❤️🎄💚🎄❤️

Hi friends! How was your Christmas? Santa Paws visited Little Henry.

Isn't he just adorable in his new hat?!🤗

On December 23rd our friend Gracie sent me a box PACKED with linens and charts!❤️💚 Thank you once again Gracie! I cannot wait to begin stitching these wonderful charts in the new year! And the lovely linens! I will definitely be using them my friend! You are beyond generous!!😊

A very special Christmas card arrived from our friend Jenny. In it was a lovely letter, including a special message from her dear Scott. There was also a wonderful surprise! Jenny made copies of one of Scott's Christmas Eve sermons from the past. This was a joy and an honor for my family to sit together by our Christmas tree and listen to Scott preach God's Word to our hearts. Thank you Jenny, Andrew, Emily! Thank you Scott!❤️❤️❤️❤️

Brian had asked me to stitch a Murphy bottle cap magnet if you can believe it! Yes, back in 2012 and 2013 I made a LOT of poodle bottle cap magnets! Do you remember them? Back then, Brian asked me to STOP making them! HA!🤣Well here is the Murphy I made for Brian.

I knew exactly the pattern I wanted to use for Murphy. So I checked Picture Your Pet In Cross Stitch out from my library. I have checked it out multiple times over the years. I have stitched our dogs and made gifts for people too. I added the silver chin and made a few slight changes to make it look just like our Murphy.

In case you do not remember my many poodle bottle cap magnets, here they all are!

I am now stitching Brian's Christmas gift. CHRISTMAS GIFT?? Yes, Brian and I are Orthodox Christian. We celebrate Christmas on January 7th.

I was recommended Green Dolphin Street by Elizabeth Goudge, by our friend Mary. Have you ever read this book? BOY IS IT A WHOPPER!!! Or have you seen the movie? I really liked the book a lot. I did. However, it was so long!!! It was too long. I do not mind long books, but this dragged for me. It just did. But I read it! I am glad I did.
Vivid, exciting tales??earthquakes, shipwreck, encounters between New Zealand settlers and the indigenous Maori people??are paired with fascinating details of 19th-century life, from sailing ships and steamboats to women??s fashions and the natural beauty of the British seacoast and the mountains and forests of New Zealand. When Marianne LePatourel meets William Ozanne in the 1830s on an island in the English Channel, she sets her heart on him. However, her sister Marguerite falls in love with him too. And so begins this sweeping novel that takes the characters on dramatic adventures from childhood through old age, on land and at sea, and from the Channel Islands to China to the New Zealand frontier. When William??s naval career is cut short, he settles in New Zealand and writes to Mr. Le Patourel to ask for Marguerite??s hand in marriage??but in his nervousness he pens the wrong name in his letter. It is Marianne who arrives aboard the ship The Green Dolphin, and William??s gallant decision not to reveal his mistake sets in motion a marriage that is difficult, but teaches them both that steadfast love which is chosen is stronger than the passion of love at first sight.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend my friends! I will be stitching and listening to an audio book.😊 Thank you for stopping by. I am so glad you did! May God richly bless you in 2019!

"Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." -Psalm 37:4

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

I Am Blessed

Hi friends! Let me thank you from the bottom of my heart for your wonderful outpouring of love and support during our time of grief. Your caring messages regarding our Murphy have truly touched me and made me feel better. It is never an easy decision to put a pet down.

I want to share with you a sweet ornament that our friend June made just for me.

Thank you once again June! It is hanging on on our tree.💗

Our friend Stasi gave me this gorgeous ornament with the tiniest alphabet sampler stitched in it.

Thank you Stasi. I adore tiny stitching. This is hanging on our tree.💗

Our friend Martina made me the most gorgeous Christmas card I have ever received in my life. Just take a look!

Thank you Martina. Everyone in my family admires your work and I am cherishing this card forever.💗

I received this wonderful hexagon Christmas tree ornament from our friend Manuela.

Isn't this darling? Such fine work! Thank you my friend. This ornament is a treasure. It is hanging on our tree.💗

Much earlier this year you may recall I received a fantastic gift of a PINK crocheted POODLE from our friend Ele all the way in Italy! She also sent me an adorable cross stitched pink poodle card. I decided to make HER stitched poodle into a Christmas ornament. I took her stitching out of her greeting card. I cut two pink felt shapes out and sandwiched her stitched piece in between. I glued the edges. I then thought it would be neat to use DMC silver to create a silver top for the ornament. What do you think? I am not sure. I did not see anything on Pinterest, or copy anyone. This is just something I came up with. I wanted to enjoy Ele's precious poodle on our tree.

I made this polar bear ornament up for my stepfather. I added it atop his Christmas gift. It is from a paper punched kit I purchased on clearance from Hobby Lobby. I backed it with white felt. I made him the owl at the beginning of the year, and he thinks it is the greatest thing.😊 It is wonderful to have appreciative recipients.

Since Madeleine now has off of school, she has joined in baking cookies with me.😀 We tried out a new recipe for soft ginger cookies. We all approve! The recipe was given to me by Dani. You may remember her, as a once very prolific Canadian blogger. She now is on Instagram only. The recipe can be found HERE

And Christmas cookies at our house means Grandma Kehoe's sugar cookies. And Grandma Kehoe's sugar cookies always, always get made into POODLES! We used to do pink and blue, since we had a girl and boys. Now I am just doing blue. Years ago I did a Kerry Blue Terrier cookie cutter and a Llahsa shaped one for our llahsa bichon, Maggie. Yes, we love our dogs in this family. I don't know, it was just something I started when the kids were very little and it stuck. TRADITIONS!

