Happy New Year!

Hi friends! Here is my latest finish to share with you! I have had this tiny little piece completed for almost two weeks!

I have been waiting for....A MILK CAP TO MOUNT IT ON!😂(Remember the turkeys in November?? They needed Snapple caps. Those are too big for the reindeer!) Yes! I stitched this one over one on 32ct mystery linen so it would fit inside this fantastic reindeer tea light holder.🦌

This free pattern from Sablaise is called Biscornu Noel 2019, you can find RIGHT HEREand yes! I am waiting for more milk caps!

💗❄️💗 I want to share with you the beautiful PINK Chrismtas card our friend Martina made for me! And look at these lovely, delicate ornaments she made!

They are so pretty I will hang them on my corner shelf and keep them on display during this winter.❄️Thank you once again Martina!🥰

💝🐦💝Look at this lovely wreath ornament made by our friend Manuela

Such tiny little stitches! And each fussy cut piece of fabric perfectly displays the lovely cardinals!🐦 Oh Manuela! How gorgeous your work is my friend! And a PERFECT PINK Christmas card for me!💗My friends do know me!😂 Thank you once again Manuela!

This was a great read! If any of you are interested in White Russian history, I highly recommend this book.
Countless others have rendered their verdict. Now it is your turn.
Russia, July 17, 1918: Under direct orders from Vladimir Lenin, Bolshevik secret police force Anastasia Romanov, along with the entire imperial family, into a damp basement in Siberia where they face a merciless firing squad. None survive. At least that is what the executioners have always claimed. Germany, February 17, 1920: A young woman bearing an uncanny resemblance to Anastasia Romanov is pulled shivering and senseless from a canal in Berlin. Refusing to explain her presence in the freezing water, she is taken to the hospital where an examination reveals that her body is riddled with countless, horrific scars. When she finally does speak, this frightened, mysterious woman claims to be the Russian Grand Duchess Anastasia. Her detractors, convinced that the young woman is only after the immense Romanov fortune, insist on calling her by a different name: Anna Anderson. As rumors begin to circulate through European society that the youngest Romanov daughter has survived the massacre, old enemies and new threats are awakened. With a brilliantly crafted dual narrative structure, Lawhon wades into the most psychologically complex and emotionally compelling territory yet: the nature of identity itself. The question of who Anna Anderson is and what actually happened to Anastasia Romanov creates a saga that spans fifty years and touches three continents. This thrilling story is every bit as moving and momentous as it is harrowing and twisted.

Henry is doing pretty well on his road to recovery. He is on four different medications. His main problem is that when he feels better, he loves to rub his neck on the carpeting! THE WORST THING HE COULD DO FOR HIS HERNIATED DISC IN HIS NECK!! We have to really watch him. We have taken away his nightly kong treat, his bones, his toys.  ☹️We feel very mean and it is sad, but he has to recover! Less than two months now.

I am still stitching Brian's Christmas gift to be given on our Orthodox Christmas. I should have it done!!

“Because Your love is better than life, my lips will glorify You.” Psalm 63:3

Happy, Blessed New Year my friends!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Little Women

Hi friends! Did everyone have a good Christmas? We did celebrate with our children and family, but Brian and I are still waiting to celebrate on January 7th, since we are Orthodox Christians.

I would like to share with you the gift I made and gave my Mom.

✨Doodle Angel by Daily Cross Stitch✨ Every year I stitch her an angel or a cat ornament. Her two favorite things! This was stitched two over one on 25 ct cream linen with the called for DMC.

💙💙Winky💙💙 I finally made the time to make this ornament for our dear daughter Madeleine.

I stitched this portrait of her parakeet Winky eleven years ago when we first got him. I stitched this onto his cage cover. The pattern is from the book Picture Your Pet In Cross Stitch. This is a wonderful remembrance of him , and Madeleine said she does not want to pack it away with the Christmas ornaments, but keep it out. 💙🕊️

I am now stitching Brian's Christmas gift. I am 25% done I think! I have plenty of stitching time this week. Go me!

How many of you have read this? I specifically remember looking at this book on the grade school library shelf. I had it in my hand. I really pondered it. I put it back. It seemed too long. I chose another one instead. I just finished it about 40 years later!! And wOw!! I LOVE this book! I have Good Wives next in the series on order from our library. Can't wait!! AND we went to see the movie last night as a family! It was SO good. There are differences from the book. I am not going to spoil anything for you. If you want to know more, ask me! I will say, bring tissues! Have any of you seen it? I have never seen any version of the movie before. Oh! And who is your favorite chararcter? Mine is Jo.

“You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry.” Psalm 10:17

I am so glad you stopped by today my friends! I am praying for several of you.💗 I do thank God for all of you today!💗

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

🎄Merry Christmas🎄

Our friend Gracie gifted me with all of these lovely patterns!

Thank you once again dear Gracie!💖

Our friend Stasi gifted me with these presents!

💗💗💗Is that ever perfect for me or what?! The Scrabble tiles have found the perfect home on top of my cubby shelf❣️ Thank you once again Stasi!

We took our little Henry to the veterinarian on Friday.We did not do an x-ray. The vet saw no need since we are not doing surgery. We are treating him with medication the same way we would if he had one herniated disc or two. He increased his gabapentin to four times a day. Thank God! That is what I do with mine! Four times a day. I could never do three times a day.(Yes, Henry and I are on the same medication! I have a herniated disc at L4-5, my lower back. From when I took a massive fall almost 15 years ago and also permanently injured my SI joint.) I can also give him a gabapentin before we leave for hour on Christmas Day. His last dose of tramadol, before bed, is to be double. He had to special order Henry's muscle relaxer. They don't have one for Henry's size. He is only 6 pounds. He feels adding in a muscle relaxer will be very beneficial to his healing. He said it will take roughly two months for him to heal from a herniated disc.

