January almost gone

Looks like we have a chance of freezing rain today. Absolutely my least favorite type of weather forecast. I had to laugh, my daughter and her friend were puzzling over the icon on the weather app for today. The picture I took below is rather fuzzy, but the girls determined it was light bulbs sprouting from the ground, so their thought was today's weather would be very interesting. LOL.


I have been reading your blogs full of stitching inspirations. I am still working on 'baby it's cold outside'. Progress is being made. Although I have probably ripped more on this piece than others in recent memory.... I went over to a friends house last night for a color consultation. I started the green diamonds in the border, but was not happy at all with my choice of floss color. She agreed, so out it came. I don't have enough of the crescent colors spinach to stitch the border, so I am just matching some dmc for the border diamonds. This piece just needs the border and the snowflakes and then it will be done.



I have been thinking about Spring, I have a couple of Spring themed pieces I would like to stitch this year, so I may start one of them next.




I have had this chart for a long time. So I have been thinking maybe this year I will do it. I already have the linen ready for it as well. So, that moves it up even higher in the possibility list.

I have thought about some valentine starts as well....







The birds of a feather isn't really a valentine type piece, but I have liked this one for a long time.


But this birds of a feather piece is valentine themed. Our wedding anniversary in in February. So, I may stitch this up and so some personalization for that. The little couple on the chart are funny...don't resemble Mike and me at all.

The family is stirring around here. I will have to give some thought about cooking later.

Hopefully the freezing rain event won't be anything major. I know if it is, I will elect to stay inside and stitch the day away.

Hope you all enjoy your Sunday, doing something fun!

Happy stitching.

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Wintry Sunday

Hello Stitchy Friends!

I am sitting at the kitchen table thinking about a blog post. It's long overdue. We had some snow overnight. Just enough to make everything white again. The snow from earlier in December had just about disappeared. What's nice about this morning is we had time to leisurely drink our coffee together. Mike has been posted at the back door watching with his camera to capture some of the pretty birds that have been showing up at our feeders.





This male cardinal and his female partner are frequent visitors. They are so pretty, especially against the snow.




This handsome boy is harder to photograph, he doesn't hang around long. I actually got this shot.

Last Saturday we were at lock and dam 14 on the Mississippi River doing some eagle watching. They show up near us every winter during January and February. They are such majestic birds.



You can actually get quite close to them. They seem to be used to the gawkers.




Mike got an action shot of this one catching his fish out of the river. Pretty cool.

Mike is actually in the garage right now cutting a picture frame for me. I have a stash of frames that I've acquired from various places. He is taking one of them apart and recutting it to fit this




I stitched this 'Winter' piece by Cricket probably a couple of years ago, and its been languishing in my drawer of pieces needing frames. Maybe I will be lucky enough to get it finally framed this month....

I also pulled out these beauties.




Winter by Prairie Schooler.




And February also by Prairie Schooler. I have stitched some of the monthly pieces from them but not all by any means.

Mike just came in half frozen from the garage. Had to come in for coffee and to warm up his hands.

Well, hope you are enjoying your Sunday. We will see what the rest of today brings around here. I have promised the family fried chicken for dinner. So I will be cooking dinner later on.

Happy stitching.

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Hello Stitchy Friends!

Wow, another post already, you say?  Well, I was inspired after reading Lynda's post with her clever daybook meme.  But, what inspired me most was that she included a picture of the library where she works. 

I thought, why haven't I shared a photo of our library before?  So, thought I should remedy that.

Our library is a Carnegie as well.  It is pretty evident in the photo.  Naturally this photo was taken in warmer weather than today...

It was back to work for me today. There was lots to do.  Then, I had to take a break this afternoon to accompany our daughter to the doctor.  She found out she has strep throat.  Ugh.  So, off to the pharmacy for penicillin.  I got my flu shot when we were at the dr. office. 

I tend to try to go with our daughter for appointments and things when I can.  It helps her feel more comfortable, since she is mostly deaf.  She reads lips very well. 

I am glad this is going to be a short week.  Ease back into routines.  I did manage to get the Christmas tree taken down yesterday.  What a job.  It seems like it's much more fun to put the decorations out than to put them away.  Hopefully on Saturday I will be able to finish the un-decorating around here.

Well, wish us luck that the strep throat doesn't spread to the rest of us.  I know from many first hand experiences that it's no fun at all.  Fun fact about me,  I had my tonsils out at the ripe age of 42.  Believe me, it's no fun at all when you are that old.  But, the incidents of getting strep throat each winter seemed to increase.  So, I had them removed.  Not a fun 10 days at all.  But, in retrospect, it's a good thing I had it done. (That was over a decade ago, so it gives you an idea of my age...).  :)

Well, hope you are all finding some stitching time in the new year. 

Happy Stitching.
 

Happy New Year!

Hello stitchy friends.

I have spent some time today reading your posts, where many of you have shared your stitching accomplishments from 2012. Impressive one and all. I have not taken a look back to take note of finishes yet.

I do have a new start to share, and an appropriate one since we are experiencing some cold temperatures in our neck of the woods...




'Baby it's cold outside' by heartstring samplery. I liked the verse on this chart, and I'm a sucker for stitching houses... What can I say?

