Happy New Year everyone!  It has been unseasonably warm this past week.  So much so that we actually grilled burgers for our New Year’s Eve dinner!  We rang in the new year with Baked Clam Dip, some snacks, and watching When Harry Met Sally.  Earlier we had watched Holiday Inn with Dad.

Last year we had a new addition to our family. We took our cairn terrier to the vet and returned with a three week old blue point siamese kitten. I just couldn’t resist that face nor his need for a family. Dexter was our rescue kitten and he’s become a sweet addition to our family.

Here he is at 8 months old now helping to guard the laptop that was streaming Christmas music!  Remembering the Christmas tree issue with Merlin and Gandalf we were concerned come the holidays but Dexter surprised us and didn’t show much of an interest in the tree.  Gandalf however did insist the bottom lights needed to drag on the carpet and Merlin occasionally supervised the light rearranging!  And although I think he thought about it, he didn’t chew through any lights this year.  Considering it was a mission to find clear replacement light sets in mid December I appreciated that Merlin left them alone.

I really did do some stitching this past year!  I joined the Halloween Ornament Exchange on STO and restitched the Blackbird Boo design for myself as well.   In September I also participated in the block exchange and stitched up one of  my own designs for the Owl theme.  I also did a bit of Halloween stitching but can’t locate the safe spot I put the finished pieces to take a pic!

And I did complete stitching Clara Ellen from Blackbird Designs Anniversary of the Heart but haven’t personalized it as yet.  I changed around the colors in the house  and really like how it turned out.  I’m still contemplating  doing all the AOTH on one piece of fabric. 

Any other stitching I worked on were my designs, A Spooky Spot of Halloween and the Quaker Winter Acorns, which I posted pics in the Market release post.  And once again it’s that time that I am designing and stitching on Market pieces whose deadlines are in February. 

I spent alot of time in physical therapy last spring and part of the summer only to find that the reason my right leg was painful is due to a cyst on my sciatic nerve by the spine.  Between that and a deteriorated disk I am looking at surgery this year to fuse a section of my spine and remove the cyst.  I’m not sure when it will be scheduled but it’s inevitable according to the surgeon.  I am in pain daily, not a fun thing, but I’m bummed knowing I need surgery. 

We had a scare the week before Christmas with my Dad.  He ended up hospitalized and had a stent put in.  We are thankful that his five by pass from 10 years ago is still doing well.  Dad’s doing better and we managed to enjoy our Christmas holidays with all the family!   Alot of cooking, baking and laughter!

I’m off to stitch on a Christmas ornament that didn’t get finished this past holiday and between blogging, stitching, and my furry babies with me in the loft I hope I am on track for the new year! 

Hoping your holidays were wonderful and wishing you all a happy, healthy, and stitchy 2012!

A Spooky Spot of Halloween is one of three releases at Baltimore Market this weekend!!   Stitched on Ancient by Picture This Plus with WDW Onyx.  Norden Crafts has my models with them at Market.  It’s definitely a Halloween stitching time of year.   Especially after having had 41 days of over 100 degree temps.  Halloween makes you think cool, crisp fall days!

Quaker Winter Acorns  is another release in a series of these Quaker style acorns.  Stitched on light mocha cashel with Cranberry and Freedom from GAST.  These will make sweet ornaments for your tree or with Quaker Acorns I and II you can fill a basket with acorn smalls. 

Can you still feel the needles flying with cooler temps in mind.  I’m all about Fall and Winter stitching these days.  This has just been an unbearably hot summer for us in Kansas!  Grass is dormant, some shrubs, and plants just didn’t survive the heat.  Farmers are having a horrible year for crops.  In the 13 years here I’ve never experienced a drought till now. 

