🐰Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop🐰

Welcome friends! I am so very glad to have you here.

Today I am taking part in the Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop of 2018, hosted by our friend Jo. You can learn more about this, and find out where the Hunt begins, by going to Jo's blog. Each of us in the Hunt are sharing an Easter or Spring stitched finish with you. Here is mine.

This lovely Spring wreath is stitched with the called for DMC one over one on 25ct white Zweigart Dublin linen. 

This pansy wreath is the April wreath in a yearly series that can be found RIGHT HERE


Each of us participating in this Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop were assigned a letter. If you visit Jo's blog to find out where to begin, then you can hop from blog to blog, collecting letters as you go. You will end up with the Mystery Phrase. :) My letter is

You need to visit Beth's blog next to continue on in order, and solve the mystery!

I want to share an old, sweet, free French pattern that is for Easter with you.Take a look HERE at the adorable sweetness!🐇

May you have a Blessed Easter my friends!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

😊STITCHING!😊

Hi friends! I saw the neurosurgeon today. My neck is all better. I am cleared to stitch once again! HOORAY HOORAY!

Now for the bad news. My shoulder is still horrid. My left shoulder and arm are in such pain! He is sending me to physical therapy as he claims my shoulder is frozen in place. Yes! I know!! Then I will have to have another EGM test!! Oh dear God. I have had this done. See this post HERE  I cannot believe I have to live through that kind of torture again in my life. Heaven help me! On both arms!! This nerve testing is to figure out where the nerve problem is at in my arm/shoulder I guess? Or are these doctors just really into torture?!😱

My Brian has been watching Priscilla and Chelsea on Flosstube from the sidelines while I have been recovering here and binge watching it. He saw the giveaway that they were having and went on his laptop and ordered the pattern for me from 123Stitch. What a sweet surprise! I did not realize he was truly paying attention.

Our friend Julie sent me this sweet card to encourage me.

Are any of you familiar with Rick Bragg? I read his short stories in Southern Living magazine. Love them! So I read his book, My Southern Journey:  True Stories from the Heart of the South, this is a mixture of short stories, many of them having appeared in Southern Living, but many others too. I enjoyed this book.
From the celebrated bestselling author of All Over but the Shoutin' and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Rick Bragg, comes a poignant and wryly funny collection of essays on life in the south. 

Keenly observed and written with his insightful and deadpan sense of humor, he explores enduring Southern truths about home, place, spirit, table, and the regions' varied geographies, including his native Alabama, Cajun country, and the Gulf Coast. Everything is explored, from regional obsessions from college football and fishing, to mayonnaise and spoonbread, to the simple beauty of a fish on the hook.

Collected from over a decade of his writing, with many never-before-published essays written specifically for this edition, My Southern Journey is an entertaining and engaging read, especially for Southerners (or feel Southern at heart) and anyone who appreciates great writing.

I will be taking part in the Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop tomorrow. Come  back tomorrow!😘

I appreciate you! When I see this freebie I think of my many treasured friendships I have made through this blog. ❤️CLICK HERE for a TREASURED FRIEND FREEBIE.❤️

I thank God for YOU!

STITCHING! and praying,
Vickie

Recovering In Poodletown

Hi friends! It has taken me days to make this post. I am only allowed 10 minutes a day on the computer while recovering from this disk replacement surgery per the surgeon's orders.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! Thanks for the many emails and e-cards, cards in the mail, gifts and prayers.

Shown below on the left is a sweet, pink needle nanny our friend Stasi sent me pictured with a lovely card on the right that our friend Mary made for me.

I AM improved and getting better. I am still in pain. I see the surgeon for the recheck on the 28th.

I am walking the treadmill as the surgeon said I should and sitting still otherwise in the recliner. I listen to audio books.  I binge  watched Priscilla and Chelsea on Flosstube! I never watched Flosstube before my surgery. I watched ALL of their videos.😁Now that was entertainment ladies, THANK YOU!  And thank you Ronnie!

We sprinkle birdseed on the window sill and sparrows and house finches come to eat daily. Our parakeet calls to the male sparrow and he calls back and actually looks in at us!

I look forward to blogging again. Take care my friends.

Getting better and praying,
Vickie

Little Henry got a haircut at the groomer this time. I cannot do it.

This Is It!

Hi friends! Here it is. The day I have been waiting for. My disk replacement surgery is happening today at 7:30 a.m. I will be home late today.

I will need two weeks to recover. The neurosurgeon wants me to sit in a recliner and relax. FOR TWO WEEKS

He does NOT want me to stitch for the first two weeks. Since the disk replacement is in my neck, I cannot hold up books to read even without causing issues truly. So I have downloaded free audio books from our library. I am finally going to check out my friends Priscilla & Chelsea on Flosstube too! 😎 I have never made time for that. Well, here we go!!

I will be getting up every 30 minutes to walk around to prevent blood clots. And I will be wearing those lovely elastic stockings to prevent blood clots too. I need to walk 4 times a day for 30 minutes also. This is all because I had a major surgery.

I thank you all for your support, care, love, and prayers! You guys are THE BEST!
This is an old freebie, but it is it is the EXACT ONE I wanted to put here for you my friends.

CLICK HERE to go to the site to get your copy of this sweet free chart. Also be sure to check out MANY, MANY other free charts posted on the right hand side of this blog! (Stasi, there are bees!)

