Happy Birthday Robert!

My baby turned 21 today .. where has the time gone? When you have a little baby in your arms and people are telling you to enjoy every stage because it all goes so fast .. you really don't have any idea what they are talking about .. until you turn around and your youngest isn't a baby anymore, he's all grown up! I sure don't feel 21 years older either! lol .. well most days I don't :)


Robert is attending college to be a journalist, he'd really like to be a sports journalist, and works at Toys R Us. He really is a sports addict .. he even likes to watch Cricket, just can't figure out all the rules yet! lol For his birthday we gave him money towards tickets to the Sounders vs Barcelona game in August .. he and 3 friends are going and they are soo excited.


He's is a very kind gentle man with a wicked sense of humor when you get to know him. He loves to play all kinds of games, and is very family oriented. He's always been close to his grandparents on both sides .. and I know both his grandmas are looking down at him today with smiles on their faces. I think they'd be very please with the person he's becoming.


Of course he's a pretty typical 20something .. can and does get lost on the internet playing Xbox live, reading all the sports websites and occassionally updating his facebook. I think he's as addicted to music as he is sports and he always keeps me current with new music for me.


We had a bbq over at my Dad's house on Saturday for Rob's birthday .. it was hot, but really fun .. our summer has finally hit big time! All week it's going to be in the high 90's .. Seattle people don't do 90's! lol .. we really get grumpy when we can't sleep! Anywho .. here's a few pictures from the birthday party ...


my boys being silly .. Chris was the passer of the gifts lol


I had forgotten candles for his birthday cake (oreo ice cream cake) .. not to worry, my mom for years kept old candles to reuse .. my dad has kept up the recycling of birthday candles, so I knew I'd find a 2 and a 1 in the box .. but no! couldn't find a 2 anywhere .. soooo with a couple of family and friends helping me decide what to do, we found candles that all added up to 21! lol .. very silly but hey it worked! lol




Here's just a couple of random pictures of Robert .. I don't know why but I just love this picture .. wonder what he's thinking ..






Happy Birthday Robert. I wish the best for you and hope that the next 21 years will be everything you want them to be .. and a few things you haven't even thought about yet.


While we are the bbq, Terry took a picture of some flowers my dad has in the back yard .. now I should tell you that Mom found the bathtub years ago and they always kept it planted with all kinds of lovely flowers .. well this spring Dad ran across something new to plant .. I know my Mom would have loved this ...




OK .. last of the pictures .. I promise .. we have 3 indoor cats, Beau (large gray tomcat), Subie (tiger stripe) and Chloe (gray, white and black .. and the softest cat you've ever petted) .. Subie and Chloe came to live with us first, Beau about a couple of years later, all were rescues. Beau and Chloe have never gotten along .. tolerated each other a bit, but basic hate each other, at least that's what they lead the humans in the house to believe .. this picture tells another story, don't ya think?

Terry found them all sleeping together .. I love this one .. they all look like they want him to leave them the heck alone lol


Well, if you'd reached the bottom of this post .. I thank you for bearing with me while I talked about family .. I promise stitching pictures soon!

Stay cool and I hope you find your joy in your stitches ...

I'm grateful for Robert ...

Just a quickie ..

We've got a busy weekend ahead but I wanted to make sure I posted this cutie before I get too busy .. I received squares from Faye today for the Fair and Square Summer Roung .. don't you just love them!! The design is called Americana Panarama by Blue Ribbon Design. Faye's been stitching for years, but this was her first ever stitching exchange .. she did a lovely job! Faye also knows I love the beach and included a few shells from North Carolina for me .. they are sooo cute! Thank you so much for stitching these for me Faye .. I think they will make a darling pinkeep .. don't you?

I have a three day weekend ahead .. woo hoo! Lisa and I are taking off tomorrow to Bellevue's Arts Festival. We've been going to the street fair for year .. I'm always interested to see what's new out there in craft/handmade land. Looks like our weather will be staying nice for the next week .. high 80's .. perfect! Hope everyone has a lovely weekend.

I hope you find your joy in your stitches ...

I'm grateful for stitching exchanges ...

Why Is It??

Happy Monday ... hope everyone had a great weekend! We had a good one here .. the soccer games were really good, we went to see the new Harry Potter (love it!!!) and I stitched ... and I finished something inbetween working on my exchanges. I just love how this piece turned out ...

The design is called Why Is It? by The Cricket Collection. I stitched it on a lovely piece of fabric by R&R, 32 ct, but I can't remember the name .. I think it's Barley something .. anyway the fabric was wonderful to stitch on. I changed the floss colors, which I almost never do .. but I love how they all look together! I used Belle Soie's Mahogany for the words, Fern Frond and Butterschotch for the leaves/vines and flowers. This was such a fun stitch and I love the verse!

So while I was taking pictures of the finished piece, a couple more roosters same to see what I was doing .. didn't know they were sooo curious! *smile*

Paulette's having a wonderful giveway to celebrate her first blogiversary and she has a freebie for you too .. go say hello, enjoy the freebie and good luck!

I hope you find your joy in your stitches ...

I'm grateful for quiet monday nights ...

Saturday Stuff ...

I'm sitting here get caught up on blog reading and watching a soccer game .. yep, soccer! We have become big soccer fans in this house since our Seattle Sounders are now a MLS team. We are playing a "friendly" match with Chelsea FC today in Seattle. There are 65,000 in attendance for this game. Now I know a lot of those in attendance are then to see Chelsea FC since they are one of the best teams in the World .. but attendance for a normal Sounder game has been running about 30,000 .. not to shabby for a new to MLS team. Gooo Sounders!!

