Calendar Poodle SAL

Friday, September 28, 2018

🐩🐩🐩

Hi friends! I received such an awesome surprise in the mail this week. All the way from Italy! Let me show you.
Our friend Ele from Busy Hands Craft blog crocheted this for me!!! Isn't she awesome!! Look how large she is!! I have named her Elena after Ele.😊 I just love her blushing cheeks and her pom pom tail and trim. Oh my! The love and work that went into making this girl!! Thank you so very much my friend for this precious gift.

And do you see the PINK poodle cross stitch card she also cross stitched me?! I love it. I have never seen that pattern. AWESOME!
How fitting that I am going to tell you about a series of books by a favorite author of mine who is Italian. She is EXTREMELY talented. I highly recommend any of her books.Her name is Adriana Trigiani. The series is: Big Stone Gap, Big Cherry Holler, Milk Glass Moon, and Home to Big Stone Gap. You should read them in order. Just a wonderful series. I listened to all these books on audio. The first three were read by the author. So cool. Loved that. Then the last one was not. That took me a while to get into. After you binge listen to the first three and are totally used to the author's voice, it is hard to accept a new voice.
Big Stone Gap
It's 1978 and 35-year-old Ave Maria Mulligan is the self-proclaimed spinster of Big Stone Gap, Virginia, a sleepy hamlet in the Blue Ridge Mountains.  As the local pharmacist, she's been keeping the townfolks' secrets for years, but she's about to discover a skeleton in her own family's tidy closet that will blow the lid right off her quiet, uneventful life.  Soon she finds herself juggling two marriage proposals, conducting a no-holds-barred family feud, directing the prestigious Outdoor Drama and keeping the town's dysfunctional Rescue Squad on its toes.

The crazy-quilt of characters includes Jack MacChesney ("Jack Mac" to his friends), the stoic miner with coal dust on his hands but love in his heart; Iva Lou Wade, the sexpot Bookmobile librarian; Theodore Tipton, band leader extraordinaire; Preacher Elmo Gaspar, the snake-handling Freewill Baptist; and Pearl Grimes, a coal-miner's daughter on the verge of a miraculous transformation, thanks to Ave's intervention.
BIG CHERRY HOLLER, the extraordinary sequel to BIG STONE GAP, takes us back to the mountain life that enchanted us in Adriana Trigiani’s best selling debut novel. It’s been eight years since the town pharmacist and long time spinster Ave Maria Mulligan married coal miner Jack MacChesney. With her new found belief in love and its possibilities, Ave Maria makes a life for herself and her growing family, hoping that her fearless leap into commitment will make happiness stay. What she didn’t count on was that fate, life, and the ghosts of the past would come to haunt her and, eventually, test the love she has for her husband. The mountain walls that have protected her all of her life can not spare Ave Maria the life lessons she must learn.
Big Cherry Holler
BIG CHERRY HOLLER is the story of a marriage, revealing the deep secrets, the power struggle, the betrayal and the unmet expectations that exist between husband and wife. It is the story of a community that must reinvent itself as it comes to grips with the decline of the coal mining industry. It is the story of an extended family, the people of Big Stone Gap, who are there for one another especially when times are toughincluding bookmobile librarian and sexpert Iva Lou Wade Makin, savvy businesswoman Pearl Grimes, crusty cashier Fleeta Mullins, and Rescue Squad captain Spec Broadwater, who faces the complications of his double life. Ave Maria’s best friend Theodore Tipton, now band director at the University of Tennessee, continues to be her chief counselor and conscience as he reaches the pinnacle of marching band success. 

When Ave Maria takes her daughter to Italy for the summer, she meets a handsome stranger who offers her a life beyond the Blue Ridge Mountains. Ave Maria is forced to confront what is truly important: to her, to her marriage, and to her family. Brimming with humor, wisdom, honesty, and the drama and local color of mountain life from Virginia to Italy, BIG CHERRY HOLLER is a deeply felt, brilliantly evoked story of two lovers who have lost their way and their struggle to find one another again.
Milk Glass Moon
Milk Glass Moon, the third book in Adriana Trigiani's bestselling Big Stone Gap series, continues the life story of Ave Maria Mulligan MacChesney as she faces the challenges and changes of motherhood with her trademark humor and honesty. With twists as plentiful as those found on the holler roads of southwest Virginia, this story takes turns that will surprise and enthrall the reader.

Transporting us from Ave Maria's home in the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Italian Alps, from New York City to the Tuscan countryside, Milk Glass Moon is the story of a shifting mother-daughter relationship, of a daughter's first love and a mother's heartbreak, of an enduring marriage that contains its own ongoing challenges, and of a community faced with seismic change.

