Calendar Poodle SAL

Monday, July 30, 2012

Blah!

Hey everybody! How are you today? I am hoping your doing better than me! I felt weird, nauseous last night. I am glad I was fine for Madeleine's birthday party with our family.


Not the best picture, but you get the idea right? Four layers of white cake, dyed two different colors of pink. All frosted with "Mr. Brown's Italian Meringue Buttercream Frosting". A family favorite. So she officially turns 14 tomorrow. :)

So before I went to bed last night I threw up 3 times. :( Still not feeling so great today. Taking lots of naps with sweet Mabel.


Did not mention this, but she jumped off of the couch last week. Madeleine placed her up there and forgot. The vet said it is time to have a family talk. So we did. He said her jumping off the couch is like us jumping off the roof of our home. Her going up and down the stairs all day cannot happen. As in ever. Each step to her is like a 3 foot step for us he says. She needs to be lifted on and off the porch too.  The only options for her now is to go on the steroids and muscle relaxants when she has an "episode". We obviously hope these are few and far between. He did tell me she will gain weight. We of course hate this. He said she either lives plump, or she will end up paralyzed and then euthanized. I am summarizing this for you. He is wonderful and kind.

Haven't stitched in a day. I will when I feel better. I still need to finish the Garden Party into a pin pillow.

Napping and praying,
Vickie

Saturday, July 28, 2012

W.O.W.!! A Huge Giveaway Win From Peggy Lee

Hey everybody! Cool opening ceremonies for the Olympics yesterday huh? I just received in the mail yesterday a very big gift from Peggy. She had a giveaway, and boy did she give away!



Let the pink goodness begin! These beautiful, wood, like balsa I believe, roses are now residing in my big, wood bowl with my smalls, and the pink flower June sent me.


She sent a box of Itty Bitty Buddy Biscuits for Mabel. So sweet. I am happy to say she loves them. Maybe a little too much! ;) Two notepads with Bible verses on them. :) Beautiful notecards. These things were stuffed in that little corn meal bag. It is a perfect sized project pouch for me right now.


Strawberry preserves from Kentucky. My kids have asked for it for their toast this morning. :)  Three fat quarters of pink fabric has already been added to my evergrowing pink fabric collection. Beautiful pink scrapbook papers. You should have seen the kids and Brian's faces when I undid the drawstring on that little burlap sack. I could see it was crushed walnut shells right away. They all looked very puzzled. "What is it?!"


Look at this cool, little sewing basket. Do you see the wonderful things Peggy made for me? And even counting pins too. I now own two pair of scissors. Look! They are pink.♥ Madeleine wanted them, but no! Mama wants them. :) Even a poodle!


Pink trim, buttons, measuring tape, and the cool measuring tape trim. This little basket is really neat. I can see a small stitched piece mounted on top. :)


Wonderfulness that makes me think of Peggy.


Wow! This pattern is awesome. The flosses and 36 ct Toasted Coconut linen from Tree of Life Samplings. Very pretty.


More floss, and 4 fantastic charts!! I was so excited over this, I was so moved, I almost cried. I want to thank you once again Peggy Lee AND Master Chief!! How thoughtful, kind and generous you are! My husband, my three children, and I were all stunned. I am NOT exaggerating at all. Wanna know something great? I know you have experienced it yourself. This wonderful thing has allowed Peggy and I to get to know each other better. It is very nice to follow all of you. But is even better to get to KNOW some of you!

I hope you all have a great weekend. I still feel a little like I am floating around on a cloud. Such a warm, fuzzy feeling to know someone took such care JUST FOR YOU. It has been in the 80's here. It did rain a few days last week. The pond has filled again. HOORAY! I will be making a birthday cake for Madeleine today. Party with family tomorrow. Her birthday is the 31st. She will be 14. :)

Thanks for all of your wonderful comments ladies. You are such nice people.

