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Hi friends! Today is Madeleine's 19th birthday! We had a party with family for her yesterday. I made a chocolate cake with pink buttercream icing.😘

I have a finish to share with you. I stitched up a gift for our Jacob's girlfriend, Claire's birthday.

This is a freebie pattern from Luli you can find RIGHT HERE I stitched this two over two with DMC 818. I used a nice script I found and added their names. I stitched the names one over one with DMC 3713. This is 32ct lambswool linen. I still have to find a nice frame for this. I have a few days yet.

I have begun stitching up the next AotH pattern, which is Swan Lake. I find this one sooooooo pretty. And it does not even have pink!😲

I finished reading Jane and the Barque of Frailty by Stephanie Barron. I have yet to be disappointed by one book in this series. Stephanie is a very good author. She writes so very well, you believe it is Jane who wrote these books. I could not figure this mystery out. It kept me guessing all the way until the very end.
In her latest spellbinding escapade, Jane Austen arrives in London to watch over the printing of her first novel, and finds herself embroiled in a crime that could end more than her career. For it is up to Jane to tease a murderer out of the ton, lest she—and her country—suffer a dastardly demise.…

On the heels of completing Sense and Sensibility, Jane heads to Sloane Street for a monthlong visit with her brother Henry and his wife, Eliza. Hobnobbing with the Fashionable Great at the height of the Season, Jane is well aware of their secrets and peccadilloes. But even she is surprised when the intimate correspondence between a Russian princess and a prominent Tory minister is published in the papers for all to see. More shocking, the disgraced beauty is soon found with her throat slit on Lord Castlereagh’s very doorstep.

Everyone who’s anyone in high society is certain the spurned princess committed the violence upon herself. But Jane is unconvinced. Nor does she believe the minister guilty of so grisly and public a crime. Jane, however, is willing to let someone else investigate—until a quirk of fate thrusts her and Eliza into the heart of the case…as prime suspects!

Striking a bargain with the authorities, Jane secures seven days to save herself and Eliza from hanging. But as her quest to unmask a killer takes her from the halls of government to the drawing rooms of London’s most celebrated courtesan, only one thing is sure: her failure will not only cut short her life. It could lead to England’s downfall. A compulsively readable, uncommonly elegant novel of historical suspense, Jane and the Barque of Frailty once again proves Jane Austen a sleuth to be reckoned with.

In case you did not know, I am having a Nora Corbett pattern giveaway. You can get in on the giveaway RIGHT HERE

And finally, guess what?! Little Henry who many of you have been rooting for, has made progress with Murphy. Yes, it is true!! Now it is not much progress, but it is progress. I have not discussed Murphy on this blog a whole lot. How shall I describe his personality? He is almost 14 years old now. He is quite set in his ways. He is extremely attached to me. Wherever I am, Murphy is. As in he must come into the bathroom with me.😐 I love Murphy. I do, but not in the way I love Henry or even Mabel. I just cannot help it. He cannot be fully trusted. If I want to trim his nails or brush him out, he must be muzzled. I have never had a dog like that. I know you must expect all things when you rescue a dog. And so here we are. Every day things, he is perfect. Brian says he could care less about the whole world as long as he has mama. Murphy is a grumpy, old man. There you go. That sums it up. He likes love, but not too, too much. So our cuddling and extra loving needs to be with our tiny 6 pound Henry.😚 Now there is a poodle who was born to cuddle. He looooves it! And that was my point! Good grief. I got off track here.

I was making buttercream frosting for Madeleine's birthday cake and looked down and surprise, surprise! Henry did it! He got into Murphy's bed and Murphy finally stayed and allowed Henry to stay.

Not exactly cuddling, but they are together in one bed. Notice Murphy is NOT looking?😉Maybe if he does not look, it is not really happening.

Stitching and praying,
Vickie