Last night Ken, Lisa, Terry and I went to a free concert to promote Chris Daughtry's new cd. I've loved this man since he first showed up on American Idol in 2006. His first cd was great and I'm sure this one will be just as good. We had a great time at the concert .. we were amazed that we weren't the oldest ones at the concert! lol .. Daughtry seems to appeal to a large range of age groups .. there were even a lot of parents with their kids there. I'm off to download his cd from Itunes as soon as I'm done blogging.

love this picture ...

I'm still working on exchanges so I don't have any stitching pictures to share this week.

There's been quite a few giveaways in blogland lately .. I've found some new to me stitcher's blogs through other stitchers posting about giveaways .. Jolene, Dip Diddly Designs, is one of the bloggers I've just met. She's having a great giveaway. Go visit and say hi. Another blog that I've recently discovered is Linda, Somewhere in Time. Her blog is just delightful .. enjoy!

Thank you all for your lovely comments about our 4th of July in Twisp. I'm hoping to having pictures of our float down the Twisp river soon.

Enjoy your weekend ... and I hope you find your joy in your stitches ...

I'm grateful for music...

4th of July in Twisp

I hope this finds you all well and stitching stitching stitching ...

We had a wonderful 4 days east of the mountains in Twisp for the 4th. There were anywhere from 10 to 20 of us over the 4 days. We left on Friday driving over with Ken and Lisa .. here they are in front of us ...

The trip took about 4 hours, with a stop for the dogs and people to potty. The property in Twisp that we stayed out belongs to my friend Cheryl. She and her husband Larry built it over about 5 years. We lost Larry last January .. but he is everywhere on this property. Here's the back of the house which faces the lovely Twisp river. We set up camp along the river, we slept in a tent trailer and Ken and Lisa in a tent. Two other couples stayed with Cheryl in the big house .. but we got shower privileges :)

We were lucky enough to see wildlife while we were there .. this is the view from our tent trailer .. heaven isn't it :)

On Saturday we all headed to the town of Twisp for their 4th of July parade and street fair .. gotta love a small town parade! Here's a few of my favorite pictures from the parade ...



Happy Birthday Twisp .. the town turns 100 this August ...

Terry took this picture at the street fair .. see the butterfly .. sooo sweet :)

We had about 20 people at the property for the 4th .. really fun!

yep, they shot off all these ... 4th of July was Larry's favorite of all the holidays .. we gave him a great send off!

Here's one of the beautiful sunsets we enjoyed ...

one sleepy dog! The dogs all had a blast .. in the water and running around .. Maddy even chased a deer .. man she really moves when she wants to! lol

And here's a picture of the core group that stayed all 4 days .. starting from the left .. Terry and me, Ken and Lisa, Cheryl, her close friend Cynthia and Cynthia's daughter Margaret, Jean and my Dad, John (Cynthia's husband), Pat and her husband Dean ...

And here's a few pictures from our drive home on Monday over the North Cascades Highway .. beautiful drive!

The girls ...

I was fascinated by these green pinecones ...

and this tree .. soo cool looking ...

I've been stitching this week but on exchanges .. so no pictures yet. But I did find this awesome giveaway on Patti's blog ... you have to check it out!

Thanks for all your comments on my last finishes .. you guys are all so supportive! I love reading all your comments .. and to my new readers .. welcome and thanks for letting me know you visited my blog.

Sunday is over and time for me to head to bed .. hope you all had a great weekend!

I hope you find your joy in your stitches ...

I'm grateful for lots of pictures ...

A couple more finishes ...

Finally an end to a long week at work ... but a good week. I love being busy and having a few challenges thrown in the mix ... makes the days go fast and you actually feel like you've accomplished something. Speaking of accomplishing something ... I actually finished 2 more patriotic designs this week. They aren't finish finished .. but they are stitched and I'll get them finished before the end of the month to enjoy next 4th of July.

The first was a freebie by Shepherd's Bush, called Free. I bought it kitted up from Needlecraft Corner ... it was a really fun quick stitch ... I think I'll finish it as a pinkeep ...


The next one is an old pattern by Bent Creek called Patriotic Cracker. I have all the crackers they released back in 2001, but this is the first one I've stitched. After taking the picture I realized that I left off the buttons .. there are 4 off white buttons that are supposed to be on the four corner squares. I'll attach them before I make this into a pinkeep too. I did decide to leave off a larger border around the design. It was full of satin stitches and I'm not a huge fan of satin stitch ... so I left them off lol ... I think my little roosters look great with the designs ... when I bought them I wasn't thinking about them for the 4th ... but don't they look great?!


What are your plans for the 4th? We usually stay home, bbq with friends and then go to our local fireworks display ... but this year we are actually go out of town! We are leaving tomorrow and coming back on Monday. We are meeting up with friends and family in Twisp, about 4 hours from us. My friend Cheryl, who lost her husband Larry last January is having a bunch of us up to her cabin for the long weekend. 4th of July was Larry's favorite holiday, even more than Christmas and New Years Eve ... we are having kind of a memorial whoopla in Larry's memory and will sprinkle some of his ashes on the 4th at his favoriate places around Twisp. I am really looking forward to getting away ... away from the house, the computer, just out camping and hanging with friends. Should be a great time!

Thanks everyone for your sweet comments about my finishes and my decorating around the house and my new blog look. I really enjoyed reading all of them.

I hope you all have a wonderful 4th of July with your friends and families and get lots of stitching done ... can't wait to see all you accomplishments when I return. I'll leave you with one last pictures ... this is our kitchen table ... I really love changing things up :)

I hope you find your joy in your stitches ...

I'm grateful for long long weekends ...