Merry Christmas my friends! Thank you for stopping by. I am so very glad you did. I hope your Christmas is wonderful.❤️💚

"Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord." -Psalm 27:14

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

💔Murphy💔

Hello my friends. I have sad news to share. On Friday we put our Murphy down. He has been suffering terribly since he tore his right ACL in the middle of November. He has been on pain pills to help him, but he still fell down daily, and had to be helped back up again to walk or stand. Mainly it had to be me to help him back up, because he might bite anyone else. Some times I have had to wear gloves so I do not get bit. You can imagine how stressful this is for all of us, including dear Murphy. He was about 70% blind. This was a very hard decision to make, but Murphy's quality of life was not good anymore. We loved him. We are glad we gave him 3 good years after we adopted him from the humane society when he was 12 years old and his owner went to a nursing home.

These are the ornaments I made for each of us the first year we got Murphy. The poodle pattern is 103 years old. It is in the Antique Pattern Library. It is found in Markbok. It is a Swedish pattern from 1915. I made up the snow scene. When we first got Murphy, he was very healthy and ran around our backyard like a nut, twice a day, every day.

Stitching and praying,

Vickie

Advent Calendar Blog Hop

Hi friends! Welcome to Day 16 of the Advent Calendar Blog Hop hosted by our friend Jo.
Jo has asked us to post a Christmas themed picture and favorite Christmas song. If you click on the link I just provided above you will go directly to the Advent Calendar and see a different piece of Christmas needlework for each day and a different Christmas song too!

This December floral wreath is by Trésors de boîtes à couture. I stitched it one over one on 25ct white Zweigart Dublin linen with DMC.

I thought about a few songs, but they have been posted already. I love this one very much. It is an older one, not much played any more. Do any of you know 'The Christmas Shoes' by NewSong? I cry every single time I hear it. There is your warning.😉 Here is the video.

Now you can head over to Barbara's blog: The Flashing Scissors she is next on the blog hop today!

Merry Christmas my friends!

"And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!'" -Luke 2:13-14 NKJV

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Hi friends! Have you been busy with Christmas preparations just like me? I am sure you are! Well I am happy to say my Christmas cards are out, and this year, I have taken a new approach. I am baking  family favorite cookie recipes twice weekly in December. They have all disappeared so far and everyone is very happy. I do have these pictures to share with you.

I have been making these cookies for about 20 years now. My kids call these cookies Prayer Bear cookies. They went to Wednesday Morning Bible School when they were three years old. And there was a video they watched there and the character in the video was a teddy bear called Prayer Bear.

I did a search and here is a very short video clip for you.

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Anyhow, my three were very fond of Prayer Bear and since I had just begun baking these cookies, which are actually called 'Beary Cute Cookies' by Taste of Home, these became a very popular snack provided by me over the course of the years for each of the children.🐻 If you would like to give this cookie recipe a try, the link to the recipe is right HERE You will notice that the faces of the little bears look slightly different now. They felt they needed to update them I suppose after this many years. I was surprised by that when I looked up the recipe to give you the link. I prefer my version, the old original sweet, plain teddy bear faces. To each their own I guess.
Any Peanut Blossom fans out there?

What else have I been up to? I have had a vision of a white wreath with pink accents. Imagine that!!😉So I have been making that come true! With fabric stars! I originally saw the directions to make fabric stars on CraftGossip many months ago and printed them off, knowing I wanted to make them as gifts for Christmas. Then I realized I would also use them in this wreath. I will tell you right now that they are much more time consuming to make then I ever thought they would be. If you want much easier instructions to make them go here to our friend Cindy's YouTube Tutorial. Click on the video below. Her instructions are SO MUCH EASIER  than the ones provided  by CraftGossip! Thank you Cindy!!

Here are the pink and green fabric stars I made.

And here they are on my wreath.😁

I have begun making more Christmas stars with another set of fabric. These are to be gifts, so I am not showing them yet.😉

This is the first month all year that I do not have the floral wreath for my cubby shelf completed before the month has begun. I have put everyone else first. I must! It will get done. Very soon!

I hope you have an excellent weekend my friends! I am no longer stressing out. Well, hardly. It is all getting done.

"Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." -1 Corinthians 15:58

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Little Henry got his haircut. He is all ready for Christmas!

🎶Yellow Submarine🎶

Hi friends! Here's Madeleine's ornament❣️

Not the best picture, but it is nothing but gloomy here lately.

Isn't it fun? This is of course Yellow Submarine by Shwin & Swhin. Madeleine is a Beatles fan. I love that this looks just like the Beatles yellow submarine. And best of all this is a free pattern you can find HERE

I stitched this three over one on 14 count Aida! I have never stitched on 14 count Aida before, but I had this awesome hand dyed, sparkly blue fabric in my stash and it was perfect for this. I backstitched with two strands of black. I used all the called for DMC. I had the candy cane striped, wired ribbon in my stash too. I framed the ornament with it and made a loop on the top and wrapped it around and made a bow. I think it turned out alright. It is backed with the same sparkly blue snowflake ornament fabric I used to back Jacob's ornament. It looks perfect with this.😁

And here the LAST poodle in the year long Calendar Poodle SAL.

Jacob is moved into his apartment. We will be stopping by in a few days to give him his St. Nick's stocking.🎅 That is when he gets his ornament.😉

I hope you have a great week. I am trying so hard not to stress out, but I am. I have not baked one thing yet. I have not decorated at all yet. I have gifts for friends to make yet. I have not made out the Christmas cards either. And I have NOT been slacking!!

"These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." -John 16:33

Stitching and praying,
Vickie