All of Trigiani's beloved characters are back: Jack Mac, Ave Maria's true love, who is willing to gamble security for the unknown; her best friend and confidant, bandleader Theodore Tip-ton, who begins a new life in New York City; librarian and sexpert Iva Lou Wade Makin, who faces a life-or-death crisis. Meanwhile, surprises emerge in the blossoming of crusty cashier Fleeta Mullins, the maturing of mountain girl turned savvy businesswoman Pearl Grimes, and the return of Pete Rutledge, the handsome stranger who turned Ave Maria's world upside down in Big Cherry Holler

In this rollicking hayride of upheaval and change, Ave Maria is led to places she never dreamed she would go, and to people who enter her life and rock its foundation. As Ave Maria reaches into the past to find answers to the present, readers will stay with her every step of the way, rooting for the onetime town spinster who embraced love and made a family. Milk Glass Moon is about the power of love and its abiding truth, and captures Trigiani at her most lyrical and heartfelt.
Home to Big Stone Gap
Millions of readers around the world have fallen in love with the novels of the New York Times bestselling author Adriana Trigiani. In Home to Big Stone Gap, she tells her most powerful story yet, full of humor and heart, wisdom and hope.

Nestled in the lush Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, the town of Big Stone Gap has been home for Ave Maria Mulligan Machesney and her family for generations. She’s been married to her beloved Jack for nearly twenty years, raised one child and buried another, and run a business that binds her community together, all while holding her tight circle of family and friends close. 

But with her daughter, Etta, having flown the nest to enchanting Italy, Ave Maria has reached a turning point. When a friend’s postcard arrives with the message “It’s time to live your life for you,” Ave Maria realizes that it’s time to go in search of brand-new dreams. But before she can put her foot on the path, her life is turned upside down. 

Ave Maria agrees to helm the town musical, a hilarious reunion of local talent past and present. A lifelong friendship collapses when a mysterious stranger comes to town and reveals a long-buried secret. An unexpected health crisis threatens her family. An old heartthrob reappears, challenging her marriage and offering a way out of her troubles. An opportunistic coal company comes to town and threatens to undermine the town’s way of life and the mountain landscape Ave Maria has treasured since she was a girl. Now she has no choice but to reinvent her world, her life, and herself, whether she wants to or not. 
Trigiani is at her best in this exquisite page-turner. Home to Big Stone Gap is an emotional and unforgettable journey that reminds us that you can go home again and again. 
I hope you have a super weekend my friends! I am still going to the physical therapist twice week. I see Leigh(my original therapist) half of the appointment  times and I am glad. She does super massage work. I am hoping this gets rid of the lingering problem in my neck.

Take care.  Til next time.

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Monday, September 24, 2018

October Wreath

Hi friends! Slowly but surely I have gotten the October wreath done for the cubby shelf. It is hard when I am only stitching for 10 minutes at a time due to this strained neck. Here it is.
The French designer, at Trésors de boîtes à couture says these are cyclamen. I am not feeling it. I still love this wreath. I think it is very pretty. If you like it also, you can find the pattern HERE.

I never did show you my September cubby shelf display and here September is almost over!🙄

Since we have moved to this apartment one year ago from our home, it has been a challenge for me to find SPACE to display my cross stitch. I know the time will come once our three young adult children move out, but I am not rushing that❣️ For now, space is at a premium around here. I had a light bulb moment the other day.💡 DUH! The top of the cubby shelf is another little shelf!
Okay, Did any of you read The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne? WOW. Just wow. You should read it. Really. This is a book you don't forget. A book with a lesson. An ending you are not expecting.
Berlin, 1942: When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move to a new house far, far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people in the distance.
 
But Bruno longs to be an explorer and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place than meets the eye. While exploring his new environment, he meets another boy whose life and circumstances are very different from his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences.
I am working on designing a little October poodle now.😊

Thank you for your wonderful words of encouragement for myself and Scott and Jenny. Please keep praying for Scott, okay? There has been another complication and he must go back to City of Hope today. Thank you ever so much! God bless you my friends! What a wonderful blessing this cross stitch community is!

Have a fabulous week now. Til next time!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie
Madeleine's Fall Murphy

Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Good Grief!🙄

Hi friends! I am still around,  but having a bit of trouble. I have encountered a setback with my neck. It seems my neck is the weak point in my body. So Bridget tells me. Yes, Bridget. As in this Bridget.
Remember her? My physical therapist? Yes, I am actually back to seeing her.😥 It seems unreal. You won't believe how I injured my neck! I spent several hours with my MIL shopping and out to lunch. She speeds to the red light and takes off very fast at the green light. I am not used to all the jerking around in the car I guess. My neck was rocking back and forth. Bridget said I suffered mini whiplashes that day. So my nerves have been all frazzled since then. A MONTH AGO!! I just can't believe the pain from something so simple! So I will work with her in therapy for a while.

I did call the neurosurgeon's office when my neck pain did not go away after two weeks. I left a message with his assistant explaining what happened and asked if I should go back to PT and if so can he send an order over for me to begin? Since I received an order to begin PT, I guess he feels this is the correct thing for me to do.

I did ask Bridget if something is wrong with me, maybe to do with my neck surgery? She said no, she did not think so. I have suffered a sprain.

I won this adorable T-shirt from the giveaway that RJ and Mary had on their blog STITCHING FRIENDS FOREVER.

Isn't it cute?! I just love it! Thank you so much Peggy for this T-shirt from your wonderful LNS, Crafty Framer and Cross Stitch Store, in Largo, Florida.

