SNOW! and it's almost March! lol It's hard to see, but we've had snow all day long .. nothing has accumulated on the ground because it's just warm enough .. but since the sun went down, it's getting colder and looks like we actually might have some snow on the ground in the morning! Strangest winter I've seen in Seattle for years and years .. could it be global warming? nah *smirk*

Thank you all for your hugs, prayers and well wishes about my Dad. He's home and doing well. He's tired, but that's to be expected. He's actually following dr orders and taking it easy, which is no small feat for him .. but he is looking forward to getting back to his walks with his dogs .. before he started feeling really winded from this blockage, he was averaging 3 miles every other day :)

On the stitching front .. I have a finish!! woo hoo :) The design is from Bent Creek. I took a couple of classes with the sisters last May at A Stitcher's Retreat. This piece is called "Tree of Me" .. it was intended for each person to personalize the tree with things that meant something to them. A lot of the women personalized their trees with things about their families .. I decided to be very selfish about my tree and I personalized it all about me .. it was really fun to do. I added the cat and dog because animals have always been part of my life. The "badges" that hang from the tree are all things that make up "Me" .. the race flags, the coffee cup, the music notes, the reindeer, the needle and thread, and the sunflower. This was really a fun stitch .. can't wait to find the perfect frame for it :)

I thought I would post a picture of my Family Sampler that I've been working on a least one night a week .. I just love how it's coming along :)


Think I'll go work on Spot of Coffee now, and watch the snow falling .. why is it soo peaceful to watch snow falling??

I'm grateful for snow ....

Thanks everyone for the well wishes for my Dad .. the procedure went really well today. They found only one main artery blocked, put in a stent and Dad gets to go home tomorrow! It really is amazing how far medical science has come! Anyway, I'm just glad this day is over .. and very glad to know that my dad will be ok .. the cardiologist says he has a really strong healthy heart :) I'll be taking another day of from work tomorrow to take dad home and see if I can do anything around the house for him .. his dr said there won't be any physical restrictions for him, but I will offer to spend a couple of days with him if he wants ... but he tends to be very independent and pretty subborn .. so I never know if he'll take me up on my offers to help or not. lol ... ok off to bed for me ... night
I'm grateful today went so well ...

My up and down weekend .. started out nice with dinner and a movie Friday night with Terry (DH) and Robert (DS#2) .. we went to see Jim Carey's new movie called 23 .. the reviews haven't been great, but we all really liked it, different than we expected, but very good. Saturday started out normal .. housework, laundry, and then I was going to watch the Busch race and stitch. That changed when my dad called about 4pm to say that he wasn't feeling good. Same problems as he had a couple of weeks ago, he was having problems breathing and started having some chest pressure, more than he had two weeks ago .. his gf was at the house and they were going to call 911 again .. so a call to my brother to tell him what was going on and off to the hospital I went. They checked him out and got him stable in ER and said it looked like he needed an angiogram, the ER doctor was pretty certain that there is a blockage somewhere that is causing these symptoms. He was admitted and his cardiologist was called and said he'd see dad Sunday morning. Well after the doctor visit this morning, they've schedule him for a angiogram for Monday morning at 7:30am. Definately a blockage, but until the angiogram, they don't know the extend of the blockage. I know they do these procedures all the time and I know they can fix whatever they find pretty well .. but he's so scared .. scared what they might find, but more scared how it may change his life .. all those unknowns. I'll be meeting my brother at the hospital tomorrow about 6ish .. dad really wants to see us before they take him for the procedure .. heavy sigh.

The rest of my sunday was spent vegging and not concentrating on much of anything .. I did stitch a little bit, and watch the end of the Nascar race today .. my boy Matt, sweep both races at California! WOO HOO!!! that was one nice thing about my weekend :)


I'm grateful for my brother :)

Pay It Forward .. WOW! It's full .. and thank you for signing up .. I think we'll all have fun with this! I already have a couple of ideas of what I want to stitch for a couple of you *grin*

Also, thanks for your comments about Spot of Coffee .. it's nice to see new names posting .. I'm having a great time reading everyone's blogs and seeing all the beautiful stitching you all are doing.