I did finish reindeer roundup around Christmas.



-it turned out cute. Sorry for the wrinkles, I haven't taken it out of my project bag for pressing yet.

New Years Eve was very quiet. Mike had to work, and the kids were off with friends. I spent most of the afternoon and evening reading. I finished the new Monica Ferris book and then read Archie Goodwin Meets Nero Wolfe by Robert Goldsborough. I really enjoyed this one. It was set in time before the Nero Wolfe books by Rex Stout. I have always liked those. I sometimes go back and read one again. Such good characters, and atmosphere.

I did take the tree down this afternoon. I have not brought in the storage tubs to pack away the rest of the holiday decorations yet. Maybe I will tackle that on Saturday. It is back to work tomorrow for me.

Guess the holidays are over. But I am ready for a new year. I read in Tanya's blog (the sampler girl) that she was wanting to rearrange all her furniture. I can totally understand that. Kind of a fresh look for the new year. I don't know that I will be doing that...but guess I am ready to put away those holiday things and shoot for a more 'pared-down' look...

Well, guess I will end this post for tonight. I will be heading to bed earlier tonight than last night....

happy stitching!

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Merry Christmas

Dear stitching friends,


Merry Christmas to all!

We have spent a very pleasant day here today and yesterday celebrating. Mike was off work yesterday so we had our family dinner on Christmas Eve. It made for a more relaxing day today.

We were able to visit via Skype with my sister and BIL and their family today, so that was fun. We also exchanged several messages with Mike's brother and his family. Their children are still pretty young, so they were up before sunrise looking for their gifts from Santa. I remember those days well. Now we all were gathered at the leisurely hour of 9:30 opening presents at our house...

Mike left for work around 2; then we have been relaxing the rest of the day.

Finished my current book, then started another one. Tried on my new pajamas...think bedtime will be early tonight.

Hope all of you had a pleasant Christmas holiday. I will be returning to work on Thursday. Vacation time is ending soon....

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Snow!

Hello stitchy friends!

I didn't think I would get another post in before Christmas. But I wanted to share some snow pictures with you. We got hit with a blizzard last night...I know I had secretly wished for some snow before Christmas, but this was over the top.

I'm not sure how much snow we actually got, guesstimate around 5". But the wind!! Man, it howled all afternoon yesterday and all through the night! Gusts as high as 50mph. So, I woke up to a winter wonderland for sure.




This is a view of our yard north of our house. I haven't ventured outside yet, just have taken some pictures from the windows. My hubby works about an hour away from where we live. So, he left for work a couple of hours early yesterday, and took an overnight bag with him. Good thing, because he did make it to work, but had to spend the night at the hotel there. The interstate he travels on was closed by IDOT sometime last evening.

Our son has a new job near where his dad works. He works first shift, so he tried driving home last night. He ended up getting stuck in a snow bank about 15 miles from home. Luckily a good friend of his got his 4 wheel drive truck out to pick him up about an hour later... So, needless to say he was about 4 hours getting home instead of one hour. But I was so relieved no one got hurt.

The library is closed today. But, I am on vacation until the 27th. Our power went off at least 6 times last night, but it would come back on. So glad we had heat and power throughout.

I did do some stitching last night. Today, I hope to bake some rusks. I am waiting on my yeast to proof now. We will go out and shovel some paths later.







Take care friends.

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Christmas is just around the corner....

Hello Stitching Friends.

We are watching the skies for snow tomorrow. But it sounds like the heavier snowfall amounts will be Northeast of us. We will most likely have a green Christmas.

Like all of you I have been busy preparing for Christmas. Things are coming together tho. Shopping is done and presents are wrapped. I still need to do some baking for our family and some to give away.

There are no words to express the sadness from the awful event in Connecticut. Our thoughts and prayers are sent to those grieving families.

I haven't found the time to sit and stitch very often lately. I did take a recent picture of where I am with Reindeer Roundup.




It has been a fun piece to work on.

We had our cross stitch group stitchers party on December 10. It was extra fun for me this year because my niece hosted the party at her part-time Illinois home. (She resides in California most of the time). And then, my sister from Minnesota was at our house with her husband for the weekend, so she was able to join our stitchers party as well. I forgot to take pictures that night. Next year I will have to do better! We all made an ornament to exchange. In all the years we have been doing this, we have never had a duplicate. But this year took the cake...we had 3 duplicates...
"Fa la la" which was sold as a small kit with tuck-away pillow. Designer may be Bent .creek.

I received this ornament




My friend Susie stitched it, and I love it. It is hanging on our tree. I stitched 'hot cocoa' by little house Needleworks. My sister was the recipient. It was one of the monthly charts from 2012.




Our tree has many stitched ornaments on it, some stitched by me and others by friends and family.




Mike, Holly and I have been sharing a nasty cold. ny-quil has been my night-time ritual for several nights. We are all tired of it and ready for it to leave.

My sister brought me a beautiful new stitching bag...




Sorry the picture is kind of dark. She has used the prettiest red fabrics!
the fabric in the top right corner is a window with a cat looking out. (she knows me well).... She also embellished it with some pretty antique buttons.

Well I hope all of you are finding some stolen moments of peace and reasons to find joy each day.

Happy stitching friends!

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