows how many I will need!) I decided that a stocking would make a good road trip project but the roads between here and Dallas don't make for good stitching and what I did get in was one thread off so I had to take it out. Anyway I also picked up My Needles Work but LHN, Buzzzz by Bent Creek, a 'Do It Tooly' and another Mother of Pearl thread winder. I am going to have to get a bigger display box for those soon. The scissor box in the picture was just used to hold the charts up for the picture. I have a couple of other things I didn't put in the picture because they may (or may not) end up in an exchange package in the future.
After that we bummed around and just did whatever. The only other things I came home with were a couple of magazines and a new iron. Not exciting enough to take pictures of although the iron is pink! (my old one was leaking and every time I used it I had to keep wiping my hands off - not that I use it alot, but I do have the occasional xs project to press and I did have a 20% off coupon)
Yes, we have a B&N and a BB&B in Tyler but they are much smaller stores so we had to go in and look around.

I'm caught up on my Red Thread project. It is fun to stitch - I'm hoping I can keep up now and it will be finished at the end of the year.

Stitching retreat coming up this weekend - I am excited! Last year I packed several projects to take but I'll not pack so many this time - last year I never took out any of them and only worked on the class projects even during 'free' time.

Off to work with me - have a great day!

Happy Easter!

I stitched this cutie this week. It is a Lizzie Kate called Green Eggs but the eggs are blue. It just struck me as funny. A couple of years ago my stitching buddies and I went to Las Vegas for the CATS festival and I bought a little kit called Blue Egg (I don't remember the designer off hand and I'm too lazy to get up and look for it) anyway I started on this little kit while sitting in our room one night. When I got home I had to take it all out because I had started stitching the egg with green! Anyway - I made this little pillow yesterday. It is far from perfect (mr. machine and I had a difference of opinion more than once) but it doesn't look quite as crooked in person. If I had been doing it for anyone else I would have taken it apart and started over but it is just for me and will only be out a few weeks a year - I can live with it.


Our weather didn't get nearly as bad as they predicted on Tuesday. It kind of split and went north and south of us. My wisteria survived and has about 3 blooms on it today. I got really close to get the picture and it smells so good! I'm glad it doesn't have the same effect as lavender does for me. (migraine city - it ain't pretty) I'm thinking by this time next week it should be covered - I hope it makes it so I can get a picture before I leave for a stitch retreat on Friday.


While I was outside I took a couple of shots of the azalea blooms. These poor plants have survived so much. At one time they were in the beds in front of the house but when we had to do some yard work they were jerked out of the ground and left for dead. (and I mean literally jerked - with a chain attached to a tractor). Anyway - they sat piled up in the corner of the yard for three or four days before we decided to plant them out back and just see what happened. Most of them are still living (although they aren't as full as I would like) I think it has been almost 10 years since we did that.
There won't be any pictures of the whole flower bed anytime soon. It needs a LOT of work!
Mr. Wonderful and I have an anniversary on Sunday - #29! Not sure what we will be doing this weekend since he has the weekend off. I may not get back to make a post before then so have a great weekend and Happy Easter!

What to do?

What to do with this little egg. I finished stitching it a few days ago and haven't decided how I want to finish finish it. It is supposed to be a scissor fob but I'm thinking about making a pinkeep with it. Decisions, decisions.

Come on spring!

This is my wisteria bush that I can see out my kitchen window. Mr. Wonderful doesn't like it much and I have to constantly tell him that I will trim it up - I'm not letting him near it with the trimmer! I know it doesn't look like much now, but in about 10 days or so, it will be covered in purple blooms then the leaves will come in and it will be pretty all summer. This one usually has a few blooms here and there all summer. I will trim it up after the first blooms fall off. It does tend to reach for the low hanging tree branches if I don't trim it often.

Of course that depends the winds tonight - they could blow all the buds off. We are under tornado and flash flood warnings. I've already had to put the window down in this room because the wind was blowing my stuff everywhere!
At least I don't have to worry about it blowing me away - I'm pretty much weighted down!

A wonderful day

It is a wonderful day here today. Sun is shinning and I don't have to go anywhere! I have been out painting a picture frame (more on that when the project is finished)

I finished this punch needle project a few days ago. I think it turned out nice, but no I have no idea what I am going to do with it. I guess it will sit in a drawer with the other two PN projects I have finished!

Thanks for the good wishes for the kids anniversary (yes, I know they are adults, but once a mother, always a mother!

Have a great day!

Happy Anniversary!

I'm a little overdue with posting this. Kathy over at purple wildcat gave me this award - isn't that a cute picture? I'm supposed to pass it on, but I so enjoy all the blogs (there are way more in my reader than those with links on the blog - I'm lazy when it comes to updating the blog) and those who comment on mine so If you are reading this, consider yourself tagged!

And now on to the business of today. The first picture was taken in Dec. 05 and is one of my favorite pictures of Jason & Ashley.



This picture was taken one year ago today. Baby boy and his bride are celebrating their first anniversary today.
Happy anniversary, Jason & Ashley. Love, Mom

I got mail!

Don't ya just love getting stash in the mail? I got a package yesterday from Jan @ Only One Ewe

Not much, but it makes me happy! There is Blue Sewing Roll from Stacy Nash Primitives and Where My Heart Blooms from Blackbird Designs along with the fabric for the BBD one. Jan also included a magnet/calendar which is already in use on my fridge.