With the Oscars on Sunday, when I found this on Karen's blog .. I just had to take the movie test .. it's really fun!

To quote her: "It's been said that allegedly if you've seen over 85 moviesyou have no life.... Mark the ones you've seen. There are 239 films onthis list. Copy this list, go to your own blog, paste it in and put x'sby the ones that you have seen. Add them up.. and post it."

LOL ... I've seen like 121 movies on this list! but hey, I do have a life, don't I? lol and there are still sooo many movies I've seen that aren't on the list! Well .. it was fun :)

(X) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(X) Grease
(X) Pirates of the Caribbean
(X) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest
( ) Boondock Saints
(X) Fight Club
( ) Starsky and Hutch
(X) Neverending Story
(X) Blazing Saddles
(X) Airplane
(X) The Princess Bride
( ) AnchorMan
( ) Napoleon Dynamite
( ) Labyrinth
( ) Saw
( ) Saw II
( ) White Noise
(X) White Oleander
( ) Anger Management
(X) 50 First Dates
(X) The Princess Diaries
(X) The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
( ) Scream
( ) Scream 2
( ) Scream 3
( ) Scary Movie
( ) Scary Movie 2
( ) Scary Movie 3
( ) Scary Movie 4
( ) American Pie
( ) American Pie 2
(X) American Wedding
( ) American Pie Band Camp
(X) Harry Potter 1
(X) Harry Potter 2
(X) Harry Potter 3
(X) Harry Potter 4
( ) Resident Evil 1
( ) Resident Evil 2
(X) The Wedding Singer
(X ) Little Black Book
( ) The Village
( ) Lilo & Stitch
(X) Finding Nemo
( ) Finding Neverland
(X) Signs
(X) The Grinch
(X) Texas Chainsaw Massacre
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
( ) White Chicks
(X) Butterfly Effect
(X) 13 Going on 30
(X) I, Robot
(X) Robots
( ) Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
(X) Universal Soldier
( ) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
(X) Along Came Polly
(X) Deep Impact
( ) KingPin
(X) Never Been Kissed
(X) Meet The Parents
(X) Meet the Fockers
(X) Eight Crazy Nights
(X) Joe Dirt
(X) King Kong
(X) A Cinderella Story
(X) The Terminal
( ) The Lizzie McGuire Movie
( ) Passport to Paris
( ) Dumb & Dumber
( ) Dumber & Dumberer
( ) Final Destination
( ) Final Destination 2
( ) Final Destination 3
(X) Halloween
( ) The Ring
( ) The Ring 2
(X) Surviving Christmas
(X) Flubber
( ) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
(X) Practical Magic
(X) Chicago
( ) Ghost Ship
( ) From Hell
( ) Hellboy
(X) Secret Window
(X) I Am Sam
(X) The Whole Nine Yards
(X) The Whole Ten Yards
(X) The Day After Tomorrow
( ) Child's Play
( ) Seed of Chucky
( ) Bride of Chucky
(X) Ten Things I Hate About You
(X) Just Married
(X) Gothika
(X) Nightmare on Elm Street
(X) Sixteen Candles
(X) Remember the Titans
(X) Coach Carter
( ) The Grudge
( ) The Grudge 2
(X) The Mask
( ) Son Of The Mask
(X) Bad Boys
( ) Bad Boys 2
( ) Joy Ride
(X) Lucky Number Sleven
(X) Ocean's Eleven
