Happy Sunday ...

I had another lovely mail day yesterday ... I feel so spoiled! It's a great feeling! First up is an adorable pillow from Karen. Karen has been my exchange partner through Friends Stitching Through The Seasons blog. The design is from Heart in Hand's Autumn Trio. I just love this pillow! The black ribbon is perfect with the fabric ...

She also made me some Halloween pins ... I think I have the perfect finish to use these with ... and she included note that there's a gift certificate waiting for me at Down Sunshine Lane. I think there's a floss order happening *smile* Karen, thank you so much for spoiling me! I just love everything.
My other package was quite a surprise. Jill said she wanted thank me for helping out with the Fair and Square Exchange Blog. In the package she included a lovely piece of fabric, some needles, Halloween cording and a very nice needleminder. Thanks Jill!

Yesterday I started and finished Boo Tyme freebie by Homespun Elegance. What a fun little stitch. I think I'll finish it as a little pin pillow and decorate it with some of the pins that Karen made for me ...

Boo Tyme Freebie by

Homespun Elegance

Stitched on a piece of coffee dyed fabric

with Weeks Bark

And yes, that is a new coffee cup ... Two weeks ago I saw this cup at Starbucks when they put out their Fall decor ... every morning I would go into get my coffee and that cup would talk to me, flirt with me and ask to go home with me ... well, on payday I broke down and brought it home ... yep, I am a coffee cup slut! lol

I'm off to stitch another Fall/Autumn design ... there's sooo many to choose from. What are you stitching for Fall/Autumn?

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

I'm grateful for new coffee cup ...

Spring and Exchanges ...

Happy May to you all! Did anyone get flowers on their doorsteps on May Day? I remember making paper cones our of colored paper, picking flowers out of the back yard, putting them in the paper cones and hanging them on the door knobs of some of my favorite neighbors ... sometimes they were filled with grass and dandelions lol .. what fond memories I have of the 1st of May :)

Last week I didn't stitch on my rotation pieces ... instead I finished up an exchange and then stitched a couple of fun quick spring stitches ... now to get them finish finished! First one is Fresh Spring by Homespun Samplar. The bunny is stitched with GAST Maple Sugar and the rest of it is stitched with an unknown GAST color. Quite a while ago I bought some of GAST's special edition sets. Unfortunately I didn't know that the floss tags for each color, didn't have the color name on them, and I threw out the list before realizing it ... owell, they are still pretty colors and nice to stitch with ...

Next up is a freebie by The Stitcherhood ... the fabric looks purple'y in this picture, but it's just a nice neutral ... I do love the DMC purple and green for this one ...


I have two exchanges to show off to you too ... I received this lovely floss tag from KarenSC for the Lizzie Kate exchange I'm in ... I love this spring design! Sooo colorful and Karen did a great job on the floss tag ... this was her first one! I hope it isn't her last :)

here's the back fabric on the tag ...

and over on the Pals message board I participated on a Spring Stash Exchange ... here's what I received from Meg (I don't think she has a blog) ... didn't she send some great things! It was really fun to do an exchange that wasn't about stitching something, but about ending along new stash ... I hope we do another one like this soon ...

Friday afternoon I took off to the ocean for the weekend with my dear friends Yvonne and Lisa ... this was our 3rd annual trip and we had a blast as always ... walks on the beach, yummy hors d'oeuvres, pomegranate margaritas, lots of laughs, hot tubbing, an evening at the casino (we were all winners thanks to Yvonne ... she won big on the penny slots!) and of course great shopping ... good times with good friends ...

Here's the 3 of us in front of a sign of one the shops we visited ... had to get a picture! Yvonne is the one on the left, Lisa is the one on the right ... little old me in the middle ... definitely 3 wacky women! lol

I'm back to my stitching rotation this week ... Peppermint Twist is up for this evening ... can't wait!

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

I'm grateful for the ocean and good friends ...

Trick or Treat ...

I finished something ... all by myself. This is the first cube I've ever attempted ... and I'm really really pleased with the result ... I might have to make more cubes ...

and there's the back .. I love the hats and shoes!

I had another wonderful mail day. Karen did some more finishing for me and they arrived today ... Veronica stitched these for me last year in a fair and square exchange. I just love how Karen finished them ... so sweet :)

the back ...

I stitched this Flamingo earlier this year for some friends .. I just love how Karen finished this one! Love the bead pins around the sides ... I know my friends will love him :)

the back ...

the side ...

I've been a bad SAL partner ... I keep forgetting to post my progress. Natasha and are doing this SAL together ... I'm really enjoying this design ... yummy fall colors ...

I have posted my progress on Peppermint Twist in a while ... this is another design I really enjoy stitching ... the fabric and the silks are wonderful to stitch with ...

Last picture of the night is Merry Winter by Homespun Elegance ... I finished this over the weekend. I think I'm going to find a frame for this and turn it into a Christmas present for someone ... pretty cute isn't it *smile*

Hope everyone had a great weekend ... Monday started and ended good, although no stitching got done ... I'm hoping the rest of the week is just as good, but with some stitching lol

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

I'm grateful for quite evenings ...

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 ...

Almost done ...

Finally there's an end in sight with the kitchen remodel. Sure has been a long couple of weeks but finally the new countertops were delivered and installed on Tuesday and the kitchen refacing started on Wednesday and was done by Friday ... well almost done. The plumber came to hook up the new sink and we found out the sink was a bit warped, and we needed 5 holes instead of 4 because of the way the dishwasher vents. We've order a new one and hopefully it will be here early next week .. it had better get here fast! I think I have missed having a kitchen sink more than the counters or the stovetop. We are really pleased with how the refacing and the countertops turned out. But I'm not taking any pictures of it until the sink is in :)

Now with the kitchen done it was time to move everything back into the kitchen. Perfect time to reoganize and throw things away, don't you think? I was looking forward to it and dreading it at the same time .. dammm we have to much stuff! Well, Chris and Monica came over Friday night to check out the kitchen .. we were visiting and talking about the new kitchen and I mentioned that I was going to spend all weekend putting the chaos back together. Monica said well why don't we start tonight and so we did! lol .. we really had a fun time .. Chris and Terry installed some new pull out racks while Monica and I cleaned out the cabinets and started putting things away. They left about midnight (yes we are all pretty much night owls! lol) and we had about 3/4 of the kitchen put away. And yes, I got rid of a large amount of stuff, but only 6 coffee cups! lol

Since we got so much done Friday night, I took a few hours and went shopping with Monica. I just had to get a couple of new things for the kitchen *smile* I got some new red and blue towels (we decorate with primary colors in much of the house). I also got a new kitchen spoon holder and a cool brushed stainless steel fruit bowl. After shopping I spent the rest of the day finishing up putting the kitchen all back together. I really am in love with it and can't wait until the sink is installed! I promise to take lots of pictures soon.

I didn't get much stitching done last week .. couldn't seem to concentrate on anything much. I did work on my biscornu design, but ran out of silk before I got it done :( I've order more, should be here this weekend. It's a really pretty color, Dinky Dyes Ocean Grove. I've really enjoyed the design ...


And I got some stash in the mail .. has anyone seen this before? Stash Keep by Homespun Elegance. I just feel in love! It's a lovely made tin box that opens up. You stitch the design on top .. I'm going to use the suggested color, Moss by Belle Soie ... here's some pictures ...





Thank you for all your comments, I really do enjoy them! I hope everyone had a great week and a wonderful weekend .. can't wait to read blogs and see what you all were up to!

I'm grateful for new things ...