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Friday, July 27, 2012

The Poodle Wall

Hey everybody! It has rained for a few days here! Hip,hip hooray! The pond has filled again!! :) The grass is greening up. My pink zinnias are finally blooming.♥


I had a request from Carol a while back to share pictures of my poodle needlepoint collection. It started out simply. With this little vintage,grey beauty you see above. I found her on ebay. She was stitched, but the background was not. So I did a little reading and taught myself to needlepoint. I filled in the background with a cream color.

I found this sweet little one on ebay also. It was a vintage, unopened needlepoint kit.  She makes me laugh. She looks like she is chewing bubble gum and getting ready to blow a bubble!



Now this one was also found on ebay and I love it! Do you see the heart stitched into the back leg? We bought this from Sweden. They had it listed as "vintage swedish flemish poodle tapestry sweden". Well, not quite, but it is old. How old who knows. It is unusual.


I know, sweet right? Bought him on etsy. He was mounted in a hoop. I put him into this frame instead. So this is punchneedled I do believe. I have yet to get my punchneedle out and try it. :(


You'll remember the Mabel look-alike I just got for my birthday. Well, I had to remove many staples from this one. They stapled right into the needlepoint! There are some stains light are mild, but there on the bottom. It is also missing 2 or 3 stitches on the bottom left corner. Why? I don't know. I was looking for a long tail of yarn on the backside to do repairs with. No such luck. I just left it as imperfect as it is. She looks a lot like Mabel. The frame I just found last week at Good Will. $1.99! It was brand new in the package, but sprayed a goldtone. It is a nice wood frame. I had prayed before I went to Salvation Army and then Good Will. I asked God to please provide a frame, as we don't have extra spending money right now. And then this find! This frame is 13'x13". Not common at all. I am so thankful to God for it. I picked up some :"linen" colored craft paint from JoAnn. Painting a wood frame is a pain in the rear end. But the end results are pretty good.


This last one I purchased with birthday money also. It is very different. It came framed and cheap too!


The collection, as it hangs in our pale, yellow kitchen. Our Jacob is less than thrilled with his mother's choice of collecting. He loves Mabel. Just doesn't love poodles, poodles, everywhere poodles! ;)

That's all for today folks. I am very, very close to finishing the Brightneedle Garden Party.

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Monday, July 23, 2012

This Is Where It Started

Hey everybody! A blessed good morning to you! So, this is where the love of poodles all began.

"Me& Julio"

Here I am with Julio, our silver toy poodle. I would have been almost 5 years old. We are in our backyard, in front of the pear tree and pool. Julio was adopted by us as an adult. We didn't have him for all that long. As you can see we loved him to bits.


Doesn't he look cool in his baby blue and white hat with baby blue rhinestone color too?! Very seventies!


Sweet Mabel

Mabel was a black 2 lb puppy when we bought her three years ago. She is grey now, with a bit of silver.



This is the cake I made on Friday for Emerson's 16th birthday. He wanted a yellow cake with white frosting and this kind of design in chocolate frosting. :)

I am stitching on Brightneedle's Garden Party. It is a cute stitch. I had to change two floss colors so they would be more visible on the light sand linen.

Stitching and praying and barely reading,
Vickie

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Gifts from June!!

Hey everybody! How are you today? Are you roasting like we are up here in Wisconsin? Or are you swimming in rain like our friends overseas? It was 105° yesterday, with a hot breeze. We can just see the pond in the park from our back yard. (There is a park behind our back yard.) All five of us decided to go to the pond after dinner last night to see if the animals are surviving. Not good news.

The pond has a narrow strip of raised land between the two sides. It really almost creates two ponds. A small part of it is usually submersed.We have seen it submersed entirely twice during very, very rainy weather. Well the water level is down about 4 or 5 feet in the pond. So much so, that the east side is gone. Dried up! Completely. Like Death Valley.

Here you can see the two divided sides.


Depressing? Sad? Hot? Yes!!!!! We spent at least 20 minutes down in that pond bed rescuing baby toads. I thought they were frogs. Jacob tells me they are toads. He is probably correct. They were they size of your thumb nail. Hopping around, very confused. The boys would scoop them up and take them over to the other side that is still there, for now! We will be checking in on them again today, as it is supposed to be about 110°! Yucko! We found so many tadpoles and little, tiny fish that were dead.