(X) Ocean's Twelve
(X) Bourne Identity
(X) Bourne Supremecy
( ) Lone Star
(X) Bedazzled
( ) Predator I
( ) Predator II
( ) The Fog
(X) Ice Age
(X) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
( ) Curious George
(X) Independence Day
(X) Cujo
(X) A Bronx Tale
( ) Darkness Falls
(X) Christine
(X) E.T.
(X) Children of the Corn
( ) My Bosses Daughter
(X) Maid in Manhattan
(X) War of the Worlds
(X) Rush Hour
(X) Rush Hour 2
( ) Best Bet
(X) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
(X) She's All That
(X) Calendar Girls
(X) Sideways
(X) Mars Attacks
( ) Event Horizon
(X) Ever After
(X) Wizard of Oz
(X) Forrest Gump
(X) Big Trouble in Little China
(X) The Terminator
(X) The Terminator 2
(X) The Terminator 3
( ) X-Men
( ) X-2
( ) X3
(X) Spider-Man(
X) Spider-Man 2
( ) Sky High
( ) Jeepers Creepers
( ) Jeepers Creepers 2
(X) Catch Me If You Can
(X) The Little Mermaid
(X) Freaky Friday
(X) Reign of Fire
( ) The Skulls
(X) Cruel Intentions
(X) Cruel Intentions 2
( ) The Hot Chick
(X) Shrek
(X) Shrek 2
( ) Swimfan
(X) Miracle on 34th street
( ) Old School
(X) The Notebook
( ) K-Pax
(X) Krippendorf's Tribe
(X) A Walk to Remember
(X) Ice Castles
( ) Boogeyman
( ) The 40-year-old Virgin
(X) Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
(X) Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
(X) Lord of the Rings: Return Of the King
(X) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
(X) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(X) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
( ) Base-ketball
( ) Hostel
( ) Waiting for Guffman
( ) House of 1000 Corpses
( ) Devils Rejects
(X) Elf
( ) Highlander
( ) Mothman Prophecies
(X) American History X
( ) Three
( ) The Jacket
( ) Kung Fu Hustle
( ) Shaolin Soccer
( ) Night Watch
(X) Monsters Inc.
(X) Titanic
(X) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
( ) Shaun Of the Dead
(X) Willard
( ) High Tension
( ) Club Dread
(X) Hulk
( ) Dawn Of the Dead
(X) Hook
( ) Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
(X) 28 days later
( ) Orgazmo
( ) Phantasm
(X) Waterworld
( ) Kill Bill Vol. 1
( ) Kill Bill Vol. 2
( ) Mortal Kombat
( ) Wolf Creek
(X) Kingdom of Heaven
( ) the Hills Have Eyes
( ) I Spit on Your Grave
( ) The Last House on the Left
( ) Re-Animator
( ) Army of Darkness
(X) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
(X) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
(X) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
(X) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
(X) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
(X) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
( ) Ewoks: Caravan Of Courage
( ) Ewoks: The Battle For Endor
(X) The Matrix
(X) The Matrix: Reloaded
(X) The Matrix: Revolutions
( ) Animatrix
() Evil Dead
( ) Evil Dead 2
( ) Team America: World Police
( ) Red Dragon
(X) Silence of the Lambs
( ) Hannibal

And now I'm off to watch the final episolde of The OC .. yea, besides watching a lot of movies .. I'm also a TV junkie .. and even though I'm OLD, I have really enjoyed this 20something soap opera! lol

I'm grateful for a DH that cleans up after I cook :)

Pay It Forward .. As most of you know, I've just been blogging for a few months .. when I first started reading all the blogs out here I started seeing all the posts about PIF and how excited everyone was .. and then watching what everyone was stitching for their online friends, it was sooo exciting! Once I actively started blogging, all the PIF's were full, then came Sonya's post and well, long story short (lol) it's my turn to offer mine. A Pay It Forward (PIF) exchange is an offer to make a small gift for the first 5 stitchers to respond to this post with a comment that they would like to sign up. If you sign up, you then will post a message like this in your blog and see if you can collect five folks to stitch for. I will get your gifts out to you as soon as possible - within the next six months! If you want to sign on with me, I will need your postal address - please email that to me at michele11wa@yahoo.com I shamelessly copied a lot of the above blurb from Sonya's post, lol) .. anyone interested??
I'm grateful for payday :)

Finally had a good night of stitching on Spot of Coffee .. here's a picture of my progress .. I really do love this piece .. and not sure if I'll rotate it or if I'll just keep stitching on it .. what do you think I should do? lol

Sunday night after the race I went to a movie and dinner with my neighbor Joan .. we went to see Music and Lyrics with Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore .. it was a funny movie, definately worth seeing in the theatre .. but it'll be a great rental too! I do love Hugh Grant movies .. and Drew's movies lately have been very good :) Do you have a favorite Huge or Drew movie? I think my favorite Drew movie was 50 1st Date with Adam Sadler and who didn't love Hugh in 3 Weddings and A Funeral? Off to bed for me .. night ...
I'm grateful for monday to be over ...

Saturday was a really nice day .. got a lot of things done around the house and Terry worked on cleaning the garage .. Chris came over to help out in the afternoon, he shares the garage with us, not much garage space in the condo he lives in lol .. his wife, Monica, went out of town this weekend with a gf so after working all day around the house we went to dinner at Applebees .. yummy yummy yummy :)

I finished the Christmas ornament I've been stitching .. it's by Glory Bee, Noel, from JCS 2006 .. I really liked the way this came out. I need to kit up my next ornament .. think it'll be the LHN one from the same JCS ornament magazine.

Sunday is .. DAYTONA BABY!!! WOO HOO .. CAN'T WAIT UNTIL THAT GREEN FLAG DROPS! Yes, my house is all excited about the race today! We are big NASCAR fans .. My favorite driver is Matt Kenseth #17 .. I'll be making enchildas with green sauce for lunch and will be stitching and rooting for Matt .. Hope it's a great race!


Hope everyone is having a good weekend!
I'm grateful for my quiet time when the house is asleep ...

Yippeee it's almost Friday! and I'm sooo ready for a nice quiet weekend :) I haven't been stitching much this week .. too tired to really concentrate .. I've put a few stitches in the Glory Bee Christmas ornament I started last week .. I'll post pictures over the weekend .. I really want to stitch on Spot of Coffee .. I think I'll focus on that piece this weekend.

Thanks everyone for the well wishes .. Dad seems to be doing well .. which is such a relief!

off to bed for me ...

I'm grateful for soft pillows and warm blankets

Happy Valentine's Day *smile* .. some think this is a "Hallmark" holiday .. I just think it's a wonderful time to treat a friend or loved one to a smile; a little chocolate; a flower, a nice cup of coffee/tea .. or just a hug .. ENJOY!

These are the tulips I bought today .. the silly reds ones just won't cooperate! lol


I've been emotionally all over the place these last few days .. and have spent way too much time in emergencies rooms! Everything has turned out fine .. but what a long couple of days .... let's see if I can give you the condensed version ...

I was on vacation last Friday .. took the day off to play with my dear friend Lisa. Every year she and I take a day off around each other's birthdays to have a girls day .. this was our play day for my birthday .. anyway, we meet for breakfast, went shopping .. I found two wonderful pairs of shoes woo hoo! .. then we went and saw two movies, yep lol two! We saw Dreamgirls and Freedom Writers, with lunch in between. I would highly recommend both these movies to anyone out there .. Dreamgirls was soo much better than either of us expected! and Freedom Writers was soo inspiring. After the last movie Lisa and I decided we needed to finish the night with margaritas .. left the theater and turned the cell phones on .. she had a message from her oldest son (he's 22) .. long story short, he passed out at a coffee house he and his friends hang out at .. was out for only 2 or 3 minutes .. seemed like forever .. so he was on his way to the ER. Lisa's husband was out of town, so I asked if she wanted me to go with her .. we spent the night in the ER, got home about 3am .. but Jairir, her son, is just fine .. they ran tons of tests and scans and couldn't find anything, but he's to follow up with a neurologist this week. Needless to say Saturday was a total wasted day for me after being up all night .. I stitched and napped and did get a bit of laundry done .. it was definately a slug day. Sunday was nice .. felt rested after a good nights sleep .. did the usually sunday stuff, getting ready to go back to work and took the dogs for a nice long romp at the beach again.

