Just checking in ...

Between blowing my nose, coughing and sleeping, I have gotten a bit of stitching done. Below is my progress my Bent Creek. I'm really enjoying this one and can't wait to have it finished! Sorry for the wrinkles ...



and here's a little ornament stitching ... It's a freebie by Midnight Stitching called Snowman's Quaker Christmas. Very fun stitch. I used Sugared Coffee by Sassy's Fabrics. I have a few ornament cuts but this is the first time I've stitched on any .. I love the fabric and the color .. can't wait to use more of it :)


Going back to vegging on the couch with my furbabies and my tea :)


I'm grateful for warm blankies ...

Woo Hoo! another finish :)

I'm so excited about having another wip completed. This is the Pals "kit" that was in each registration pack from the Pals Fall Fling last October. I'll make in into a pinkeep someday. The design/button are by Hob-Nobb. I had most of the boxes completed at the Fling. It was a fun stitch .. take a look at the floss in the basket! What a clever idea! The flosses are made with WDW confetti. They were really fun to make. Thanks Amy for always having a fun "special" thing for us at the Fall Fling :)


I worked on BC Seasons of Joy. I'm about 1/2 way now. I'll take pictures tomorrow. I would really like to get this one done soon. But I have some exchanges to get stitching on, so it might take a back seat for a bit.

The kitchen/family room is all back to normal .. Christmas is almost put away ... sure feels good! lol .. just don't look at my dining room!

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Get any stitching done? Thank you for all your comments .. I really enjoy hearing from you all *smile*

I'm off too enjoy some hot tea .. I think I'm getting DH's cold .. I love sharing with him, but not colds! lol

I'm grateful for hot green tea ...

Yippeeee A finish!!

I'm so excited to have Summer Joy completed. I didn't realize I was calling it the wrong name for all this time! lol .. The only think I changed was the fabric. When I purchased the chart I had just finished Sunflower Sampler that I did stitch on the recommended blue fabric. I just love how this turned out :)


Hope everyone had a great weekend! Mine was good .. busy but good. On Friday Lisa and I did our movie marathon day. We went to breakfast and started our movie viewing at 10:40am. We saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. We loved the movie! A wee bit long, but very good. Of course it was fasinating to see how well they aged both Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, but even more fasinating to see how they made both of them look younger! Then we were off to see Last Chance Harvey with Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson. Another movie I would recommend if you like enjoyable sappy movies :) Then we were off to have a late lunch and do some shopping before taking in the 7:10pm showing of Slumdog Millionaire. OMG what a great movie!! The story just grabs you and doesn't let go. It is profoundly sad learning about the slums of India, something you really only hear about but never really see. I think the director did an incredible job of showing us the slums. I would recommend this to anyone! It was a really fun day!

Saturday was spent doing house stuff .. no, Christmas isn't put away yet! argh!!! but I have had a lot of other stuff going on .. my goal is this weekend come hell or high water! lol Saturday night I headed for to Cheryl's house for a girls evening .. drinks, dinner, drinks and lots of laughter and a few tears. A couple of her friends are going home (Spokane and Chicago) after spending the last 2 weeks with Cheryl .. so we had a great send off for them .. so great I rolled in the house at 2:30 am! dammm we girls can talk! lol Cheryl has a great many friends, but most of us don't know each other .. this was just one get together to start getting us all connected, trading phone numbers and email addresses .. hope it helps to keep up all in touch and there for Cheryl. There really isn't anything like girl friends is there :)

Sunday I collapsed! lol .. did some stitching, watched a lot of football and did the laundry .. woo hoo! lol

I'm back to stitching on Bent Creek's Joy .. hmmmmm, I guess I'm into Joy right now! lol

I'm grateful for Mondays .. being over!

A few surprises and a wip

I received a few surprises in the mail this week for my birthday ... Sally sent me this adorable birthday card and two new DMC flosses that smell .. in a good way! lol .. The lavender color smells like, you guessed it, lavender and the pink one smells like roses. I have to find a flower to stitch with these. Too much fun :)


Karen sent me a chart off my wish list .. sorry the flash was on for this picture .. the chart is For Ann: Pinkeep & Scissor Fob by Shakespeare's Peddler. Can't wait to stitch this pretty one :)

And from Cheryl, who is still pregnant, sent me this goodies ... the snowman fabric is sooo cute! and the flosses and beads will definately be put to good use .. and look at the stork scissors with the white bead scissor fob, a girl can never have too many pairs of scissors :)

Thank you all for making my birthday very special :)

I have done a bit of stitching this week .. I'm really close to having this pretty piece all finished. Still need to fill in the leaves, add a couple of legs to the birds and do all the french knots (which I love to do .. really I do! lol) and it should be done .. sorry for the wrinkles, qsnaps do do that :)

Tomorrow, Friday, Lisa and I are taking a day of vacation and going to play. We try to do this for each of our birthdays (her's is in May) .. we have a couple of movies planned and some shopping .. just good girl time.

Thank you all for the emails and comments regarding our loss of Larry and support of Cheryl ... means a lot to me to hear from you. Hope everyone is having a good week.

I'm grateful for this week to be almost over ...

Where to start ...

First I want to thank you all for your comments and prayers for Cheryl and all of us. I really appreciate hearing from all of you.

The last few days have just flown by. I've been spending most of my days at Cheryl's house doing whatever needed to be done. There's been lots of tears and laughter, people in and out all day and omgosh the phone calls .. the outpour of care and concern for her and the saddness of lossing Larry has made for some long long days .. all leading up to today (Sunday) which will be the memorial service.

This weekend is defiantely bittersweet for me because today is also my birthday. Saturday evening we got together with my side of the family and had a wonderful mexican meal and played some games .. it was a really nice way to celebrate and to also have a little down time .. I didn't have to cook! lol

Back up a couple of days .. Thursday night I got home late from Cheryl's and had a wonderful surprise waiting for me when I got home. There was this wonderful stitched envelope waiting for me from Jill. She had my name from the Stitching Bloggers Birthday Club. Look at this fun stitching she did for me! All my favoriate things are stitched on this envelope .. first there's this darling reindeer on the front ...

and on the back are more motifs of things that I love ...

What a special gift! But there was more .. a sweet birthday card inside .. but there was more .. there was also a big box from her too.

and here what was inside the box .. more great things like coffee socks, a coffee cup and goodies from Starbucks, a coffee notepad and pen, a beautiful stitch counter that she made herself, a storage box and floss bobbins. And if that wasn't enough, she included Yule Sampler.

Thank you so much Jill .. I just love everything! You really made me smile :)

I hope everyone is having a great productive fun weekend! You all deserve it! I'll leave you with one last picture .. me at my 4th birthday. Can't remember why there was a fire hat there! lol

I'm grateful for another birthday ... 55 will rock!

Tough Day ...

We lost a very dear friend today. Larry and Cheryl moved next door to my parents 24 years ago. They became very close friends of my parents and our entire family. Larry was diagnosed with an inoperable tumor that was wrapped around his stomach about 3 years ago. He outlasted all the doctors predictions ... was still working up until a month ago. It was only a couple days a week, but nothing could keep him down. Larry had a love of life that made him a fighter up to his last days .. even through the pain, and in the last year of his life, the pain was very bad. He was an avid, and I do mean avid hunter and fisherman. Hunting and fishing was something that my dad and he enjoyed together. I know Dad will really miss him, we all will. But we know he is in a better place and finally out of pain.

Larry with my Dad


Larry and I

Please keep his wife Cheryl in your thoughts and prayers .. they never had any children, and Cheryl lost her parents a little over a year ago .. this is going to be a difficult time for her.

I'm grateful for my friendship with Larry and Cheryl ...

Sunday and Snow ...

I'm sitting here sunday night, watching the snow fall, yes more snow!!! and wishing I didn't have to go back to work tomorrow .. my holiday break was great and went all too fast. We had a great time New Years Eve with our friends and family .. yes we rocked out playing Rock Band .. omg it was such fun! I suck at it bad, well I do ok singing .. but me and the drums really didn't work out well at all! While not everyone wanted to make fools of themselves, some opted to play Phase 10. Lisa, Monica and I went back and forth between Phase 10 and Rock Band. I think everyone had a great time .. the margaritas were very very tasty. Here's a few pictures ..


Happy New Year from me and Lisa ...

The Phase 10 table ...

Chris, Robert and Jay rocking out ...

Midnight ... outside in the cold listening to all the sounds of a new year :)

enjoying the hot tub after midnight ... cold but wonderful!

On the stitching front, I finished Lizzie*Kate's Christmas is Special on New Year's Day. This was a fun stitch ...

Today I've been stitching on CCN's Joyful Summer. I have 3 or 4 other WIPs that I would like to finish up soon. Other than a couple of SAL's I will be participating in, I really want to work on stitching stash I already own. Other than fabric and floss, I really don't need any new charts. Yea I know, what does need have anything to do with it! lol .. but with the economy like it is, and with all the remodeling we've been doing .. I really think concentrating on what I already have is best ... wonder if it'll work! lol

We did see a couple of really good movies over the weekend. I would highly recommend both of them ... first was Gran Torino with Clint Eastwood. Amazingly good movie. It really wasn't top on my list of movies I wanted to see, but I was really glad DH picked it. The other movie was Yes Man with Jim Carrey. Another surprise movie ... much better than I expected. Jim usually is a little over the top for me, but this movie had just the right amount of Carrey craziness. He really is very funny. Oh and did I tell you we saw Marley and Me Christmas Day? Very good fun family movie until the last 30 minutes ... I don't want to give away the ending, but if you are any kind of animal lover, take a ton of kleenex with you! I had the ugly sobs by the end of the movie, but I did enjoy it.

Thank you very much for the comments on my last post. I enjoy hearing from everyone. The new winter picture on my blog was taken by Monica when she went home to Spokane for Christmas. She took it from her parents house .. incredible view! and lots of snow! as of today, Spokane has had 61 inches of snow and are expecting 6-8 inches more over night. That's the most snow for them in recordable history. The snow around here was actually starting to melt, except for the piles that the snowplows leave. It started snowing again tonight ... we have about 3 inches. It's suppose to turn to rain later tonight ... here's our Christmas tree in the snow. This year after we undecorated the tree, we moved it outside so the birds could enjoy it. I strung some cranberries, hollowed out grapefruit and oranges and filled them with bird seed. During the days, the lights are off, but I love looking at it all lite up outside at night.

Hope everyone had a great weekend ...


I'm grateful for a new year ...