  The third design is Quaker Inspirations.  Stitched on light mocha cashel with GAST Freedom.  I love smalls, they have so many finishing potentials!  These will make great ornaments and pairing them with Quaker Faith Hope Love starts a lovely Quaker Tree for the holidays.  I made these into pincushions for a basket and I can’t wait to see how you finish them.  Look for more Blessings and Inspirations this year.  With that in mind it’s back to stitching on my next models. 

Thank you for visiting and I hope your day is special!!

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend! At this time of the year everyone thinks  getting together with family and friends.  Many visit our loved ones in the cemeteries and leave our tokens on their graves. It is also a time to reflect, and to keep soldiers, past and present, in our prayers. Thank you for keeping our country safe.

Yesterday the stitching world found out that Lisa of the Primitive Needle passed away under tragic circumstances.  My heart and prayers go out to her family.  She was a special person who will be missed and her memory will live on in her designs. 

Here Lies Thy Needle is a Market design of Lisa’s that caught my eye.  I pulled it out today to stitch in her memory.  Stitching mends the soul so I’m off to pull the threads and put my first stitch in.

Pour yourself a cup of hot cocoa while I catch you up on all the snowstorms that came through here in the last few weeks! 

This one was from mid January and disappeared as quickly as it showed up.  Two weeks ago we had quite the ice storm with about six inches of snow on top of the freezing rain, drizzle, mist, that turned pretty slick.  It was the ice that stranded us for a bit.  We even lost power for a while!  Remembering the four days without electricity a few years ago we stoked up that fireplace pretty quickly.  So we kept the house from getting too cold.  And since this happened in the night, Dad never even woke up or knew that there was no power!!  Thank goodness for small favors.  He was surprised enough as it was when he woke up to the wintery storm.  By then it was blowing sideways with white out conditions that lasted all day.  

Then last week was the BIG blizzard after a spring like weekend with very warm temps!!  We officially got 19″ of snow.  Gorgeous flakes that were like the energizer bunny, they just kept coming.  

By midday this is what it looked like and already pretty deep.  It was becoming quite evident the storm that was suppose to be six to ten inches was already deeper and still swirling down in big fluffy flakes! My husband said in all his years he’d never seen a snowstorm like this one in Kansas!

By Wednesday morning this is what the driveway looked like with drifts waist high in some spots and my poor car buried in a big drift.  It was a winter wonderland but what a challenge clearing it all.  I had tried to keep up with the front porch so I could feed the critters in their little cat hut.  But even that had looked like an igloo by late Tuesday night.  So I tackled the porch and cleared some of the deck while Vince worked on clearing the driveway with the bobcat since the tractor wouldn’t start.  The piles of snow just kept building up as you can see on the left of the pic.  It took him over an hour to clear the length of our driveway to the road which is beyond the tree row you see at the top of the pic and all on his lunch break.  A second week in a row that we weren’t getting out for a couple of days.  I can tell you my hubby definitely had quite the work out clearing paths, the cement driveway the vehicles were on and patio and deck out back after work.  Yup, I stuck to the porch, front steps, and promptly got stuck in too deep of snow to continue through the sidewalk so I retreated.  LOL  Baked Banana Apricot Cranberry Nut Bread instead to compliment the steaming cup of coffee I had ready for him when he came in. 

Here’s a shot of the lacy tree branches in snow out back.  Looked so pretty!

By this past weekend the weather had warmed up enough that the meltdown had begun.  Much needed moisture in our area.  I’m seeing robins and red winged blackbirds coming to eat the seed we’ve put out for the birds so am hoping it means that spring like weather will hold and this was the last hurrah for winter.

I took this shot late afternoon yesterday to give you an idea of how much of a meltdown we’ve had in the last three days!  Wow!

And can this next pic really be the driveway that was so deep in snow less than a week ago?  It’s crazy! 

It’s been years since I’ve seen such a big snowstorm.  And it was really pretty to watch. 

But I’m looking forward to my flower beds and am enjoying the morning songs from the birds again. 

And on that note. . .

Enjoy your day everyone!!

