A finish!

Woo Hoo I finished L*K's double flipits last night. I'm so pleased with this piece. When I started stitching it, I was going to keep it for myself. After stitching the first 4 or 5 words, I decideed that it would be a nice gift for Chris and Monica and since their 2nd anniversary was coming up I thought it would make a great gift for them. Definately words to live by and a great reminder for a young married couple don't you think? I didn't get it done exactly on time .. their anniversary was the 23rd .. they are coming over for dinner and games this week so that's when I'll give it to them. Here's a couple of pictures ...

I found a perfect hanger .. it's from the same company that made these that I got last year ...

My mailbox was very happy on Saturday .. I received my Fair and Square squares (round 9) from Jenn ... I think she read my blog *smile* The design is Manuela's Sunflower from Chatelaine Designs. She changed the border from green to my favorite color, and look at all the beads she added! DH really liked all the bling :) The sunflower on the signature square is from a breadcloth leaflet .. really cute!

Here's a close up of the sunflower square ...

and the signature square ...

She also made me this really cute scissor fob .. the beads match the design so well! and look, I have earrings that match! lol .. don't you love when it all works :) She also made me a really cute bead angel, but the cats found it and started playing with it, so I moved it and forgot to take a picture .. damm cats! lol

This was Jenn's first exchange with the Fair and Square group and she was a bit worried about stitching for someone else ... well after receiving these lovely squares, I can say that anyone that gets partnered with Jenn will not be disappointed. I had so much fun getting to know Jenn during this round .. thanks for stitching these wonderful squares for me!

I leave for Myrtle Beach, SC for the Pals Fall Fling (stitching retreat) in two weeks .. and I'm sooo not ready! I'm off to watch Hero's and work on my Christmas ornaments .. actually I haven't started any ornaments, I need to pull some patterns, fabric and floss and get to stitching!

I hope everyone had a great weekend .. I know there's so much going on that we really don't have any control over. I really hope that those in power take their time and put together a plan that we can all support .. as scary as the outlook seems .. if it's not a well thought out plan I fear we will be right back here in another year.

Thanks for all the comments, it's nice seeing old friends and meeting new friends :)

I'm grateful for wonderful fall weather ...

Happy 2nd Anniversary Chris and Monica ...

Can't believe it's been 2 years already! Seems like just yesterday that Monica became a member of our family. It's been such fun having a daughter in law :)

Aren't they the cutest couple!



Last May they took a trip to visit their friend Jay in London. Here's a picture from their overnight trip to Paris .. what fun!


My hope for you both is that you can always remember how you felt on that very special day ..

An anniversary is a time to celebrate the joys of today, the memories of yesterday, and the hopes of tomorrow (one of my favorite quotes).

Love, Mom

I'm grateful my son found someone that is his equal in every way ...

Lots of Stuff ...

Oh where to start .. it's Sunday night and I had a very nice, busy week and an awesome weekend. Let's start with some stitching .. yep, stitching! I finished two Fair and Square exchanges last week .. only one has arrived at it's new owner, Jennifer. Here's the little bunny I stitched for her ... she had this design on her wish list .. it was a very fun stitch (I stole this picture from Jenn's blog, I mailed off both my exchanges before taking pictures of them ... grrrrrrr lol. This was Jenn's first round in the Fair and Square exchanges. I hope she enjoyed it, I know I enjoyed getting to know her, even if she is a Dallas Cowboy fan! lol .. I seem to be meeting lots of new stitchers that are rival football fans *smile*

I'm making progress on the L*K Double Flipits ... I'm on Laugh now, and then there's only Create and Live left .. my deadline is this coming weekend .. we'll see if that happens! lol

This last weekend I had a great girls weekend with two very dear friends, Lisa and Yvonne. You've heard me talk about Lisa alot. Yvonne, Lisa and I went to high school together. Yvonne and I were roommates after we graduated high school. After high school we lost track of Lisa, and a couple of years later, I lost track of Yvonne. Because we all still lived in the general area .. every once in a while we'd cross paths, but never reconnected. About 7 years after high school, Lisa and I reconnected and have been pretty close ever since .. but we only saw Yvonne at high school reunions .. and after a lot of I miss you and let's get together soon .. well it never seemed to happen, life always got in the way somehow. We graduated in 1972. Our class decided to have a 35th reunion instead of waiting for 40. Again, we really enjoyed seeing Yvonne that evening and swore we would meet for lunch soon. Well, surprise surprise .. this time we did keep in touch and meet for lunch about 3 times in the last year. The last time we met for lunch we talked about how great a long weekend away would be .. just the 3 of us ... and you know what, we actually made it happen! We left on Friday and returned today (Sunday). Ocean Shores is about 3 hours from us. We arrived about 3, checked in and headed to the beach for a nice long walk. Then it was back to our room for margaritas and cribbage .. Lisa kicked out butts! lol Saturday was morning walking on the beach, some shopping, a nap and then off to the casino. The slot machines were very mean to us, but we drank and laugh and hit spin anyway. Of course Sunday had to come and we had to get back to reality .. but I have to say this girls weekend was really fun and relaxing, and it was wonderful to spend time with Yvonne like that. We are definately planning to do it again *smile* Here's a few pictures ... first it's Yvonne and Lisa playing around ...