There are still turtles and big bullfrogs, and the little toads. We have a 40% chance of thunderstorms tonight. I pray it is so.

It is not all doom and gloom today. Yesterday I received the most wonderful package in the mail. It came all the way over the ocean from our dear friend June. She had a giveaway this last month. She entered your name every time you commented for a few weeks. Well, I have commented every, single time June posts since I have been one of her followers since way back when. June is such a lovely lady and a dear friend.♥ 


This is how she wrapped it. Pink goodness! I am sure you can guess I was excited. I carefully peeled off those two stickers. Madeleine's favorite color is also pink and she loves owls. She is going to reuse those stickers in her scrapbook.


You can see the beautiful card she sent me. It is a wonderful British painting on the front. Just look at those stickers. :) Pink poodles! Isn't that a lovely fabric flower? And dusty rose fabric with white polka dots.


Are ya seeing the pink goodness here? Sweet little note cards, a lovely sachet. Look at the sequins, ribbons, trims, and buttons. The butterfly tissues are so June. They seem too pretty to use. A quick little stitch kit too. :) The pretty pink coaster is already in use.

Thank you dear June. You are so thoughtful and clever. I appreciate this gift. I appreciate YOU! ♥

Well, I chose the linen and made my run to JoAnn for floss. I put just a dozen or so stitches in last night. I will definitely have time to stitch today. I need to get outside shortly to water my garden. It is already 79°!! It is not even 8:00 a.m.! Another day to hide inside with the A/C.  Take care of yourselves. Keep cool. Or dry as the case may be! HA!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Monday, July 16, 2012

The Poodle Magnet Is Finished

Hey everybody! How are you today? I hope you are having a terrific day. Hello new followers! So glad you joined us.

Take a look at this little beauty. ;)



Yes, another bottle cap poodle magnet. This little sweetie was taken from my own book House & Garden Samplers by Mary Jenkins. I used the Crescent Colours Milady's Teal (variegated grey) floss. I stitched her one over one on 32 ct Antique Pink linen. I sewed on the hand dyed ric rac trim I recently won from Nancy.


If you look very closely at the magnet picture you may be able to see the variegation of the ric rac. Sorry I did not realize the pics don't show it off. It is great. I love it. I put it to use right away Nancy. Thanks again Nancy!


These lovely gifts are from my friend Annette. She is going through a very rough time right now with her mom. Please keep Annette in your prayers. :) You can see one of Annette's personal business cards in front. Can you believe the variegated DMC floss is one I do not have? I have many, many DMC pinks!!  I will try the Peach Tea. :) Look at the lovely little envelope it came in. I have never received a handmade card before. What a talented lady.♥

So now that the magnet is done, I am on to another stitch. I know what pattern it will be, just having difficulty picking the linen for it. I am working from my stash. I have to! Then I will need to be off to JoAnn for the missing DMC.

I have just begun a new book, Lady in Waiting by Susan Meissner. So far it is interesting. I am not very far! ;)

More junk weather has begun this past weekend. 100+° temperatures are here for a while with no rain again. :(  I hope it is cooler by you. And green! The grass is so brittle here. A yucky yellowish brown.

Getting ready to stitch and praying,
Vickie


Thursday, July 12, 2012

The 11 Things Thingy

Hey everybody! It is "only" going to be in the upper 90's today! We have been wanting to go to the Milwaukee County Zoo for weeks. It has always been something getting in the way. Well we are just doing it this afternoon. :)


I have been tagged by Melissa. The Rules: 
Post these rules. 
You must post 11 random things about yourself. 
Answer the questions set for you in their post. 
Create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer. 
Go to their blog and tell them you’ve tagged them. No stuff in the tagging section about you are tagged if you are reading this. You legitimately have to tag 11 people.