And now comes Monday .. it started out being a very typical Monday at work, until about 12:30 when I got a call from my Dad .. all he said was Michele, this is your dad, I don't feel well and I've called 911 .. I'll call you back later .. and hung up on me! Needless to say I made a couple of quick calls .. one to Terry (DH) and one to SIL to get my Brother .. told them to get their butts to dad's house .. turned off my computer, told my friend Pat what was going on and left. We all made it to his house before 911 was ready to take him to the hospital .. he had been having shortness of breath for a few days .. monday morning he had an episode again which scare him so he called 911 .. we spent the last 30 or so hours at the hospital, they ran all kinds of tests and scans .. verified that he hadn't had a heart attack, verified that he didn't have any blood clots that might be blocking his lungs, did a a heart ultra sound and a stress echo test and verified that he didn't have any blockage .. which is all good! but what brought on the shortness of breath issues?? Right now the cardiologist isn't sure .. but is pleased with all the test results .. so he upped dad's high blood pressure medicine and put him on a diatric (excuse the spelling, I'm sleepy! lol) and he's to go back and see him in 2-3 weeks.

Whew .. what a fun couple of days! No stitching for me last night or tonight .. usually when I stitch when I'm tired or stressed, I tend to frog more than I stitch .. I think I'll stitch on Spot of Coffee tomorrow and I'll post a picture soon :) Thanks for listening!

AND .. thanks for all the comments on Pursue!! I really enjoy reading all the comments .. and nice to see a couple new ladies reading and commenting .. thanks!!!

I'm grateful for my dad .... Love You :)

WOO HOO!!! Pursue is done!!!! I finished it yesterday (saturday) .. I just love how it came out .. and can't wait to get it framed. I'll be stitching this again for a very dear friend that doesn't stitch, but loved the sentiment .. but I'll wait a few months before I start it again .. lol that border is nice, but sooo boring to stitch!

I have Spot of Coffee all kitted up and ready to start on tomorrow .. I'm going to stitch it on a piece of R&R Linen, 32 ct Light Espresso using Vicky Clayton silks .. I love the colors .. what do you think?

All in all the weekend was lazy, but nice. Other than stitching on Saturday, I watched a couple of movies .. An Unfinished Life and The Invincible .. both really good rainy day movies. I decorated for February, Valentines stuff and good old laundry. Today is Monica's (DIL) birthday .. this evening we went to dinner at Buco da Beppo's .. yummy yummy yummy! Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Happy GroundHog's Day! lol .. what a silly holiday this is .. wonder if we will have 6 more weeks of winter? Wouldn't bother me cause I love winter .. but spring is my 2nd favorite season .. so guess I wouldn't be too unhappy with some spring :)

I just love this crazy groundhog ... I grew up with a mom that decorated for every holiday .. I thought we were Irish when I was young because we celebrated St. Patrick's Day! lol, even after my brother and I moved out, she continued to decorate for each and every holiday that came around .. one of their dear friends remarked once that they were surprised she didn't decorate for GroundHog's day .. that got to be an ongoing family joke through the years. My mom taught me well about decorating .. and how you can start out with just one or two items for a holiday, and if you take care of your things .. you'll end up with a very nice assortment of holiday decorations .. well, when Bent Creek (I think they are the designers) came out with this cute chart .. ya know I had to stitch it .. unfortunately my mom had passed away by the time the chart came out .. but every year when I put it on the mantle, I have a good little giggle and tell her, see mom, you can decorate for EVERY holiday!

I stitched more on the border for Pursue Tuesday night and tonight .. I really want to get this done .. and look .. it's getting close! I should be able to finish this this weekend .. especially since we'll be watching the Superbowl, but really don't care who wins :) Speaking of the Superbowl .. anyone partaking in any Superbowl sales?? Hope everyone has a wonderful Friday .. Happy February!