Stitching!

I received the most adorable squares from April for the Winter Fair and Square Round .. I just love this snowman :) He's from a free chart by Prairie Schooler. He's going to make a really cute Christmas ornament, don't ya think?



I haven't been stitching much on Peppermint Twist lately .. I'm hoping to get more done this week. It's really a fun stitch and goes fairly quickly too. Stop over at the PT SAL blog and check out everyone's progress .. they are lovely!!! Here's my start ...

Speaking of stitching have you all ordered your favorite new chart from Market?? What fun stuff did you order? I placed a small order which should be here next week .. I can't wait to get my hands on new stash!! Something I haven't ordered yet but I'm sooo tempted are these fun boxes .. check these out!

Thank you all for your support and lovely comments regarding my non-stitching blog entries .. you words mean a great deal to me. I'm off to stitch and watch AI ... I'm not found of this new format, but I am addicted to watching it! lol

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

I'm grateful for the stitching ...

Yep it's Sunday .. again!

Wow, do weekends fly by for you like I feel like they do for me? Definately never enough time for what I need to do, let alone what I want to do.

Saturday was filled with cleaning .. cleaning out old clothes and trying to get my bedroom back ... seems like since Christmas, our bedroom because a holding room for everything that didn't have a home. Sure does feel good to have been soo productive!

Today was another busy day, but not with housework. We went to breakfast with the kids and then we all attended a memorial service for my Aunt and Uncle. Yep, another one .. This one was a bit different. My Uncle Gordon passed away almost a year ago, but my Aunt Bev had Parkinson's and was in no condition for a funeral. Their 7 children decided to have a small family and close friends service for my Uncle. My Aunt passed away 2 weeks ago. This time the kids decided to do a memorial for both of them .. it really turned out lovely. There were quite a few people there and it was nice to share stories and pictures of them with everyone. They had been married 53 years. Quite an inspiration for sure. Anyway, the reason I really am posting about this is because the Pastor shared a poem that I wanted to share with you. I had never heard this poem and after hearing it and then reading it I thought it was thoughtfully written and definitely worth the ponder and some dialog. I've emailed it to a few friends. I'm looking forward to all the discussions ... what are your thoughts??

The Dash
copyright 1996 Linda Ellis

I read of a man who stood to speak
at the funeral of a friend.
He referred to the dates on her tombstone
from the beginning...to the end.

He noted that first came the date of her birth
and spoke of the following date with tears,
but he said what mattered most of all
was the dash between those years.

For that dash represents all the time
that she spent alive on earth...
and now only those who loved her
know what that little line is worth.

For it matters not, how much we own;
the cars....the house...the cash.
What matters is how we live and love
and how we spend our dash.

So think about this long and hard...
are there things you'd like to change?
For you never know how much time is left
that can still be rearranged.

If we could just slow down enough
to consider what's true and real,
and always try to understand
the way other people feel.

And be less quick to anger,
and show appreciation more
and love the people in our lives
like we've never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect,
and more often wear a smile...
remembering that this special dash
might only last a little while.

So, when your eulogy is being read
with your life's actions to rehash...
would you be proud of the things they
say about how you spend your dash?

Thank you all for your wonderful support and fun comments. I really didn't think I would do more than share my stitching with you, but you know, I'm enjoying sharing other things too .. I just hope that the sharing of losing people close to me stops soon.

I did do some stitching this weekend .. no pictures because they are both for exchanges. I do have to take some pictures of PT tomorrow .. it's so pretty!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

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

I'm grateful for the little things ...

Red and wonderful ...

I had just a nice surprise yesterday in the mail. A couple of weeks ago Staci posted about a little contest she was having. She was trying to come up with a catch phrase for her blog and which ever one she picked would get a little gift from her. Well, she received so many great ideas she couldn't make up her mind yet .. so she threw all our names in a bowl and mine was picked :) Look at what Staci stitched for me ... how perfect for me! lol

DH loved the buttons :) She also sent along some yummy kisses in an adorable tin. Thanks Staci for stitching this fun towel for me .. ya know I love it :) Now I can't wait to see what you come up with for your catch phrase!

The last couple of nights I've been stitching on Peppermint Twist. I'll take pictures tomorrow .. I just adore the fabric and the silk .. yummy! Have you visited our PT SAL blog yet? Come over and take a peek .. it's such fun to see all the differences!

On the job front .. we had a meeting with my manager yesterday about the layoffs. Layoff notices are supposed to be handed out this Friday. My group of 13 is only losing one person to this round of layoffs, and deep breath, it isn't me. It's always so hard to go through layoffs .. you're happy it's not you, but sad that one of your coworkers has to leave .. and unfortunately we've been told this won't be the last layoffs .. I know it's like this out there for a lot of you. Positive thoughts for everyone. Thank you all for your comments .. I love reading them all :)

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

I'm grateful for having a job ...

Congratulations Matt Kenseth!

woo hoo! What a race! Not exactly how we all wanted it to end .. rained out .. but Matt fought for the lead all day, started the race dead last (43rd) in a backup car .. had an awesome car all day and deserved this win! Of course I'm not biased at all! lol .. This is the first Daytona 500 win for Matt ... it was his 10th Daytona 500 start and his 17th win of his career and the first Daytona 500 win for his owner. Here's to a great 2009 season!

Finally ..

I finished Bent Creek's Seasons of Joy on Valentine's Day. This was a class piece at a retreat I attended about 4 years ago. I loved this piece when I took the class .. just not sure why I didn't just finish it then .. owell, it's finished now and I just love it. If you notice the word Joy is in a different color than the rest of the alphabet. In the chart, it's a dark chocolate brown, but me being a "red" kinda girl, I stitched Joy in Brick (WDW). I'm definately going to frame this one .. probably with two color mats .. DH really liked it too and wanted to know where we were going to hang it .. that's when I know he really likes one of my finishes :) Here's some pictures ...

This was a quick little stitch I did last night while watching a movie. It's a freebie from findstitch.com I used some floss that I found hanging around in my floss drawer. I'm not sure where I got this floss, probably in an exchange sometime .. it's lovely to stitch with and I loved all the verigation. The name of the floss is L'atelier du pic vert and I think the color name is Pivoine. I just threw it in this heart tuck pillow ... not perfect for it, but I'll do something else to it later ...

I'm off to watch racing .. Daytona 500 .. woo hoo!!!

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

I'm grateful for racing ...

Happy Valentine's Day

Thank you all for your lovely comments from my post on Wednesday ... I really appreciate all the kind words and support ... you guys rocks!

I had a great Friday the 13th :) after work I met up with Lisa and Pat for dinner and dominos. We've been trying to get together once a month .. it was just what we all needed. I work with Pat, so her stress this last month has beek like mine ... we had a wonderful dinner and then lots of laughs playing dominos and phase 10.

I'm just being lazy this weekend .. stitching and watching racing .. Daytona 500 this weekend! woo hoo! of course I'll be doing some laundry and maybe some cooking too! lol Maybe a movie tonight .. we haven't seen Frost/Nixon yet ... hmmmm, I'll have to go talk to DH about that :) Hope you enjoy whatever you have planned today.

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


I'm grateful for weekends ...

Hump Day .. love Wednesdays!

Hope everyone is having a good week. Mine has been less than fun, but my cold is gone .. which is a very very good thing! I'll try not to bore you too much with ugly details about my week .. but as everyone knows the economy sucks right now and well we are feeling it pretty hard here. Boeing will be handing out 4500 layoff notices on Friday, 2/20 .. so needless to say work is very stressful right now .. and we have two men in our group that are serious ill, one waiting for a liver transplant and one with lung cancer that is moving aggressively .. please keep Sean and Richard in your prayers .. heavy sigh .. it's just tough right now .. but there are good things .. great things too .. so let's talk about that stuff now ..