Here is the pretty card Mary made me. She also sent these sweet pink coasters as a little extra.

🙏🙏🙏
I have an update for you on our friend Scott. He has had a double craniotomy to remove the two brain tumors. A postoperative MRI has revealed that 0.1% of cancer remains in his brain. Radiation is needed along with chemo to rid him of this. This is very good news!

Scott is now at a rehabilitation  hospital. He is doing physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy. Please pray for him and his family. There is still a long road ahead. Thank you!
🙏🙏🙏
War Brides by Helen Bryan was a good story, but I had a hard time getting into it in the beginning. Also, there are a lot of characters to keep track of.
With war threatening to spread from Europe to England, the sleepy village of Crowmarsh Priors settles into a new sort of normal: Evacuees from London are billeted in local homes. Nightly air raids become grimly mundane. The tightening vice of rationing curtails every comfort. Men leave to fight and die. And five women forge an unlikely bond of friendship that will change their lives forever.
Alice Osbourne, the stolid daughter of the late vicar, is reeling from the news that Richard Fairfax broke their engagement to marry Evangeline Fontaine, an American girl from the Deep South. Evangeline’s arrival causes a stir in the village—but not the chaos that would ensue if they knew her motives for being there. Scrappy Elsie Pigeon is among the poor of London who see the evacuations as a chance to escape a life of destitution. Another new arrival is Tanni Zayman, a young Jewish girl who fled the horrors of Europe and now waits with her newborn son, certain that the rest of her family is safe and bound to show up any day. And then there’s Frances Falconleigh, a madcap, fearless debutante whose father is determined to keep her in the countryside and out of the papers.
As the war and its relentless hardships intensify around them, the same struggles that threaten to rip apart their lives also bring the five closer together. They draw strength from one another to defeat formidable enemies—hunger, falling bombs, the looming threat of a Nazi invasion, and a traitor in their midst—and find remarkable strength within themselves to help their friends. Theirs is a war-forged loyalty that will outlast the fiercest battle and endure years and distance.
When four of the women return to Crowmarsh Priors for a VE Day celebration fifty years later, television cameras focus on the heartwarming story of these old women as war brides of a bygone age, but miss the more newsworthy angle. The women’s mission is not to commemorate or remember—they’ve returned to settle a score and avenge one of their own
I am sorry I do not have stitching to share with you right now. Bridget told me not to stitch for TWO WEEKS NOW! Well, she said don't do needlepoint. So, I guess I can do my cross stitch then?🤣😉I may or may not be sneaking in 10 minute sessions.

Thank you for stopping by today. I hope you have a wonderful day my friends!

Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.  Luke 15:10

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Friday, September 7, 2018

URGENT PRAYER REQUEST

Hi friends! I have some devastating news to share with you. Our dear friend Scott's cancer has spread to his brain. As you can imagine our dear Jenny, his son Andrew and his daughter Emily are all in shock and heart broken.

I am asking any and all of my 406 followers who pray to PLEASE PRAY! Scott, as you can imagine, is in very much pain. And do you know what? Jenny, Andrew, and Emily are too.
Related image
Stitching and praying,
Vickie


Wednesday, September 5, 2018

☀️Summer Postcard☀️

Hi friends! I am taking part in Jo's Summer Postcard Blog Hop.

Each person participating sends her a stitched picture (postcard)  with a message and receives one in return. Here is the lovely postcard I received.
Some of you may recognize this fantastic work, am I right?! Yes, this is from our dear friend RJ.
Click here to go visit RJ's blog

RJ writes:
Greetings from the shore! The weather is perfect, the water warm and the boardwalk is crowded with many people. Having a wonderful time. Wish you were here.
 RJ

If you CLICK HERE you will go to Jo's blog and you can see all the post cards. And see where my postcard went!😉

Blessed be His glorious name forever! And let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen. Psalm 72:19

Stitching and praying,
Vickie


Monday, September 3, 2018

❌❌❌

Hi friends! I completed my first Christmas ornament stitching. It is for Emerson. I am not sure how I will do the finishing yet, but I have a while to think about that don't I?😉
Just perfect for our 22 year old carpenter son right? This is from 501 Cross Stitch Designs by Sam Hawkins. I stitched this two over two with the called for DMC on a mystery 29 count linen.

The next stitchy project I completed is the September Poodle.😊I am really pleased with how this little one turned out.
I thought of you Julie and your love of books. When I stitched this I smiled. I knew you are going to stitch this as one of your little poodles on your bookmark!! How wonderful!

Here is the September Poodle for all of you my friends to stitch up if you like. As always, all of the poodle patterns can be found on my Calendar Poodle SAL Page at the top of my blog. Just click on the tab found there.
Use two strands of 838 to make a French Knot nose. Use one strand of 838 for all backstitching.









Last but not least, I have the winner of the Lizzie Kate A Little Beach pattern.

Image result for lizzie kate a little beach
MARTINA!

I will be back soon with something special. Until then, take care! Thanks for stopping by.

He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.  1John 5:12

Stitching and praying,
Vickie