I most likely will not be back for two weeks, so take care of yourselves.😘

Getting better and praying,
Vickie

You Are Loved

Hi friends! I stitched on the April wreath over the weekend, but did not finish it. What I did finish was 13 Quilted Hearts.
http://www.ifoundaquiltedheart.com/

I went with Madeleine and placed 5 of them so far out in the neighborhood. I will be doing more  in the next few days before I am home bound after my surgery on Thursday.

I read Enchantress of Numbers: A Novel of Ada Lovelace by Jennifer Chiaverini. I read ALL of Jennnifer's books because they are excellent. This historical fiction book is about Lord Byron's only legitimate child. While it was interesting, and I learned quite a bit, there was a LOT in the middle that dragged for me. I know that had to do with the subject matter. MATH. Ada was a math genius, I am... NOT!
New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Chiaverini illuminates the life of Ada Byron King, Countess of Lovelace—Lord Byron's daughter and the world's first computer progammer. 
The only legitimate child of Lord Byron, the most brilliant, revered, and scandalous of the Romantic poets, Ada was destined for fame long before her birth. But her mathematician mother, estranged from Ada's infamous and destructively passionate father, is determined to save her only child from her perilous Byron heritage. Banishing fairy tales and make-believe from the nursery, Ada’s mother provides her daughter with a rigorous education grounded in mathematics and science. Any troubling spark of imagination—or worse yet, passion or poetry—is promptly extinguished. Or so her mother believes.

When Ada is introduced into London society as a highly eligible young heiress, she at last discovers the intellectual and social circles she has craved all her life. Little does she realize how her exciting new friendship with Charles Babbage—the brilliant, charming, and occasionally curmudgeonly inventor of an extraordinary machine, the Difference Engine—will define her destiny.

Enchantress of Numbers unveils the passions, dreams, and insatiable thirst for knowledge of a largely unheralded pioneer in computing—a young woman who stepped out of her father’s shadow to achieve her own laurels and champion the new technology that would shape the future.

Well, I will be finishing the April wreath this week. You will hear from me one more time this week before my surgery on Thursday friends.

Thank you for stopping by today. I appreciate your friendship! Have a super week!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Marching On

Hi friends! I want to share my March wreath with you finally. I did finish this on Monday, but, well, I have not been up to posting until today.

I stitched this one over one on 25 ct white Zweigart Dublin linen with the called for DMC. If you would like to stitch this pattern also, the pattern is available HERE

I am now stitching the April wreath. I am trying to get ahead. My disk replacement surgery is on the 15th. I am not allowed to stitch for TWO WEEKS following the surgery! I want to stay on my "stitching  schedule". I also designed my April poodle and stitched her already.😘

I read The Last Rajah, book number two in the Kellogg and Watt series by our friend George Mazzeo!! I really enjoyed this book. The history lessons within were so very interesting. I had quite the chuckle at the end and I told George so!😉
In the post-war South Pacific, pilot Duke Kellogg, co-pilot, Edwina “Eddie” Watt, and flight mechanic Nick Minetti, once again, find themselves up to their necks in mystery and intrigue. A harrowing emergency landing on a search and rescue mission leaves the crew of “The Deuce” stranded in a remote rain forest in central Borneo. There they must contend with treachery, headhunters, and a rogue Japanese patrol. Will they find the missing heir to the Rajah’s throne? Will they solve the mystery of the blue diamond? Will they escape with their lives? With time running out and the odds stacked against them, the crew must use all their skills to survive their search for The Last Rajah.

Quite a while ago our friend Cindy showed one of the neat Starbuck's mugs she got from Target. Cindy mentioned she does not drink coffee. I do not either, so I never go to Starbuck's, but it never occurred to me that I could pick up a Wisconsin mug from the Starbuck's within our Target. Thanks for the idea Cindy!😊

Thank you for stopping by my friends. I want to thank each and every one of you who sends me notes of encouragement. The surgery is coming up quick now. I am glad! The pain is constant and intense now. I am praying for complete relief. Please join me in prayer?

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

🍀Murphy The VERY Lucky Dog🍀

Hi friends! Here is the latest poodle display board.

Here is the cubby shelf set up for March.

I still have the February wreath in there. I am stitching the March wreath right now. I ran out of white 25 count linen!! I thought I had more. I ordered some and was stitching BBD Pumpkin Farm while I waited for the linen to arrive.

Did you notice the March Calendar Poodle? He is in the cubby shelf. It is Murphy this time. Here is a closer look.

Here is the pattern for you.

Backstitch the stem with two strands of 905

If you stitch this pattern or any one of my poodle patterns, please send me a picture. I would love to post it here on my blog and also on my Calendar Poodle SAL page. I will also link to your blog.

Murphy is one VERY LUCKY dog.🍀 He is actually, isn't he? We found him at our local animal shelter. His elderly owner went to a nursing home. Murphy was 12 when we adopted him. He is 14 1/2 years old now. He is blind in one eye now. (I thought about stitching his eyes blue, but no, I made them dark brown.) He is most definitely MY dog. He is very attached to me. I have a saying about Murph. If he is not happy, he is snappy.😟He is not a mean dog, he is just, let's say, irritable. So, yes, he is lucky to have us, who love poodles and put up with this grumpy old guy. It doesn't hurt that he sleeps a LOT!!! ha!

Til next time my friends!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie