Australian Gifts

Hi friends! I began Valentine Rose. I am not sure I should have included the eyelet stitches in the roof of the house. You really cannot see them and now the roof appears messy to me. :(  Well, now I know. Stitching these samplers one over one present different challenges!

I did change the floss color of the roof.  3781 was the DMC recommended. Way off from the pattern picture. So I did a floss toss and chose 632. Which seems much lighter in the below picture, but as you can see above, looks a bit darker once stitched up as the roof. I used CC Clay Pot for the bricks in this pattern because I already had it in my stash. It was a gift from our friend Anne. :) I love the way it is turning out.

I went back and added the chimneys to the house in Snow Garden. As I stitched the border to Valentine Rose, I glanced over to Snow Garden and it hit me! I forgot the two chimneys! No one noticed or said anything. ha! Well, it is fixed and all better now. :)

Look what arrived in the mail this week all the way from Australia from  our friend Kaye. She had a giveaway in which I won these sweet Margaret Sherry charts. Kaye included a few extra goodies.

Isn't this bunny pillow she stitched up just darling? This kookaburra tea bag rest was admired by us all and will be put to use by us all! Thank you dear Kaye!

So now I have read book 8 in the Maisie Dobbs series, A Lesson in Secrets. Good read? You betcha!

From New York Times bestselling author Jacqueline Winspear, now available in paperback— the latest episode in the New York Times bestselling series, Maisie Dobbs’ first assignment for the British Secret Service takes her undercover to Cambridge as a professor, and leads to the investigation of a web of activities being conducted by the emerging Nazi party.
Private investigator Maisie Dobbs receives her first assignment from the British Secret Service in A Lesson in Secrets, the eighth book in Jacqueline Winspear’s award-winning mystery series. Sent to pose as a junior lecturer at a private college in Cambridge, she will monitor any activities “not in the interests of His Majesty’s government.” When the college’s pacifist founder is murdered, Maisie finds herself in the midst of sinister web of murder, scandal, and conspiracy, activities that point towards members of the ascendant Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei—the Nazi Party—on Britain’s shores. An instant classic, and sure to captivate long-time Maisie Dobbs fans as well as readers of Agatha Christie, Elizabeth George, and Alexander McCall Smith, A Lesson in Secrets is “a powerful and complex novel, one that will linger in memory as a testament to her talent and her humanity” (Richmond Times-Dispatch).

 Murphy got his haircut by Mary yesterday.You can see his picture down below. He has a few extra chin hairs she was not able to get. Wonder why? Think teeth! Mary says he is fast for an old man! YOU DON'T SAY! HA! I KNOW!! I  have scars on my hands to show it! At least she did not get bit. I will trim up his chin at some point. He looks good for a 13 1/2 year old poodle, right?! 🐩

I want to thank you for stopping by and visiting with me. It is so nice of you to leave me a comment to brighten my day. Thank you so much! I do hope you have a wonderful weekend my friends!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie