Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas my fellow Orthodox friends!

I did the finishing on Brian's ornament gift last week. Here it is out in the snow.

I read my first and second books of the year. Both by Ted Dekker. I read Hacker in 36 hours. :) An exciting read. Here is a little snippet for you: "Death isn't death. It's not the end because we aren't just our minds or our bodies. We're far more than just physical beings having a spiritual experience. We're spiritual beings having a temporary physical experience." He paused. "All I know is the reality that's beyond all of this transcends words and comprehension. The only way to grasp it is to let go of our own limited understanding."

Hacker is a modern-day parable that examines the staggering world around us-the seen and the unseen- and reminds us that there's far more to who we are than meets the eye.

The second book was a free,digital short story I had missed. It is a prequel to Mortal. This book was called The Keeper,from 2011. More good stuff. ;) Nope, you won't catch me complaining about Ted's writing. He has written 47 books. I have read 45. I am in the process of trying to acquire The Drummer Boy and The Promise: A Christmas Tale through our library. There is one librarian who works very hard to locate books for you from who-knows-where?!

This is what kept me busy Monday.

It's not easy being a poodle. Or the poodle's groomer. ;) Of course now that little 6 pound Henry is clipped, it is frigid outside. The high today will be -1º with a wind chill of -30º. blech.

Madeleine wrapped a tape measure around Henry's tiny front leg and got a width of 1.5 inches. He is so fragile.

I will be giving Mabel a haircut soon also.

Theotokos is coming along. Picture next time.

I have been baking chocolate chip cookies and breads.

Brian and I are off to Christmas Liturgy this morning. Then we will have a Christmas meal and fellowship in the church basement. I am wearing my long, red corduroy dress and sweater tights! ;)

Keep warm my friends! I thank you for stopping by. I love reading your comments and I appreciate you taking the time to leave one.

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Pink Poodle Gifties!

Hi friends! I decided to allow myself to open June's gift finally. I had to be good and get Christmas preparations going first. ;) Look at these perfect patterns June saved for me from her magazines!

 And I had to get a closeup of this, my favorite one!!! squee!

And are you ready for these gifts?!?

Look at the awesome poodle pattern June has found for me. I have never seen that one! June and I exchanged poppy seeds this year from our gardens. :) You can see the sweet, little calendar she made me on the right. On the left are Angel bookmarks/calendars. I use these every month in all the books I read each year June. :) The sweet embroidered bag at the bottom held the beautiful butterfly pill box filled with pink beads. Thank you so much June. ♥

I did some finishing work on two gift pieces which are now in the mail. One cannot be shown yet, but the other can. This is a magnet I made for my friend Heather. She is the new first grade teacher. I thought a magnet would work very well for her. God bless her. She is very overwhelmed right now.

I made our first Christmas cookies a few days ago. I used a new recipe I just found on Craft Gossip. SO easy and very yummy! When I asked Jacob if I should make these every Christmas then, he said, "NO! Every week! Don't save these just for Christmas!" ;) Here is the link to the Grinch Cookies.

Sorry for the crummy pictures today. It has been dreary for a week here. Damp, cold, and cloudy. (Yes, my pain is up from this.) You cannot tell from the picture very well, but they are a light, odd green. ;) Grinchy! I will be changing a few things next time I bake these. I will use 2 or 3 drops of green food coloring. I will make the cookies smaller, mine were a little bigger than the recommended tablespoon. And I will use a bit less than the called for 1/2 cup of oil.

A few treasures from friends tucked in this display in our front room. :) You can spot the Linus Christmas card on the right. This was given to me by my brother Jonathan 3 years ago. It still plays the recording of Linus' famous Biblical quotation and " That's what Christmas is all about Charlie Brown." Love it.♥

No snow on the ground here. Yay! I am not worried about a white Christmas. Almost all of my 45 Christmases here in Wisconsin have been white. ;)

I am going to bake cookies again today. And stitch some more on Theotokos. And then probably wrap a few presents. I hope your day is merry and bright!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Gifts

Hi friends! Almost all of our snow has melted here.  I am nowhere near ready for Christmas either. Gotta get motivated!!

I received a lovely Christmas present from Jacquie. Just take a look! I let out a squeal. I did!

I love the precious poodle buttons. :) And do you recognize the stitched card from our friend Jacquie's blog?! I do! ;) Thank you again Jacquie!

I finished the needlepoint border for Theotokos half a week ago.

Last night I began working inside the border. I had taken a break for two days to stitch up this birthday gift for a friend.

Ha! Yes, that is the only peek you will be getting for now. I must do the finishing on it now. As you can see, I used some of Nancy's lovely threads for this project.

I also finally finished reading The Living God volume 2, another catechism book we were gifted from our Deacon. It took me so long, because, well, catechism can be dry reading. But I learned many things and I hope to retain them all. I do not know about you, but as I am getting older, it sure is harder to retain information I learn!

The boys have finished with their final exams. They will find out how they did shortly. Madeleine has her exams for high school this week. She is rather jealous that the guys have off for over a month now. ;)

Well I am off to read a few of your blogs now. Then Henry and I will go for another visit at the local nursing home this morning. He will be wearing his Christmas bow tie. =)

Thank you for stopping by. I am glad so many of you enjoyed my story on my Advent Blog Hop post. I appreciate your comments, but most of all your friendship. ♥

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

There's no place like Greendale :)

Hi everybody!  Stitchy weekend?  Was here. :)

I got the finishing done I talked about.  First up is the scissor fob.  I designed this little house after our second home.  My husband and I have owned four homes.  This one remains my favorite. It is a "Greendale Original".  Which is what the locals call it.  The village of Greendale was built in 1938.  http://www.greendale.org/  Lovely little homes, in a Norman Rockwell village.  I just loved it.  We raised our children there for 10 years.

So anyways, the little fob is stitched on 28 ct lambswool.  I used the Home is Best freebie, from Primitive Betty with my own house and a few twists also.  The reverse side of the fob is my initial from http://patternmakercharts.blogspot.com/.

While living there we discovered a few treasures in our yard over the years.  The children discovered the marbles.  The sterling silver ring was found by my father-in-law when he dug up the front lawn for a flower garden for me.  It makes me wonder.  Who's was this?  Was this a wedding band?  How old is this?    It fits my ring finger perfectly. :)  I placed one marble inside the fob with the stuffing, to give it a bit of weight.

My second finish is a little something I kind of designed with the help of http://lacontesselepointdecroix.blogspot.com/.  I started with her freebie, I'm dreaming of a white Christmas.  I changed around the words and added the little hippo.  He was a freebie from http://aliolka.blogspot.com/.  I made this little pillow for me.  I absolutely love this song.  :)