April Displays

 Hi friends! I forgot to tell you that the whiplash pain is gone. Hooray!

Here is my 🐥April Cubby Shelf Display🐥 Almost all of these are stitched over one.

Here is my 🐰April Corner Shelf🐰 I will leave this display set up until Orthodox Easter, May 5th.

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🐩🐩This is the first time ever that Little Henry and Flossie have played together. They are using Flossie's new Trixie Dog Activity Mini Mover she got for her birthday. It is a brain game. 

Flossie was afraid of it until Henry came over and just started doing it. I had it loaded up with Flossie's dog kibble. Henry is VERY motivated for that! He is on a prescription diet. A little bit of hers won't hurt him. Once Flossie caught on, she had fun sliding the doors with her nose too. Only Henry also uses his little paw and nose to work it. He is the only one who has the string with the hidden compartment figured out. Neither has figured out the knob and hidden compartment yet. There are also 2 cone -shaped covers that fit over any of the center holes. I don't think Henry is even strong enough to remove them. I will wait a while for Flossie to master this to bring those out for her.

📚I have an extremely different book to share with you today. It is not going to be for, well almost all of you? I felt I must share this though. I found this book by looking at my online library website. They promote the new books coming out and I nab them. This was one of them that caught my attention. I am so very glad I did. I have never felt more understood in my life by anyone than this author. My Dad abused my Mom , my brother and myself years ago. I am not going into details. I will just say, Mom almost died. Things were very bad. Things like that do not leave you. They do not.

This sounds impossible, but this book helped me SO MUCH, I had to expose myself and share this here in case someone else needs this book also.

If you are suffering inside from post traumatic stress from abuse in your family, this book is a good help to healing the hurt inside. God bless you. 💕💕💕💕💕💕💕

I am a punching maniac. I am happy to say the leaves are all punch needled. They are not trimmed up though. I am waiting to do that until all punch needling is done. I am now going to begin punch needling the pansy petals. I will show pictures soon. I hesitate, because it does not look like much yet friends.

Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16

I hope you have a great week friends! It has been raining all day here. It turns to snow tonight and into tomorrow. We will be getting 3 to 5 inches. How fun. NOT.

Punching and praying,

Vickie

Poodles!

 Hi friends! Yesterday was our little Flossie's first birthday. Look at the pretty girl she has turned into. 😍 Happy Birthday Flossie❣️ We love you❣️

🌞🐩Now that Henry is 14 years old, his hair grows slower. I know. It does not look like it, but along his back is the main issue. In the winter months I have noticed he is colder, especially at night. He cuddles right up against me in bed. Yes, he sleeps with us in bed. 🥰 I told Brian I wanted to get him a little t-shirt. We found this one at Walmart the other day. PERFECT for our Henry! 

Size XS of course. I only wish he would wear shoes or socks. Ha! His feet are cold. He will not do it. Yes. I tried. 😂

I am still punching away on my intricate, miniature needle punch project for the State Fair. I have 19 leaves done out of 24! Hooray!🎉

My nerve pain is sloooowly settling. I continue to do the PT exercises daily.

He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.  

                                               Isaiah 53:3-4

We will be going to Mom's for Easter lunch tomorrow. I am taking sweet potatoes by request. 😉 We are missing Jacob and Kristen this year. Jacob simply cannot get off for this weekend. He is at the bottom of the seniority for his department. 

Brian and I are Orthodox Christians, and as such we ourselves are still in Lent. Orthodox Easter is May 5th this year. The reason Orthodox Easter is different is that it always follows Jewish Passover. The reason being, Passover comes first, then Christ dies, then He is Risen. The Orthodox never changed calendars. The Catholic Church switched from the Julian to a Gregorian calendar in 1582. A little history lesson for you today. 

I do wish you all a Blessed Easter my friends. Thank you for stopping by! Enjoy your time with your families. Cherish them!!

Punching and praying,

Vickie

MARCH!!

Hi friends! I am still here. I am currently suffering whiplash. 😩 Yes. Again. You may recall I had whiplash back in 2018. I drove with my MIL and suffered with horrid neck pain for two months! I went to PT back then and received exercises and deep massage. This time I pulled out those exercises and started them right away. I am also using ibuprofen daily. This hurts! I get whiplash easier I believe because of that cortisone shot I got in my neck that went wrong in 2016. The nerve is permanently damaged.

What stinks is that I am working on a punch needle project for our State Fair. The State Fair finally opened up punch needle as a category this year and I really want to enter and win! 😁 My Mom bought me a wonderful punch needle book about 10 years ago. This is it.