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!  I started the family’s day off with crepes for breakfast.  Know I need to bake something chocolatey but not sure what yet.  Leaning towards brownies I think!  What’s everyone else doing for today? 

Last time we chatted I was on a search for a chocolate block and here’s what I ended up stitching for that exchange.  CEC’s Cup of Cocoa Mitten.  I just love her mittens and can’t wait to start her new freebie, Mitten Cakes.  I also have another Cup of Cocoa (for me this time), S’Mores, and Baby It’s Cold Outside kitted up because I really want to get more mittens stitched up this year.   I’ve even managed to enable two dear friends into stitching up mittens now too.  Maybe I should kit up the Shamrock Mitten since St Patty’s Day is around the corner.

 This is my progress on Blackbird Designs Clara Ellen of Anniversaries of the Heart.  Probably not as much as I’d hoped for by this time but happy none the less.  I just love this piece and especially the colors.  I have played around with different threads for the house though.  Will keep you posted on that.

Wishing you all a very special day!  Thanks for stopping by! 

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year’s Eve celebration!  We did a movie marathon and I made my Clam Bake dip, hubby made his dried beef dip, and there were some other snacks too.  Despite this upper respiratory infection for the second time in a month, and a sinus infection as well,  I actually managed to stay up past midnight! 

Iced Tea is a finish that my friend Marilyn F shared with me awhile back.  I thought it was a perfect start to the New Year!  So pour yourself a cup of tea and let’s try and catch up!  I started the family’s day with fresh baked cinnamon rolls.  The sun popped out and despite the frightfully cold temps 2011 feels good!

I really have been stitching but nothing I have taken a pic of as some are gifts that haven’t hit the post office yet.  Currently I need to come up with a Chocolate Block for the block exchange and trying to decide what hits me.  I promised myself this year I would get back into the block swap on STO.

Blackbird Designs Clara Ellen is my WIP.  I haven’t been stitching on it too long and think when I can really settle into it Clara will be a quick finish.  I decided to do this series separately rather than on one piece of fabric.  Although am kicking around taking four that feel seasonal and doing them all together.  I managed three BBD Stockings last year.  Hope to work on more this year.  Really looking forward to their class project book. 

So my stitching New Year’s resolutions are my models, blocks for the exchange, year long SAL’s, Blackbird projects, and stitching ornaments the year through.  I’ve jotted it down for all to see so I hope I can keep this resolution. 

It’s definitely been a rough end of year for a couple of my furry kids.  In November Hunter stayed out a whole night (coldest night of the year at that point) and came home deadly sick.  The vets are calling him the miracle cat because he was on death’s door with a fever over 107 degrees, dehydrated, and not responsive at all.  It took alot of care, round the clock feedings, meds, almost daily visits to the vet, and bloodwork but he survived and is now a house baby.  We will never know what happened but he is one stoic cat.  Our Mama Cat evidently tangled with a coyote and needed stitches from her ear down to her shoulder.  That has been hard as well since she needs to be kept bandaged or we’ll be taking a third trip to the vet restitching her.  Never a dull.  This is a picture of Hunter taken shortly before his “adventure”.  He’s on the right and that is Bear on the left.

That’s about it for now.  Market count down has started and I’m excited about the designs I’ll have to offer in February.  I leave you with a pic of Merlin.  He was trying to block me from going up the stairs to the loft one day.  Couldn’t resist the shot!  Thanks for stopping by!  I hope 2011 is good to all of us!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas! 

It’s that time of year!  Here is my St Charles Market release and Norden Crafts is taking the model with them!  A Prairie Girl’s Sampler was such a fun stitch!  It’s on Light Mocha Cashel using GAST’s Apple Cider.  Love the frame I choose from Eastside Moulding.  It finished it off nicely. 

I’ll be posting a pic of Quaker Winter Acorns so keep watching for that new design as well. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Hope everyone is having a special 4th of July weekend!  Enjoy your family and friends!!