Last Saturday night we took Monica out for her birthday dinner. She choose this funky hawaiian restaurant .. very casusal and very fun and the food was amazing .. here's the group .. acting out as usual! lol


I've been stitching a lot in the evenings .. it's been a great way to relax and concentrate on other stuff for a while .. I love my hobby :) After stitching some of the border on my Friendship Sampler RR, I really wanted to stitch a couple of the hearts .. here's what I've done so far ...

I'm going to have all the stitchers pick whatever colors they want to use for their hearts (in the red/pink theme), but I'm going to have them stitch their names with Belle Soie Noir, I love the look of it against the coffee dyed fabric.

The other heart I stitched is the "replacement" heart where the lock of hair is .. I'm really pleased with the colors so far :)

I finished the main square for the winter round of the Fair and Square exchange .. this was a really fun stitch .. here's a sneak peek ...

I'm also making great headway on BC's Seasons .. I love this piece and can't wait to see it finished and framed ...

I have dangerous fallen in love with Etsy. If you haven't been there yet, check it out .. there are so many crafty people and they are selling some wonderful fun items. Thanks to enabling by Cindy I found this adorable bird .. check out the fabric, yep there's coffee cups all over it! lol The red bowl in the picture with the bird is another Etsy purchase .. can't wait to figure out what I'll be using it for :)

A very special blogging friend passed this award on to me .. thank you Michelle. I have really enjoyed our growing friendship .. here's a description of this special friends award:

These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbon's of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these kind writers. When you pass the award along please include these guidelines. I am to choose eight friends to share this with.

I'm sending this award on to eight friends. It's always hard to pick special bloggers to pass this award to ... I have met some wonderful friends over the last couple of years so I'd like to pass this on to Cindy, Karen, Chris, RuthAnn, Natasha, Melissa, Wendy and Sally. I know blog awards are kinda silly sometimes .. but the friendships that I'm making through blogging mean a great deal to me .. and I do like to be silly too *lol*

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

I'm grateful for my stitching ...

Stitching and stuff ...

Hope everyone's week has been good. The cold I have is starting to get better, but the cough is hanging around. I hate getting older and coughing .. ya know what happens don't ya?! Such fun! lol

I just had to share this picture with you. Wednesday night Terry, Robert and I were all getting ready to watch Lost and look what greated us on the couch. I tell ya, all three of those furbabies were dead to the world lol

Last month I joined a group of ladies to do a RR. We are stitching Carriage House Samplings Friendship Sampler. What a great chart to stitch with friends, new and old ones. Everyone is getting ready and making decisions on their colors and fabric .. I think there's only a couple of ladies that are keeping with the designers color scheme .. it's been really fun hearing about all the different ideas. Of course I think all of us are stitching a heart in the center instead of leaving it blank for that lock of hair .. kinda weird imho :)

My dear friend Karen coffee dyed a piece of Belgium linen for me ... 32ct and oh my it is lovely and very nice to stitch on too. Thanks Karen :) I decided to go with a red/pink theme (surprised aren't ya! lol). I grabbed a bunch of floss from my stash and did a bit of tossing on the fabric .. I really like this for a start ...

I started the order using School House Red (GAST). I'll stitch the center heart and then request that each stitcher color design their own heart(s). I'm going to send along the floss I have showing, but every stitcher can use their own floss in the color scheme .. variegated, silk, cotton .. whatever they want. I'm really excited about this RR .. should be lots of fun! Here's what the border is looking like .. the color isn't exactly right, it's a lot warmer looking .. but you know cameras and lighting don't always treat our fabrics nicely.

Any plans for the weekend? Monica's birthday was Wednesday. We're going out to dinner on Saturday. Chris and Monica found this great Hawaiian restaurant that they enjoy and want us to try .. should be fun .. I've never had Hawaiian food :) And Sunday will be the usually getting ready for going back to work .. oh and I almost forgot .. NASCAR racing starts this weekend! Woo Hoo lol .. I know I'm silly watching guys turning left and going fast .. but damm it's fun! lol

Before heading to bed and just want to say Hi and thanks for all the comments lately .. I really enjoy reading them and getting to know you all just a bit better and better. Night ...

I'm grateful for the lazy furbabies in my life ...

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!