The project you see on the front cover IS what I have begun! I have never done miniature punch needle. I had to buy a new punch needle. The needle is the width of a large needle you get an injection with from the doctor or nurse! Very small! Very time consuming. 😵 I am NOT doing my pansies in these colors however. That also took me a looooong time to figure out the colors, let me tell you!! I am doing pastel pinks and lavenders. 😁 I am really, really restricting how long I work on the project. I only allow myself to punch one thread, then I get up and do something else. Pain is not fun.

Here is my 🍀March Corner Shelf🍀

☘️Irish Flossie☘️ I made this cute, little flat ornament to hang from my corner shelf.

 I thought Flossie's nice red coat would look cute with green bows. I stitched her up with GA and DMC on 28ct pale green evenweave, two over two.

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Emerson has the frame for my God Bless America Sampler right now. It is a barn wood frame. He will cut it to the perfect size for me. I will make him a nice dinner and dessert. When I get that back and framed I will show you.

It is snowing here today. We have about three inches on the ground so far this morning. 

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13

I hope you have a wonderful weekend my friends. If you have stopped by today, thank you. If you are leaving me a comment, bless you! I know I am very sporadic in posting nowadays. Thank you for hanging in there with me. Take care my friends. Until next time!

Stitching and praying,

Vickie

Happy Valentine's Day!

 Hi friends! Happy Valentine's Day! 💕 Here is my corner shelf full of love. February Corner Shelf💕💌

Here are a few other February decorations.

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Our cross stitch group finally had our Christmas party and gift exchange. You all were correct. Lisa does love the sewing box I made her and I am very glad.

These are the lovely gifts I received from my dear friend Colette. 

The little piece she stitched for me is by Prairie Schooler and is called Still Life. I love it on that PTP Shadow 40ct linen. Just gorgeous! 

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This is what I finished last night.           🐩💕Hearts for Ronny💕🐩by Fox and Rabbit. 

This is a modified, pared down version of the pattern, given to me by my dear friend RoseAnn. You may have guessed I changed the colors of the poodles to look like Henry and Flossie? Correct! 😊 I stitched this one over one on 28ct pink Meran Linen with the called for DMC and my own choice of fancy flosses for my poodles. 😁 The backing fabric and ribbon are from my stash.

I baked gingerbread Flossies last night. Ha! I had a dog head cookie cutter. I bent it and reshaped it. I think it worked out fairly well to resemble a poodle head now.

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I am back to stitching on God Bless America again.

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”  John 13:34-35

I hope you have a wonderful day my friends, filled with LOVE! I am grateful for YOU and thank you for stopping by here today.

Stitching and praying,

Vickie

I gave Flossie a haircut. I tried to get a picture afterwards. How funny. When I want a picture of Henry, he is not usually very cooperative. Now I could not get him out of the way! Well once I pulled out treats, I just had to be fast!🤪

❤️Our Home Sewing Box❤️

 Hi friends! It is warming up a bit here. The huge mounds of snow are slowly melting. HOORAY!

💘February Cubby Shelf Display💘 Almost all of these are stitched over one.

I totally forgot to share that I pinned and prepared my BBD Our Lasting Friendship sampler for framing at the beginning of January. 

I found a thrifted frame at Goodwill for $9. 

Emerson cut it to size for me and I secured the sampler in and finished the back off with brown paper. 

I am very happy with our efforts.

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Every year in our stitch group, we draw names in August. The name you draw is the person you will create a Christmas gift for. We always hold our Christmas party on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, because RoseAnn in our group still works, and she works for the government. Since she has off on that day, we schedule it for that day so we can all be together to exchange and celebrate. Well this year on Martin Luther King Jr Day our weather was extremely cold. So cold that we decided to cancel our party. The high that day was 3 degrees. With the wind chill it was minus 23! So our party is happening on our usual get together Thursday, February 8th.

Let me start by saying, I am confident that she does not look at my blog. This is a very special gift I created for Lisa in our stitch group. 

This is❤️Our Home Sewing Box❤️by Blackbird Designs. 

I stitched this one over two on 35ct tea dyed linen with the called for flosses.

This is the first time I painted and waxed a paper mache box. Madeleine tinted the paint to match Crescent Colours Calico Kitty for me. 😊

I pulled a few motifs from the sampler and created a small pin pillow. I backed it with Moda fabric from my stash that matched perfectly. I then created two pins for it.

I have been waiting months to give this to Lisa! I can't wait to see her face when she opens her gift.

I am working on God Bless America, but also a few other small pieces in between. I will be sharing those soon!

Are you stitching Valentines? This is my biggest display season. I have THE most pink! Imagine that! 😂 I told myself, No. You are not going to stitch for Valentine's Day this year. Um. Yes. I am stitching one. Just one. Ha.

But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” 1Corinthians 2:9

I hope you have a wonderful weekend my friends! Thanks for stopping by today. 💕

Stitching and praying,

Vickie