Spring has arrived ...

I received this sweet pillow from Bonnie. She was my partner Round A on the Lizzie*Kate Exchange Blog. Hello Spring is a L*K freebie. I just love this little pillow ... hope it makes Spring hurry up!

There's rick rack all around the pillow with little beads ... I'll have to try that finish sometime, I love the look ... Thanks Bonnie, I just love the pillow!

Another pretty arrived in my mailbox last week ... a PIF from Sonda. She stitch this lovely Joy tree for me. It's so pretty and over one too ... I love how it looks :) She also made me a red Joy scissor fob which will soon adorn one of my red scissors. Thanks Sonda, I love everything!

Friday was Monica's birthday. We took her to Susumu Japanese Steakhouse. It's one of our favorite local restaurants. Smiley group ...
Here's Rudy ... he cooked a wonderful meal for us ... and was pretty funny too! I love watching them cook ...

Everything looks sooo good ... and it was!

After dinner we came back to our house to play some games ... We ended up playing Monopoly Here and Now, it's the one with no money, but as had an electronic calculator thingy that keeps track for your money using a credit card ... it was so much fun! We played until 2am! lol .. but we really finished the game. It was down to Chris and I ... but I was victorious!

the game counts in thousands and millions ... sure wish it was real money!

Well time for the Super Bowl ... we'll be rooting for Green Bay ... don't like either team, but we like GB more than those other guys! lol

Thanks for all your lovely comments ... I really enjoy reading them all!

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

I'm grateful for my kids ...

A finishing weekend ...

I had 3 exchanges all due tomorrow so I spent my weekend doing laundry and finishing.

There what I started with ...
and here's what I ended up with ... I can't show you the front of two of the pinkeeps since they are for two of the exchanges, but here are the backs, plus one Christmas ornament for me . I was really please how everything came out. Oh and my other exchange I can't show you a picture of because the finishing would give it away. Be sure I'll be back to show you all the pieces when they arrive at their new homes.

I'm going to try and stitch at least one ornament a month this year. Here's my January ornament ... I had so much fun finishing this one!

I've been reading Staci's blog and she's stitching an ornament a month too, but she's also finishing an older ornament from her finish stitching pile ... I loved this idea so here's my 2nd ornament finished ... this was so much fun to finish. I had this great reindeer ribbon and I just love how it turned out ... I received these two stitched squares from Leena in a Fair and Square exchange ... here's the front ...

and here's the back ... fun fun fun

and here's an ornament I finished in December but forgot to show you pictures of this cute little guy ...

Heart in Hand - Monthly Markings December

stitched on an unknown piece of fabric

with the recommended floss

Sure hope my February ornament finishing goes as well as January did!

The last things I have to share with you are gifts I received last week. First is from Lynn (no blog) ... she made me a travelling ort collector/pin cushion. Last October at PALS Fall Fling in Myrtle Beach Lynn and her two buddies had these adorable ort collectors and I fell in love with them, the girls and the ort collectors! lol ... Lynn made a bunch for Christmas and remembered how much I loved them, so she made me one! I just love it and can't wait to use it at my next retreat :) She also sent along these really cute little scissors too. Thanks bunches Lynn!

Carolyn was having a birthday giveaway and I was the lucky winner! Look what arrived on Saturday ... two charts and a lovely pair of Gingher scissors ... they are the new Sonia scissors ... RED and I love them! Thanks so much Carolyn for the giveaway!

I had a great stitching January hope you did to! I'm really excited to see what February brings. I have a few wips that I would like to get done and of course there's lots of new stuff I want to start ... decisions decisions decisions.

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

I'm grateful for my kids ...

I Love Exchanges!

I had a couple of great mail days this week. I received my exchange piece from the Lizzie Kate Exchange Blog. Angela sent this to me because the stitcher that had my name suddenly passed away. Mary Jo was the stitcher the passed away. I'm sorry I didn't get to know Mary Jo, from all the things I've read she was a nice warm person. It was very nice of Angela to send me this pinkeep, although when I heard about Mary Jo's passing and that she had my name, of course I never expected anything. Love the blue fabric she stitch this design on and her finishing is wonderful ...

and here's the back :)


I participated in an exchange on the Pals BB. We were to stitch a Christmas design, but no finishing. Yvonne (can't find her blog) had my name and stitched this cute PS design for me. It's from the 2007 JSC ornament issue ... I just love it! And can't wait to have it hanging on my tree this December ...


Over the weekend I stitched up my square for the Pals exchange, I'll post a picture of it after it arrives at it's new home. Since I was in the Christmas stitching mood I decided to do one for myself too ... this design is from Lizzie Kate's Three Blox ... I still need to add the buttons ... I think it turned out pretty darn cute. I decided to stitch these all as separate ornaments, two more to go, but they stitch up really really fast ...

and just to enable you a little more ... here's a picture of the scissors I was talking about in my last post ... a must for all of us Halloween lovers *grin*



I'm a little out of sync with my rotation. On Tuesday I stitched on AS and late in the evening realized I had miscounted and spent the rest of the evening frogging. So last night, instead of stitching on OZ, I decided to give another evening to AS ... and I'm so glad I did ... I made good progress and will post some pictures over the weekend.

Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment ... I really enjoy reading them *smile* Hope your week is going well!

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

I'm grateful for Thursdays ...