Finishes and Stash ...

Happy Sunday ... hope everyone is enjoying the last day of January. I'm having a very lazy day and it feels great ... did a little finishing this morning, a little laundry, way too much time on the computer and now I'm ready to sit my butt down and stitch while watching the Pro Bowl and The Grammys.

My birthday stash arrived Friday ... I got Bent Creek's Winter Row with fabric. I fell in love with the fabric that Mary Kathryn was using for this design. Next is Cranberry Deer Pinkeep, kitted with the fabric and floss. A Walk in the Park by LHN. Joyeux Noel book by BBD and a new pair of scissors (Kelmscott Design's Tudor Rose) rounds out my birthday stash purchase ... I think I'm going to have to start the Deer Pinkeep soon!

Another birthday present arrived on Friday from Donna. She sent me both November and December Stocking patterns by BBD. Donna this was so generous of you! and I can't wait to stitch one ... I've haven't stitched any of these stocking yet, but I've enjoyed seeing them all over blogland ...

Now for some finishes ... real honest to goodness totally finished finishes by yours truly. First up is Hugs and Kisses, made into a pinkeep ...

the back fabric ...

Here's primitivebetties Valentine freebie made into a pillow ornament. This is the first time I've played around with doing a wire hanger ... omgosh it was fun! and I know I'll be doing this more and more ...

and here's my Stitcherhood Love freebie made into another pillow hanger ornament complete with wire hanger and beads ...

When I was doing the finishing I decided they would make fun little gifts. One will be for my daughter-in-law Monica ... and two of them will be for Yvonne and Lisa. I'm having lunch with them on the 13th, it'll be a fun surprise. Of course I want them too so now I'm stitching them again for myself! lol

So off I got to stitch Love on a pretty piece of cream linen with Belle Soie's Fresh Raspberries.

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

I'm grateful for Sunday ...

Monday Monday ...

How was your weekend? We had a busy one around here, but a good busy. Saturday I spent some quality time at the local bead store ... oh my was that fun! Then it was home to laundry and a bit of stitching. Saturday night had date night with Ken and Lisa. We had a yummy dinner at Red Lobster and then it was off to see Book of Eli. I really enjoyed this movie ... it wasn't anything like I expected, but it was good. The story was very intriguing and Denzel was awesome, as he always is.

I did get some stitching in last week. I decided I wanted to stitch a couple of quick Valentine's Day designs after seeing some lovely finishes on Staci blog, she definately keeps me motivated! The first finish is by Erica Michaels, an old freebie of her's called Hugs and Kisses ... it was a fun stitch ... I think I'll be finishing it as a pinkeep ...

Next up is another freebie by The Stitcherhood. I stitched it over 1 on some coffee dyed fabric with Belle Soie's Tulip. Sure did turn out small lol .. I think I might be stitching it again over 2. In the picture is a new scissor fob I made ... had to have a Valentine's Day scissor fob!

I also stitched a little on Wizard of Oz ... I enjoy stitching on the quick little motifs ...

Thank you all for your birthday wishes! Not that I'm still celebrating ... but I can't wait for some stash that I bought with my birthday money and I've been told by a couple of friends to watch my mailbox ... oooohhhh I love surprises! lol

Are you stitching any Valentine's Day designs? I'd love to see them!

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

I'm grateful for red ...

Follow the yellow brick road ...

I'm just having way too much fun with this design. I'm using the called for Crescent Colors, 1 strand over two threads. The yellow brick road is CC's Golden Star ... love the variegated look and the flying money was a fun motif to stitch ...

My friend Lisa was over yesterday ... look what she bought me for my birthday ... Wizard of Oz salt and pepper shakers! I love them and nope I didn't have a set either! lol

Look what arrived from England for me from my dear friend Sally. I just love the sentiment and as always Sally's stitching and finishing is perfect! The lace at the top is a great touch. Thank you so much Sally for stitching this needleroll for me for my birthday ...

Yesterday Lisa and I got together for my birthday. We started the day with lattes and scones and the movie Leap Year. Very cute and enjoyable movie. After the movie we went to lunch at The Claim Jumper ... we both had their Cashew Chicken Salad sandwich. We both enjoyed a margarita with lunch, of course mine was a pomegranate margarita ... I think I'm quite addicted to pomegranate right now *smile* After lunch it was off to another movie, this time it was Up In The Air. The movie wasn't exactly what we expected. It was good but more of a rental movie, in my humble opinion. After the movie we went to do a little shopping ... I love shopping but I hate shopping for pants/jeans ... it was no fun! lol And yes, after shopping it was time for another movie! This time it was The Lovely Bones. Neither of us had read the book, but we did know what it was about. I really liked the movie ... I think it captured the innocence of the 70's and I really enjoyed the story being told by the young girl, both before her death and after. It was a great day! And a tradition that I hope continues.

Of course after playing all day I knew Sunday would be cleaning and laundry day ... owell it was definately worth it! Gotta go ... I hear my dryer calling my name :)

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

I'm grateful for playdates with my best friend ...

Happy Birthday to me!!!

Monday was my birthday .... 56! I started celebrating last weekend and am celebrating all week long! lol. Saturday the kids took me to see Avatar and then we went dinner. Avatar was incredible ... all the colors and the animals and plants were so imaginative. Monday I didn't have to cook dinner ... woo hoo!!!! lol My treat to myself for my birthday week is starting a new project. I started Primitive Wizard of Oz by Midsummer Night Designs and oh my gosh I'm having fun with it ... I adore the yellow brick road!

I was looking at pictures over the weekend, feeling kinda nostalgic, and found these ... don't you love looking back *smile I think I was about a year in this picture ...

I still have that jewelry box ...