Have some catching up to do but no time this morning.

Have a great day!

Shutter project

Awhile back I posted a picture of a set of shutters that were salvaged from a house that burned. I got 2 'pairs' of shutters and one single shutter. The single one was unhinged and those two pieces are in my little tiny office, one as a shelf and the other just hung flat on the wall. One of the 'pairs' is in the doorway from the dining room to the kitchen to keep the dog from roaming the house when we aren't home. This is what we did with the other 'pair' of shutters.

I have been looking for something to store dvds and cds in for a long time but I just couldn't find anything that I liked. I wanted doors on it and the few things I found were either too small or too expensive or I just didn't like! So - Mr. Wonderful built this to fit the shutters. The shelves are adjustable so I can change it around if I need/want to. (and there are two extra shelves - leaning up against the wall beside the cabinet at the moment) It will make finding something to watch much easier. Before the dvds were stuck in three different places so you had to hunt for something to watch and the cds were in a too crowded closet. This will work much better!

One project crossed off the 'to do' list but there are plenty more still to choose from!

Snow!

It was snowing when I got up this morning. The first two pictures were taken around 7:00am (after the first cup of coffee - I don't function before that!)



Three hours later it was still snowing



(ignore the plant - it needs to be rescued)
When I sat down to write this post it had almost stopped but I can see it has picked up again. Still small flakes but it is steady at the moment. This is the good kind of snow - it is sticking to the trees and (dead) grass but not sticking to the roads. I'm still glad I did my shopping yesterday so I don't have any reason to get out. I like watching it from inside!
I'll be making a big pot of soup for dinner tonight. Baby boy and his bride are coming in later today to stay a couple of days. They have spring break next week - and their one year anniversary. Looking forward to having them here. We have seen Jason several times over the past few weeks, but Ashley has been busy so we have only seen her long enough to say hello.

Purple

I intended to make a post on my lunch break yesterday but we had an internet outage here. Seems the nice construction workers out on the highway cut a fiber-optic cable around 1:00pm. It was still out when I went to bed.
The toe is much better (thanks for all the comments/emails) - it is still various shades of purple but I'm no longer limping and it doesn't hurt so much now.
I was digging in one of my stitching bags the other night and I found this little kit. I just thought I had to start it since it seemed to match my toe pretty well!

It is 'Good Egg' by Ewe & Eye Friends.

I didn't stitch any last night but I got a few other things done around the house. Son # 2 helped me out a bit. Since there was no internet and nothing worth watching on tv he was bored and just kind of wandering the house so I recruited him to help me move some DVDs and CDs. Also dug out about 30 VHS tapes that aren't labeled. I'm hoping most of them are recorded tv shows and such that I can just throw away but I need to make sure there aren't any home movies on any of them so it is going to take a lot of time to sit and put them in one at a time to check them. Then I can label them and work on getting them converted to DVDs.

I guess that is it for now. Must go grocery shopping - a chore I hate on the best of days and I'm sure today will be really fun since they have 'winter weather' forecast for in the morning. Mention even the remote possibility of snow flurries and people flock to the grocery store like they are going to be snowed in for weeks! Since I'm out of basic stuff I have to go. Ugh.

ouch!

I was going to show you a picture of my toe, but then I remembered how cute Esther's toes were, all painted and cute. Why would I even think of showing a picture of my toe? Well, because it is so nice and colorful. All kinds of purple. I kicked the door facing when I was coming in here this morning - and it didn't budge! Now my poor toe is swollen and purple. It screams pretty loud if I try to bend it too. Ah well.
I think that means I'll be doing a fair amount of sitting this evening. I had planned on working on the shutter project tonight, but after being on my feet all day, I think I'll pass tonight. (and besides that - it has turned cold again!)


Friday I went to a rug hooking/punchneedle 'social' at one of the fabric shops in Tyler. It was a lot of fun, but I was the only one punching. Well, Sherry brought hers and punched long enough for them to get her new rug stand together. Anyway - this is what I was working on. The first picture is the back which is the side you work from. I actually finished it up yesterday, but I haven't taken a picture yet. I still need to do a little trimming on it then I'll take one and post it.

I tried to work on my red thread project last night but since I stitched every letter at least twice I didn't get very far. I seemed to have a counting problem last night!

Well, that's it for me and my toe this evening. I'm heading for my stitching chair!

I am still here!

Yes, I know it has been nearly a week since I posted. Been busy, had doctor appointments, headaches - well, you get the picture.
First I want to thank Lani for giving me the you make my day award.

I'm sorry it has taken me so long to get it up here, but I did email her a thank-you so I'm not totally without manners. I'm supposed to pass it along but it is so hard to pick just a few when there are so many blogs that make my day! My brain just isn't up to the challenge at the moment.
I had wanted to be caught up on my red thread project by the end of Feb. but the past week just didn't cooperate and here it is the first of March already. I'm not too far behind so maybe I can catch up by the end of March.

Sue - the fabric is Vintage Country Mocha Belfast.
We are off in a bit to see baby boy in a play. We missed it last night because when it came time to leave Mr. Wonderful was half-way through putting tiles down in the bathroom and we decided it was better to go ahead and get that finished so they could set and we could grout tonight.
The shutter project is still in the works, just having to work on it between everything else - hopefully by next weekend it will be finished and I can show you.
Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!