This face

Hello Stitchy friends 

This face is why I haven't been able to pick up a needle to stitch all week!

He is a handful for sure. It has been a long time since there's been a puppy in the house.  The last time both kids were around 9 to 12 years old and were helping keep that particular puppy busy with lots of playtime.  Now that it's just Mike and myself here, it's a different story!

It will be worth it and I know the crazy puppy stuff doesn't last forever. 

I did manage to get caught up on reading blogs today. I was behind. 

Prior to Henry's arrival, I had been making good progress on getting ornaments stitched.  But it's not all his fault. This past week was extra busy... 

We had our Stitchers group Christmas party on Monday, followed by the Christmas party and meeting for the library board on Tuesday.  Then Wednesday I was at our sons house for dinner followed by a movie. But Henry went with for that. He had great fun playing with their dog. So that was great. It wore him out.

We exchanged ornaments at our Monday night party. I took the LHN ornament of the little red house with the arch of holly over it.

  I received this little beauty.

My friend Jane stitched it. I apologize for not having a picture of my finished ornament. I promise it did get finished.

It's hard to believe Christmas is less than 2 weeks away! Shopping is about all done, just waiting on that UPS truck.

If I don't make it back to post before, I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas and spend it with those you love.  

***Merry Christmas ***

Where does the time go??

David, Hello Stitchy Friends!

I can't believe I have not updated my blog since the end of September! Bad, bad me!

I've been stitching, working, decorating for Christmas, doing Christmas shopping just like all of you.  But obviously not blogging.  I have been reading your blogs though, and keeping up with your news, just a few days behind now.

Our family had a nice Thanksgiving together at our house.  We celebrated it on the Sunday after since Mike had to work.  This gave David and Lauren time to go have dinner with her family on Thursday.  Joe, Holly, Addy and I spent Thanksgiving day together since Joe's father had to work as well.  We had a nice meal together, but we all agreed it didn't feel like Thanksgiving. 

At our family dinner on Sunday I changed up my usual sweet potatoes to use the recipe Marly of Samplers and Santas fame shared.  Oh my, what a hit they were, even the family members that didn't usually like sweet potatoes like them!  Thank you for that, Marly. This has become a new family favorite.

Three weeks ago today Addy had surgery for hip displasia. She was placed in a cast following surgery to hold her pelvis in position for healing. The cast basically looks like a pair of shorts, with an opening for diaper placement. Since the issue was discovered at such a young age, her cast time was shortened to 4-6 weeks with time in a brace following.  When the problem isn't discovered until later, the recovery time is quite a bit longer.

She and her parents are handling everything well.  

I guess I don't have a photo that shows the cast well, but if you look where my daughter is holding Addy with her left hand, you can tell there's a cast there. Larger dresses that fit over the cast has been the easiest to wear. Then Holly puts leg warmers on her as well. 

We surprised Mike, my husband with his Christmas gift early, this Sunday.  

David, Lauren and I travelled to South Dakota on Saturday to meet a dog breeder to pick up this sweet puppy. He's a Lhasa apso like our previous dog was.  We had this operation in planning for a month or so. I'm happy to say it went well.  Mike was speechless with surprise. Believe me, this doesn't happen often. He is difficult to surprise. The new addition has been named Henry. He is busy, and is beginning to become acclimated to our house. So far, the cats are hoping if they ignore him, he will disappear.

If you've hung in here this long reading, I will share some stitching updates. I finished the Autumn piece by Cricket.

Sorry for the sideways photo.  Then I concentrated on doing some ornaments.

I liked this ornament so much I have stitched it twice so far. Both to give away.

I have managed to do finishing on these three, but have no pictures to prove it at this point. 

I will try to do another post soon about other news.

Until then, happy stitching!

Back to reality...

Hello Stitchy Friends!

It's back to reality today. Vacation time is over. We both return to work today.

I did finish a small piece when we were gone.  

Sorry for the sideways photo. I gave the piece to my sister.  She will do the finishing.  She stitched a lovely new cross stitch bag for me!  

I thought it was lovely. She used mesh at the top of the bag.  She is a talented seamstress.  She included a matching project bag!  So I'm all set with a stylish stitching bag for Fall!! 

We are finally enjoying some cooler temperatures more Fall-like. I love Fall weather!  It will be time to move house plants inside before long.

After returning home from vacation I got busy and put the last of the Summer decor away and got Fall things out. I think I have more things stitched for this season than any other.

I have another large piece but I will have to do a photo of it later. I also have a few pieces that are currently residing in the pile of items that need finishing....

Well, I guess that's all I know for now. Hope you're finding time for some relaxing stitching time!

Vacation time

 Hello Stitchy Friends!

We are currently on vacation. We're at The Great Smokey Mountains National Park.  

Whew, what a busy month it has been!  We were more than ready to escape for some vacation time.

The wedding of our son and daughter in law was last weekend.  It was a beautiful wedding.  It rained that day so the events were all moved indoors, but it didn't dampen the happiness of all of us attending or that of the bride and groom.  

The couple danced all evening. It was a wonderful feeling seeing them both so happy.  

Addy had a great time at the wedding as well.  My sister and the rest of our Minnesota family finally got to meet her.

I did get the wedding cross stitch finished and framed in time. I don't have a picture of it on my iPad to share framed...

I also finished up Cherry Tree Hill sampler as well as my blackbird design piece, Tis the season.

They surprised me at work with a party celebrating my forty year anniversary.  

Well I guess I have shared enough news for now.  I will try to be back with more stitching updates later.

Sad here

Hi Stitching Friends.

We've been very sad at our house over the past week.  We had to put our beloved dog, Harry to sleep last week.  

I know I've shared pictures of him before.  This is one of my favorites.  After a few consultations with our vet, we decided it was time.  He developed Cushings Disease, and had gotten very sick,  to the point that he wasn't having much quality of life.  We are slowly adjusting to this, but it is going to take time.  He was a dog we rescued from an area shelter, not realizing he was as old as he was.  But, he needed us, and I'm glad we were able to love him and give him some happy times.

On the stitching front, I've been very busy trying to finish Summer at Cherry Hill.

This is where I left off

I just have the grassy area to do at the bottom.  I did have to put it aside though to start this

I need to get this done before the wedding for our son and future DIL, in mid-September.

I've made decent progress I think. I haven't been working on it too long.  I call them the headless couple at this point.... Lol. The chart calls for DMC, which I'm using. But I like the way the chart globe looks better than mine... But I'm not ripping it out!  They used Gentle Art, Slate. The DMC alternate is 932 which is what I used.  I'm happy the globe matched up.  

After I finish this, I need to revisit some wips that are languishing around here and finish them!!

It seems like I put a lot of time in Cherry Hill. There's quite a bit of stitching there.  

Well, I have to head back to work this evening for our monthly Board of Trustees meeting. I will have to take my umbrella, we're in the midst of a thunderstorm.  

Addy continues to entertain and delight us.

She is shown here with the son of our daughters friend.  She is becoming very vocal with cute little noises.  She loves 'talking' with us!  

Happy stitching friends!

Summer is flying past

I don't seem to be able to get a blog post done in a very timely fashion...

July has been flying past.  We had a fun family gathering on the fourth.  Our small town does the holiday up in a big way with a parade, a talent show, a 5k race and lots of activities for the kids in between.  We just went to see the parade then headed home for a cookout. 

Then next up was my birthday.  

David and Lauren bought me a cute project pouch from etsy, and wind chimes for the front porch.  Joe and Holly bought me a bottle of my favorite fragrance.  Then Mike found a Vera Bradley bag and matching wallet.  So, I felt very spoiled and lucky to have such a sweet family.

I have been stitching away on my current project!  I've told myself at the end of the month I need to set this aside and do the wedding piece!!

Here is where I left off last night. It's been a fun piece to work on.  

I have a new fun accessory to use...

A music stand! It holds my chart so nicely and it's easy to pick up and move to wherever I am going to be sitting.  We refurbished four of these for use at the library during our summer reading program.  (we had a music theme).  I claimed one of them after the end of the program.  It's been great to use.

Otherwise I have been keeping busy at work and finding some time to spend with Addy.  I can't resist sharing a recent picture...

This was taken at Holly's house a week or two ago.  You can see where their cat managed to be included in the picture.  But she is smiling a lot now and makes baby noises when you talk to her... 

I hope you're keeping cool and finding plenty of time for stitching!!

Nearly July...!

Hello Stitchy Friends!

I can't believe it's nearly July!  I've been very neglectful at getting anything posted on my blog! I procrastinate... I tell myself as soon as I get some photos taken I will post.  Well I do have a few photos of recent finishes to share!

I just finished sewing the finish for Old Glory!  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  I found the navy fabric in my stash with the fireworks. Then also found the red to go with it.  

Then I went to my LNS yesterday to pick up my two recent framed finishes.