Here's Lisa and I .. sure was windy! lol

and here's Yvonne and I ... yes, Yvonne is the silly one :) lol

I love finding rocks and shells on the beach. We found a lot of sand dollars this trip .. gotta figure out something to do with them.

Thanks for all your comments on my new red bag .. I can't wait to use it! And welcome to new visitors to my blog .. I really enjoy getting to meet all of you. I'm off to settle in and watch Army Wives and do a little stitching.

I'm grateful for girlfriends and the weekends away ...

PIF's make me smile ...

Is there anything more enjoyable than coming home from work and finding mail waiting for you? Not the bad mail, bills and such .. nope the good mail, like some new stash, a new ebay purchase, nor perhaps an envelope that you weren't expecting. You look at the envelope, can't remember ordering anything that size, and of course like an idiot you don't look at the return address .. you just grap the first sharp thing you can find and rip, carefully, but you rib open the envelope ... look what I found when I got to rip open a package today ...

This lovely RED bag was a PIF from Jean ... and it's perfect! And I can't wait to use it! Of course I told Jean that it was too pretty to use .. but I can't wait to use it anyway! Look how lovely the lining is! Jean is great with a sewing machine!

And here's a close up of the stitched design on the front of the bag .. it's a little pocket :)


This was Jean's first ever PIF and omgosh she did a wonderful job! Jean's new to blogging, but not to cross stitch .. go over and say hi .. she's such a nice lady, for a Buffalo Bill fan *lol* Thanks again Jean for the wonderful bag .. I'll think of you everytime I use it :)

Hope everyone is having a good week .. I'm really glad the week is almost over .. I spend way too much time wishing my life away at work .. but dammm I just have way too many things I want to be doing other than work .. but owell, it does help pay for my many additions! lol

No stitching pictures yet again, but I did get my Halloween F&S exchange done .. woo hoo! Sure is nice to cross things off the deadline list!

May your day be a peaceful one tomorrow and I hope you can take a moment and remember what happened to all of us 7 years ago .. doesn't seem like it was that long does it? heavy sigh ...

I'm off to stitch a bit before bed ...

I'm grateful for a new stitching bag and a new blogging friend ...

A little stitching and some Enabling :)

I'm still doing a bunch of secret stitching so no recent pictures .. however, my squares for the Fair and Square Summer Round (yes Summer!) finally arrived in Australia. Gotta love the mail system! Anyway, here are the squares I did for Nicky ... the chart is Trilogy's Summer Tree .. I just loved the sunflower and the birds.


Now for the enabling part .. I found these on Shakespeare's Peddler's website ... am sooo in love with this new design ... so sweet and delicate!

And check this cute basket from Homespun Elegance .. it comes in 5 different colors .. what fun!

Hope everyone is staying safe and dry .. such crazy weather everywhere! We are having our typical Seattle fall weather, about 70 during the day, and cooler in the morning and at night .. I love Fall! The weather and the colors and the sounds .. yes the sounds of fall .. in our house that sounds a lot like GOOOOO Seahawks!!! Yep, football season starts tomorrow .. well officially I guess it started on Thursday, but our first game is tomorrow with the Buffalo Bills in Buffalo .. so let's hear a big GOOOO SEAHAWKS! lol

I'm grateful for fall plants ...

Waving Hi ....

Happy September! The weather here sure is telling us it will soon be fall, we actually turned on the heater this morning .. there was quite a chill in the air when we got up. I'm sorry to see the summer go ... but we are heading into my favorite time of year, fall and winter .. so I can't complain too much :)

We had a great time in Bristol, TN. The weather was great, not too hot .. the race was awesome, even though my driver struggled all evening .. I met up with a few Matt Kenseth fans and enjoyed a few margaritas with everyone. If you are a race fan and have never been to the Bristol night race, you really need to add it to your to-do list. This is really an incredible track .. it's like sitting in a football stadium that holds 161,000 people and 43 very fast cars going round and round! lol Here's a couple of pictures .. this one is a few of the Matt fans hanging out at the campsite ...

and here's a picture of Terry, Robert and me ...

While I was gone I received this wonderful award from a few fellow bloggers .. Kim, Dawn, Mary Ann, and Karol ... thank you ladies for the award. I'll pick a few blogs to award later this week. I still feel very very behind since getting back from vacation.

Veronica received my fair and square squares while I was on vacation .. here's what I stitched for her. The design is 'I Love Cross Stitch' from the July 2008 issue of The Gift of Stitching magazine by Maryse Dupont of Les grilles de Maryse. I really enjoyed stitching this for Veronica. I'm glad she liked it. I think I'm going to stitch this a couple more times ... sure would make a cute pinkeep, don't ya think?!

I didn't do much today .. was nice to just be lazy .. I stitched and watched a couple of movies. The first one was with Michelle Pfeiffer called I Could Never Be Your Woman. Definately not an award winner, but a very enjoyable movie and one you can stitch and watch. The other was Diminished Capacity with Matthew Broderick and Alan Alda. I really enjoyed this one and would highly recommend it.

I've been stitching, but it's nothing I can show .. yet :) Hope everyone had a great weekend! And thanks for all the comments about my L*K double flipits .. I seriously need to stitch on it this week.

I'm grateful for vacations ...