My brother and I ... gotta love that bikini! lol

Back to my birthday ... I recived a pretty bouquet of flowers from Chris and Monica and a pot of spring flowers from my neighbors ... are we all ready for spring??!!

I received a sweet package from Staci ... inside was a lovely piece of Staci-dyed evenweave and new scissors ... I'm so excited to have a piece of Staci's fabric and I can't wait to find something to stitch on it. Thanks so much Staci :)

Now I sit and wait to my birthday stash order to arrive ... can't wait to see what I ordered!! lol

I did finish stitching a few smalls last week ... I love these reindeer. They are freebie design by Sharon ... I still have wreaths to finish around their necks ... I'm going to use beads, but have to find just the right ones ...

staying with the reindeer theme ... here's another one by The Sisterhood ...

and my last finish is Gone Sledding by Tanya (The Sampler Girl) ... looks like I have some real finishing finishing to do!

Thanks everyone for visiting and leaving your comments ... I love hearing from all of you.

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

I'm grateful for old pictures ...

Snow Day ...

Looks like there won't be much snow around here this year ... I'll just have to enjoy the snow on my mantel. Most of the Christmas decorations are still up but I wanted to change up my mantel for winter fun. Yesterday I stitched and finished this sweet design by Tanya, The Sampler Girl. I was gifted the pattern Gone Sledding by Karen and Snow Day was an extra goodie. This was a fun stitch and I love how it finished up ...

Here's a look at my winter mantel ... The pictures in the center are of my mom and dad back in the mid-60's ... they are posing with a snowman that my dad had just finished making. This snowman was a labor of love and we all enjoyed him in the front yard.

I received my Christmas Fair and Square squares from Jill ... I love this reindeer, love love love him and I'd been meaning to stitch him all month ... now I don't have too! *smile*

Karen finished a couple to things for me just before Christmas ... Here's my Lizzie*Kate Jolly Holiday. The colors were very different so I told Karen to pick out some funky colorful fabric to finish this into a cube. I love how it turned out. The bow inside the red bow on top is a sparkling lime colored ribbon ...

She also finished Sew Noel for me ... pattern design by Carol of iStitch. I love how it turned out, even with my floss bleeding issues and a couple of mistakes ... I gave this to my friend Lisa for Christmas ... she was really please with it.

Well I'm off enjoy a lemon poppy seed muffin with my coffee and then I'm going to start Gone Sledding.

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

I'm grateful for memories of my childhood ...

Happy New Year

My table is set and we are ready to celebrate bring in a new year ... hope you all have a wonderful fun filled evening ... I think we will *smile*

I have two quick things to show and yep it's stitching ... This is a chart Karen gave me for Christmas. It stitched up really fast! and I love it. It's by Shakespeare's Peddler ... Karen included some of her coffee dyed fabric, I think it's perfect with the floss color ...

and this is official my last stitch for 2009 ... I started this two years ago, adding the year with the floss color from the last design I stitch on ... fun little tradition ...

I hear a margarita calling my name ... sure glad I don't have to drive tonight! Please be safe and enjoy your evening.

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

I'm grateful for a new year ...

It's been too long ...

I really had the best of intentions of keeping my blog updated during December ... guess that didn't work out too well lol ... while I was gone this is what we were up to ... you might want to grab a cup of coffee or tea before you start reading lol ...

After picking out the Christmas tree it was home for muffins and hot chocolates then time to decorate ...

Chris was going through his box of ornaments and sharing them with Monica. I think it's been about 5 years since he's really spent anytime with his box. Someday most of them will go with Chris, but their condo isn't big enough for a tree yet.

Here's our tree all decorated. It was a bit smaller than years past ... but what a deal we got ... final cost was $12! The tree was missing the top and Terry decided to ask about a taking some money off the price ... the tree was only $17 to begin with ... but every little bit helps! I just love our topless tree :)

Shopping and wrapping done about three days before Christmas ... next up was Christmas Eve with my father-in-law. It was a really nice evening .. quiet but nice. We went to dinner at a local restaurant called Bahama Breeze ... I had the yummy pomegranate margarita and a lobster and shrimp alfredo that was out of this world.

After dinner we went back to my fil's house, opened some presents and played with Friend (the dog).

Christmas morning Chris and Monica came over about 8:30am ... here's a picture of them stuffing our Christmas stocking (under that blanket are the presents from Santa lol)

Before opening presents Chris and Monica wanted to start the dough for cinnamon rolls. Monica's mom taught them how to make a couple of family recipes when they were visiting for Thanksgiving. One was cinnamon rolls and the other was orange rolls ...

I forgot to take pictures of the cinnamon rolls but I did take pictures of the orange rolls ... they were all yummy. They also made some dinner rolls for Christmas dinner at my Dad's ...

We had a very nice Christmas morning ... here's one of my favorite presents I received from the kids ... my very own Lego kit ... and I put it together all by myself! lol ... my other favorite present was my new Red iPod Nano. My old one died a few months ago ... My Dad and my kids went in together to replace it for me ... I really had missed having one.

Later on Christmas Day we headed over to my Dad's to have Christmas with him and my brother and his family. I love this picture ...

We had a lovely time with everyone ... Prime rib dinner and lots of laughs playing Taboo after dinner ... we played family against family with my dad keeping score ... Walker's won 2 to nothing! woo hoo!

And lastly I want to share a couple of stitching gifts I received. First is a PIF from Natasha ...

I just love this biscornu and the sweet little reindeer hiding between tree ... Thank you Natasha for everything ...

And from Chris I received this ornament and goodies ... how wonderful are these reindeer! I've always loved this design ... thank yo9u so much Chris for stitching it for me ...

I have more stitching to share with you ... but I think I'll wait until my next post. Happy New Year to you all. I look so forward to 2010 and to getting to know you all more and more.

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

I'm grateful for family ...