The first one is Stitch Every Day by Hands On Design.  I purchased this chart in Bloomington at The Counted Needle.  The second piece is Robin's Song by Little House Needleworks.  I stitched both pieces earlier this year.  I haven't decided where I'm going to hang them yet.  I may have to do some rearranging.  

I'm currently stitching Cherry Hill Farm by With Thy Needle and thread.

I have the border of letters finished and now starting to work on the inner design.  

I have two recent purchases that are waiting for me...

Our future DIL, Lauren, picked this out for their wedding stitching.  I need to start this soon. Their wedding will be mid-September. 

Then, Holly picked this chart out 

I asked her if she wanted a piece stitched with Addison's birth details..so this is what she chose.

We have had so many rainy days here the last couple of months!  It's hard to keep up with getting the yard mowed between thunderstorms.  

The flowers are doing well on the deck. 

Summer is indeed upon us rainy or otherwise.  It's not so much fun to sit outside tho, the rain has produced a prolific crop of mosquitoes!  

I can't finish my blog update without sharing a picture of Addison.  She is two months old today.

We stopped over to their house this morning for some cuddle time.  Mike and I are certainly enjoying being grandparents to this little cutie!  

Happy stitching friends!  

Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe: 1600 yards of hand dyed floss give-away, enter now...

  Hello Stitching Friends! 

I haven't posted in a whole month...  Not sure where the time goes.  I will be back with a post of current and finished stitching, but for now I just wanted to share news of Nancy's wonderful floss giveaway.  Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe: 1600 yards of hand dyed floss give-away, enter now...: Christmas in July continues with this great give-away of 1600 yards of hand dyed floss, the entire 1795 floss collection! 80 beautiful skein...

Mother's Day after

I caught up with reading blogs this morning.  It sounds like many of you had a pleasant Mother's Day.  I did as well.  We had a cookout.  I had made a dessert, salad, and deviled eggs, while Mike took care of the grill.  It was our daughter's first Mothers Day, so it was a special one for her.  Our son-in-law's father joined us as well.  It was his first time to see the baby.  

I think Addison charmed everyone.

In the bottom picture, our son is holding her.  She slept a good part of the afternoon.  

Mike and I are heading out today to buy some annuals for the flower boxes on our deck.  The buys got the outside furniture out on Saturday.  I'm hoping to find a new umbrella for the deck table as well.

I hope to have a finish of Miss Peepers soon.  I'm getting close.

Please forgive the wrinkles and dark photo.  No sunshine here this morning.  In fact, it looks like it could rain.  Well, it's time to unload the dryer, and then off for some shopping.  Have a great week, and happy stitching!

Blog Award

Hello Stitchy Friends!
It took me awhile, but I finally got caught up on reading blogs.  I was please to read that Margaret from Days of a Sampler Lover awarded me the One Lovely Blog Award!  Thank you, Margaret. 

The purpose of this award is for bloggers to nominate fellow bloggers. In order to accept the award, the nominated blogger must follow these rules:

• thank the person who nominated you and link back 
• Share seven facts about yourself
• Nominate 10 other bloggers for the award.

Seven facts about myself:

1.  I have spent my entire career as a Librarian working at the same library.  I attended college while working there as well.

 

2.  I love animals.  I have always had one cat or more for a pet all of my life.  We currently have four cats and a dog. 

 

3.  I met my husband at our local community college.  He grew up in a town only 12 miles away, but I probably wouldn't have met him in other circumstances.  He worked in the college library, and a good friend of mine was the Librarian there. 

 

4.  My older sister introduced me to counted cross stitch.  The women in my family all did needlework of some kind or the other.  Most all of my Aunts did beautiful crochet work. 

 

5.  I was born to older parents, as the last child of four daughters.  My father had two girls from a previous marriage, and as a widower met my Mother and married her.  He then had my sister and myself.  He grew up in a family with seven sisters. 

 

6.  I took care of my aging parents in my twenties and  early thirties.  They both passed away before our two children were born. 

 

7.  I am an avid reader.  I know, shock, right?! Look for me on Good Reads I share my love of books there. 

 

I nominate

The Spinster Stitcher

The Twister Stitcher

Stitching the Night Away in Illinois

Blacksheep's Bit of the Web

Samplers and Santas

With Needle and Thread

Stitching Dreams 

She's here!

Addison Melody Ann.  Born 10 minutes before midnight April 28. 8 pounds, 21" long.  Needless to say we are pleased as can be. Mom and baby are doing great, grandma and grandpa are over the moon.