11 Random things about me:

1.  I am 5'11"
2.  I am a Christian
3.  I had a silver toy poodle named Julio as a girl.
4.  I am a chocoholic
5.  I danced ballet as a teen
6.  I have a Certified Veterinary Technician/Veterinary Nurse degree
7.  I don't like coffee, I don't like tea, I do like chai lattes.
8.  I have 3 younger brothers, I am the oldest
9.  My youngest brother,Jonathan, is a  McDonald's Monopoly Millionaire
10. I have green eyes
11. I asked my husband "to go out" 26 years ago. ;)

My answers to the questions from Melissa:


1. What is the thing you cannot stitch without besides your needle, thread and fabric ;) ?
     Mabel♥
2. What is your favourite stitching theme?
     poodles :)
3. What are your favourite cross stitch designers? 
     La D Da, Plum Street Samplers, Sweetheart Tree, Prairie Schooler
4. Do you have any 'least' favourite designers?
     Lizzy Kate
5. Which do you prefer, Hand Dyed Floss/Fabric or traditional store bought Floss/Fabric, such as DMC products.
     traditional store bought linen and good old DMC
6. What are your other hobbies?
     quilting, gardening, reading
7. What is your favourite magazine, cross stitch or other.
     Just Cross Stitch, Cross Stitch and Needlework, Country Living, Martha  Stewart Living, Southern Living, American Patchwork & Quilting Magazine, Quilt Magazine, Quilter's Newsletter
8. What is your favourite TV show?
     I do not watch T.V. at all
9. If you could be a character from this show who would it be and why?
     I just gotta be me I guess!
10. What country do you live in?
        The U.S. of A.
11. If you could move anywhere in the world where would it be and why?
      Back to Greendale, Wisconsin!! Because, as my good friend Dorothy likes to say, "There's no place like home."♥
 
Here are my 11 taggees:
Kathy Ellen at A Stitcher's Heirlooms
Janet at Happy Stitching
 
My questions for my taggees: 


1. Do you own any antique stitching?
2. Are you a collector of anything?
3. Where in your own country would be a dream vacation for you?
4. What is the worst job you ever had?
5. What is the most awesome wild animal you ever encountered?
6. Do you have a special or unique talent?
7. Dark chocolate or milk chocolate?
8. What is your favorite dessert?
9. Who are your favorite authors?
10. What color is your bedroom?
11. Have you ever fallen asleep in church?

Crazy Daisy
 I am stitching on 32 ct antique pink linen right now. Another new poodle magnet. ;)
Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Poodle treats

Hey everybody! Hope your day is a super one thus far. Hello new followers. So glad you found me. Thank you ladies for the sweet comments, you brighten my day. :)

So this is what I just finished off a few minutes ago.

Poodle Treats Basket Band

I thought a small cross stitch band for Mabel's treat basket in the kitchen would be cute. The small sitting poodle I found here. I adapted it a bit to my liking. I have used this motif a few times before. The poodle jumping through the hoop was found here. This would be an antique pattern which I think is awesome. Again I tweaked it a bit. Left off the clown also.


I stitched it on 32 count white linen, 2 over 2. This would be my first time using crescent colors floss. The color is called Milady's Teal. I have no idea at all why. It is a variegated grey floss. Mabel is sort of a variegated grey herself! ;)

Simple and cute! How do you like my Italian spaghetti poodle? I love that neck on him. :)  And the treat basket?  When you own a little barrel chested, begging toy poodle, you need to keep her slim. We don't give her regular dog treats.


Plain rice cakes that we break up. Exciting right? Delicious, no? Yucko!! But guess who does tricks for them? She even lets me pluck the hair out of her ears for them! Silly girl just loooves food.♥

That's it for today. Onto another stitch. Any guesses as to the next subject?

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Monday, July 9, 2012

Who Won?

Hey everybody! If you recall, yesterday I shared my Bent Creek Bunny Tuffet finish. I forgot to get a picture of the back for you. Here you go.