Have any of you read this book? I really enjoyed it even though it is based on rich, privileged, prejudiced people. It certainly explored a new world for me! And don't read my statement wrong. I am not now prejudiced!! Or rich, or privileged!
A lifetime of secrets. A history untold.
No. It is a simple word, uttered on a summer porch in 1936. And it will haunt Kitty Milton for the rest of her life. Kitty and her husband, Ogden, are both from families considered the backbone of the country. But this refusal will come to be Kitty’s defining moment, and its consequences will ripple through the Milton family for generations. For while they summer on their island in Maine, anchored as they are to the way things have always been, the winds of change are beginning to stir. In 1959 New York City, two strangers enter the Miltons’ circle. One captures the attention of Kitty’s daughter, while the other makes each of them question what the family stands for. This new generation insists the times are changing. And in one night, everything does. So much so that in the present day, the third generation of Miltons doesn’t have enough money to keep the island in Maine. Evie Milton’s mother has just died, and as Evie digs into her mother’s and grandparents’ history, what she finds is a story as unsettling as it is inescapable, the story that threatens the foundation of the Milton family myth. Moving through three generations and back and forth in time, The Guest Book asks how we remember and what we choose to forget. It shows the untold secrets we inherit and pass on, unknowingly echoing our parents and grandparents. Sarah Blake’s triumphant novel tells the story of a family and a country that buries its past in quiet, until the present calls forth a reckoning.

“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:11

We are going to my in-laws for Christmas Eve and my Mom's for Christmas Day. We always do this.

I hope and pray you have a Blessed Christmas my friends! Thank you for stopping by here!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

🐩💖🐩💖🐩

Hi friends! I should have shared Emerson and Madeleine's finished ornaments with you by now. Well, how about now? 💝💚Sing Noel by Praiseworthy Stitches💚💝

Yes, I stitched this three times! I changed the blue bird to look like our parakeet who just died a couple months ago.💙

This is stitched two over two on 32ct Blue Ice Belfast Linen. The words are stitched over one.

It is finally safe to show these❣️ All the trees have reached their new homes. This is the first time I paper pieced/foundation pieced a quilt block. I am VERY happy with my little 🎄s.

I received a wonderful gift from our friend Robin. This wooden ornament that she stitched on. So neat! I have never done one like that myself.

Thank you once again Robin!💝

💕💞✨💍✨💞💕My husband! In the 33 years we have been together (since I asked him out when I was 17!!) has RARELY been able to keep a gift until the proper time❣️ How do you like my new pinky ring?!

I LOVE it❣️ Can't stop wearing it❣️ This sterling silver sewing needle ring is from Esmesilverblueberry

Friends I have not mentioned it until now, but our little Henry has been suffering terribly in pain from his herniated disc in his neck. We are taking him to the veterinarian today. There will be x-rays to determine if he has additional herniated discs now. I fear this is so. He screams in pain every morning. I medicate him with the full doses of all three medications the vet has given me for when he gets bad. An anti-inflammatory, a pain pill and gabapentin, a nerve pain medication, the same exact one I am on for my herniated disc in my lower back. Would you please pray for our Henry? We are hopeful the doctor can help him with increased medications since he does kind of okay during the day, but we are thinking of the possibility of having to put him down, and that my friends is just horrid. 💔 Thank you.

“But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds.” Psalm 73:28

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

💖💚💚💖

Hi friends! 💖💚Here is the December Cubby Shelf Display💚💖

🎄 Here is the December Corner Shelf Display🎄There are several gifts from friends from over the years displayed here. The tiny piece with the 🦌🎄❤️in the white frame is from my Madeleine. She stitched it when she was 12 years old and framed it herself (with a frame from my stash!). It was all a surprise to me!🥰

The winner of the LK pattern Merry HoHoHo is: Martina!

I am currently listening to Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Have many of you read this? When? I never read it as a girl. I specifically remember looking at this book on the shelf in our library at our public grade school in fourth or fifth grade, thinking about checking it out. I decided it against it. It was too thick. 😉 That, and I preferred stories about animals.

I think you  can guess why my interest is once again aroused in this book, can't you? Are you planning on seeing the movie? We are! I am NOT a fan of seeing movies once I read the book, and I have never seen a version of Little Women believe it or not, so I hope I will NOT be disappointed. It will be interesting to see if they keep the wonderful morals and teaching about God in the movie.

This book is set back in the 1960's, a simpler time. I enjoyed listening to it from the start for just that reason alone! This book has so many lessons learned along the way about pain, death, friendship, bullying.
New Bremen, Minnesota, 1961. The Twins were playing their debut season, ice-cold root beers were selling out at the soda counter of Halderson’s Drugstore, and Hot Stuff comic books were a mainstay on every barbershop magazine rack. It was a time of innocence and hope for a country with a new, young president. But for thirteen-year-old Frank Drum it was a grim summer in which death visited frequently and assumed many forms. Accident. Nature. Suicide. Murder. Frank begins the season preoccupied with the concerns of any teenage boy, but when tragedy unexpectedly strikes his family—which includes his Methodist minister father; his passionate, artistic mother; Juilliard-bound older sister; and wise-beyond-his-years kid brother—he finds himself thrust into an adult world full of secrets, lies, adultery, and betrayal, suddenly called upon to demonstrate a maturity and gumption beyond his years. Told from Frank’s perspective forty years after that fateful summer, Ordinary Grace is a brilliantly moving account of a boy standing at the door of his young manhood, trying to understand a world that seems to be falling apart around him. It is an unforgettable novel about discovering the terrible price of wisdom and the enduring grace of God.

“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.” Hebrews 4:12-13

Thank you for stopping by today my friends! I hope you have a stressfree week!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie