November birthdays, kiddos visit and a finish

I finished stitching this little cutie in 2021 but didn't fully finish it until this year.

Hey There Pumpkin by Hands on Design using the called for colors and a mystery fabric from my stash. I found the pumpkin board at Walmart a few weeks ago and thought it would be perfect.

I think it was worth the wait to finish!

We have a couple of November birthdays.

We celebrated Cindy's a couple of days early when we went to pick up kiddos at the airport.

 

Baby boy's birthday is today!
We celebrated while he was visiting last week.

Took them zip-lining - they had a blast while I just enjoyed the view!

Jason (aka baby boy) Rachael and Bobby

Brian and Brittany

It's always fun to have them here.

Wish J&R could visit more than once a year.

Last Sunday we attended a 'pre-birthday party' for baby Abigail.

Will she be added to the November birthdays or will she join her brother with a December birthday?

We will know soon!

Happy Hallowen!

 

A little Halloween around the house.

(not sure why this pic looks so yellow - I tried to correct it but ??

the two below are more the right color)

Little dude turned one last week!

He shares his birthday with his mama so we don't want to forget her!

This little guy has brought so much joy to our lives.

He's the 'baby' for a few more weeks.

(Miss Abigail is due in 5 weeks!)

He wasn't feeling his best last week but we got a few pics at the pumpkin patch. 

He's better this week and back to his smiling self.

I don't know what happens with my pictures and text between creating the post and publishing the post. It is all lined up until I hit publish. One of these days I'll take the time to figure it out but I seem to always be posting on the fly. Sorry!

Happy Halloween!

Two for Abigail, One for Ma

 Wait, what happened to September?

Days seem to just slip by faster and faster.

Abigail's arrival date is getting closer and closer! 

I have been doing little sewing for her.

This is just a small flannel blanket. I sewed together a flannel charm pack for the front and just put a dotted flannel on the back (nothing in between). I thought the charm pack would have more pinks in it but oh well. This one has already been delivered.

Made this one out of another (cotton) charm pack (again, I was expecting more pinks - hard to tell when you are buying online) but added white squares to make it a bit larger. I'm thinking I will save this one for Christmas. 

I'm still on the mission to make a pink one! 

And my sister gave me this. 

All I need now is the baby! 

It's Been a Minute!

Wow - didn't realize it had been that long since I posted. Oops.

It's been so hot here in Texas I don't even want to step outside. We are getting a little break from the 100+ temps this week - hopefully we have seen the last of them. (but it's still hot!)

I've been getting some stitching done (and a lot of frogging - over one, eek) Hubby had a conference a few weeks ago and I tagged along for the ride. Too hot to do anything so I just sat in the room and stitched away!

I can't show any of it as I've only been stitching on gifts. I have one ready to frame and one I need to pick some finishing fabric for so I decided to make myself a project roll to store/transport the finished stitching. I used Vonna's tutorial as a starting point. If you haven't visited her page and watched her tutorials you should - she is a very talented finisher! It took me way longer to finish mine!

My tube is a little shorter and fatter - I was determined to only use what I had here (because who wants to go out in the heat to shop?)

Here is my version. That piece may look small but it is stitched on 40ct fabric and some of it is over one - and took three tries to get it right. Long gone are the days when I could stitch on 36ct fabric with no glasses or magnifier - now I need both and I'm a lot slower! It's upside down because it's a gift (and there is another one underneath that one) I will show them when they have been gifted. (Christmas)

Here it is all rolled up and ready to visit the frame shop.

That's about it from here.

Happy Stitching!

 

Actual stitching!

Some old, some new.

First off, I really need to learn how to edit photos on my phone. Many moons ago, before I had a phone that took pictures and I used a digital camera, I had an editing program on my computer. That program eventually went away and I don't even know the last time I pulled out my digital camera.

That being said, here we go. 

I stitched this piece over 20 years ago. (late 1990s)

The mat had faded and I never really like the pink I had behind the hardanger.

It was hanging in he guest bath so when we remodeled in there I thought it was a good time to give it an update.

I had a local frame shop cut me new mats, then I remounted it with a cream color fabric behind it.

Much better! It now hangs on my sampler wall in the living room.

(the piece does have glass - I just took the pictures before I put it back together so there wouldn't be a glare)

I thought I still had this pattern but I can't find it. I have no idea what the name of the chart is or who designed it.

This one is even older - it had to have been stitched sometime in the 1980s.. I can't remember which kid I stitched this for. My guess would be the first since it was a stamped kit and shortly after he was born I found counted cross stitch and I rarely did stamped after that. At some point I took it out of the frame and washed it. Of all the colors to fade, it was a bit of the pink. Anywho, I'm sure I used the frame for something else - and it would have been a cheap, premade frame probably wrapped around cardboard and taped with masking tape. I knew nothing about framing at that point - and there wouldn't have been money for custom framing. I came across it when looking for something else awhile back and decided to frame it for baby girl. It was a quarter inch too large for an 11x14 frame so I went thrifting and found this one. It was sliver and had some dings but I filled those and painted it. I padded this with no glass. I rarely frame without glass but it just seemed right for this.

This one is Liberty Sam from Lizzie Kate.

I stitched it last summer knowing I wanted to use this chalkboard to mount it on.

I finally got his mate - Lady Liberty (also Lizzie Kate) finished this summer. Not quite in time for July 4th but since I leave my patriotic up until Labor day I'll get to enjoy it a bit before it goes away. I used magnets so I can use the same finishing piece for the Christmas ones - someday)

(told ya I needed some photo editing help)

They would have probably been better if I had taken them outside but it's too dang hot for that here!

Last, but not least. I've managed to slip in a few ornaments. The two reindeer need buttons and charms sewn on but I will do that when I finish them. Not sure yet if I will do pillow ornaments or flat ornaments but they will be finished before Christmas!

(top left - Joy to the world by Little House Neeleworks,

top right Dazzlin' deer by Heart in Hand Needleworks

bottom, dear Rudolph by Lizzie kate)

I think my list of things I want to get done for Christmas may be longer than the time left on the calendar. 

Summer Fun

We have been busy around here.

Last week we had our grandson Tyler with us.

 He and Pa went zip-lining

Can't believe how much this kid has grown since last summer!

He asked us to measure him the last day he was here and

he's a full 2 1/2 inches taller than me now!

It's been so hot here we had to find some indoor activities.

Bella came along with Tyler this year -

she's just living her best life in the middle of my flowerbed!

She took to trying to catch a mole that had a runner across the back fence line.

Hubby had every ladder we own propped up trying to keep her from digging -

she ended up with some new neck jewelry before the week was out.

Been spending time with this little guy too.

This is my great-nephew, River.

My brother's youngest grandson.

It's been a minute since we have had a baby in the midst

and we are soaking it all in.

He and papa (my dad, River's great-grandpa) are becoming great buds.

He was just starting to sit up a couple of weeks ago -

he has mastered that and is starting to pull himself up now.

He's growing so fast! He was almost crawling last week, he's so close!

He can get where he wants to go - just hasn't quite figured out how to get the legs

and arms going at the same time.

Haven't seen him this week - he may be out-running me by now!  

He and his pawpaw (my brother) are getting to spend lots of time together.

If this ain't trouble looking for a place to happen! LOL

It's so hot here right now it's hard to get motivated to do much.

My flowerbeds have more weeds than flowers at the moment but it's just too hot to spend much time out there.

I've managed a little stitching - 

not that you would know it by my posts here but I'll show some next time.

I fully finished a couple of pieces, 

re-matted/framed a couple of previous finishes

and I'm working on some Christmas ornaments.

I hope you are all keeping cool where you are.

Finished - for now

We have finally finished the guest bathroom! 

Kind of.

I had already taken everything off the walls when I took the before picture.

The shower and toilet are on the other side of that wall.

We didn't replace the tub/shower since it is in good shape and we used the mirror that was already in there, however it had to be removed and repositioned because the new vanity is taller than the old one.

 

This is the new view from the hallway!

Removing the wall makes the room look so much bigger and feel less claustrophobic.

The shelf on the wall opposite the mirror was previously on the wall we removed - daddy made it for me years ago and I really wanted to keep it in there. I had three shelves over the toilet before but I only put two back up as I really don't need them for towel storage anymore but since I have no idea what I am going to put there I put a few towels there for now.

I still plan on framing the mirror but there was a bit of an issue when we took the clips off the bottom - the mirror just slid down the wall. (The guy that put it up said we could take them off the next day - we waited two weeks) Fortunately it rested on the backsplash and did not fall off the wall! We managed to push it back up an replace the clips and the mirror guys came back and glued it up again - this time using three different types of adhesive. Out of an abundance of caution, we will be giving it more time to cure before we attempt that again! So it's finished, for now.

I have wanted that wall gone since the day we moved in this house and I am very happy with the results.

Thanks for following along on this house update journey. It's been quite the experience as we have, for the most part, done stuff ourselves - and we lived in a 'project' house for 24 years. 

We won't be doing anything else major for awhile but we do still have DIY things that need to be done - after I recover from this a bit.

I'm still trying to get things all clean and back together. (sheetrock dust gets everywhere!) I worked on my sewing room a little this week (the room where all the 'parts' landed while waiting to be used) but I'm not quite to where I can use my sewing machine yet. Any new crafting stuff has just been kind of piled in there along with anything I have actually used the past few months. (and I went to a retreat while this was in process!)

I have done a bit of stitching and I will show that soon.

I hope you are all staying cool - it's been super hot and humid here in Texas. Way too early for it to be this hot.