The wonderful pink daylily it is resting next to is called 'Elizabeth Shooter' if I remember correctly. We bought it about 8 years ago. It has lived with us at three different houses. I am like that. I have dug up quite a few plants and brought them with us to each house. Mainly the chocolate collection.


Can you read who the winner of the Christmas Friends chart is? Yes! Calamity Jr. So Mary Jane I need your address please. If you would email me with that I will get it out right away. :)


Well, I am working on a little something right now that I have been trying to plan out in my mind. I checked out one book from the library and found the font I want for the lettering. I have been digging through my freebie charts for just the right motifs. I found the right linen and pulled the flosses. Started stitching it last night. Just a small project. Hope it turns out as I envision it. You'll see.

May the Lord watch over you, keep you and bless you.♥

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Bent Creek Bunny Finish

Hey everybody! Wanna see what I did yesterday?

Bent Creek Bunny Log Cabin Tuffet

Isn't it wonderful?! I just love the way it turned out! Exactly the way I had envisioned it. Brian had bought me Sweet Liberty- Tuffets last year from our quilt shop here in town. It is a collection of  7 pincushion patterns. I had not made any of them yet. But I knew I wanted to finish this little guy into a log cabin finish. In pink to coordinate with that flower of course. ;)


Oh man! I just realized I did not take a picture of the back for you. :( And I fussy cut some very pretty pink rose fabric too! Maybe I will still get a picture and show you tomorrow. Because tomorrow I will be drawing the name of a stitcher for the giveaway. Come back tomorrow to see the picture okay? Find out who won while you are here too! :)

Hello new followers! So glad to have you. I hope every single one of my readers has a fabulous evening now.

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Another Finish

Hey everybody! Did you know they have red heart fireworks? Or smiley faced ones with green eyes (hooray!) and red mouths? Cool!! It reached 111 degrees yesterday. :( More of the same today.

After finishing my patriotic finish yesterday, I decided to finish another piece before beginning another stitch.

Christmas Friends, 2 over 2 on 32ct lambswool linen

 I really like the way this turned out with the fabric that Nataly sent me along with this pattern I won from her. If you would like to stitch this too, go here.

The tape fell off of my nose last night. For what I went through, the scars are fairly small. I will keep applying the scar plus sunblock cream for months. My nose is still extremely sensitive though. The problem is I wear glasses and the pressure is constant and bad. We are headed back to the doctor who taped my nose today. Emerson's forearm hurts. He took a fall from his skateboard! :( I will ask the doctor when or if this pain/pressure is going to go away. Maybe it is still too soon. I hope so. I do not want to live with this constant painful nose.

Have a fabulous day whatever you are doing friends! Welcome to my new followers. I am so glad you found me. Thanks for all of your loving comments everyone. They have meant so much to me through all of this. You ladies are the best!!

Stitching, maybe more finishing, barely reading and praying,
Vickie

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Happy Fourth!

Hey everybody! Happy Fourth to you! We went to our local parade and fireworks last night. We braved the major heat. The parade was at 7:00 and it was still in the upper 90's. We needed to do something fun. My nose continues to heal. The tape is still on. Our hearts will begin to heal as well.

Yankee Poodle, 2over2 on 28ct blue meran linen

Hey! You couldn't guess this would be my patriotic finish?! HA! I love it! I finished stitching this two days ago, but did not finish it up into a pin pillow until today. You can find the free pattern here. It is from Paulette Stewart. I have had this in my stash for quite a while. It needed to be done. :) I was going to add some red trim, but decided against it. I like it too much this way.


I found this great fabric last year at our quilt shop in town.

This is my wonderful gift I received from Michelle yesterday.

The perfectly matched beautiful fabric on the back. With her sweet little card. I love it. AND I have nothing like this. :) Thank you Michelle.♥

Milk Chocolate Daylily
Stay safe everyone. I don't know about your weather but this is the hottest we have ever had, I think in my life here in our little corner of Wisconsin. It is right now 109.4!!!! Aaahhh! Help! Yucko!
Do not forget to enter the giveaway here.

Stitching and praying,
Vickie