Whoo Hoo! Now There Are Two!

Hi friends! After an irritating unstitching session, I am back on track. There unfortunately are a few mistakes in this Theotokos pattern. It is easier when you catch them first, hey? ;)

Yep! I am down to two remaining partially done pattern pages to finish, before I am FINISHED! No updated picture for you today.

Here is an updated picture of Mabel for you. ;) I gave her a haircut half a week ago.

She is looking tired and worn out here. I took this a few minutes after we were done with the grooming. I love the haircuts about as much as she does, but poodles do need their hair cut! She is the prettiest dog we have ever owned. I just love this precious, grey poodle.

You all know I love Henry too. He is cute, not pretty! ha! Here he is being the watch dog he is.

The latest baking I did was chocolate chip cookies. I have to make a double batch around this place, let me tell you! Everyone in the house wants some cookie dough to eat first. Yes, I know. Well, we do eat a bit of raw cookie dough. This is what the cookie jar looked like after I was done baking. And this is even after dough is eaten and over two dozen warm cookies are eaten.

I am still keeping up with my daily, chronological Bible reading. I am over half done with Genensis now. That is the only reading I am allowing myself presently. I am pushing on for the big finish on Theotokos.

Thanks for checking in. I appreciate your friendship!  Have a super week in the Lord my friends!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

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

Guess Who Turned 5?!

Hi friends! How are you? I am glad you are stopping by. :) It is cold and white here. I have been stitching and stitching on my Theotokos. Here is my progress.

BIG SMILES! =) The borders meet!

Hooray for Henry! Not only is he doing well with his neck injury, he seems fully recovered! He is now 5 years old. =) He is about half a year younger than Mabel.

 I finished the book by Louis Zamperini, Don't Give Up, Don't Give In: Lessons From An Extraordinary Life. What a great, quick read. I recommend it!

A beautiful, sweet surprise from Brian.

Are you ready for Christmas? No, not me. Not at all.  Well, the Christmas stockings go out tomorrow night, and I have the stitched ornaments ready and the candy all set. We have the front door wreath up and the nativity out in front. Not much else yet. I'll get there. ;)

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

What Are The Chances?

Hi friends! Still cold here. However I received this gift to warm my day. I hesitated to open it, but Michelle told me not to wait for Christmas. Okay!

A Christmas card and a very nice wooden plaque. It is on display. Thank you so much Michelle. :)

Our sweet Henry has a ruptured disc in his lower neck. It seems unbelievable. We don't know how this happened. As you may recall our precious Mabel has 7 slipped discs! The veterinarian has told us Mabel is one of the worst cases he has ever seen. The x-rays for Henry show a moderate rupture. So he was on pain medicine for a few days and is still on the steroid for a two more weeks. It will be a gradual tapering off of that. He seems fully recovered already. Which of course is wonderful. The vet is hopeful he will fully recover and never have an episode of pain again. The key to that will be using a harness for his walks (we bought it today), not letting him go down the stairs (not the easiest to catch him beforehand always), lift him down off of furniture if he is up and place him down IF he goes on the bed. The vet said if we can't stop his jumping off the bed well then, he can't go on the bed. He just lounges on one bed, that would be Madeleine's. All the time. We will see how this goes. We love him so much. He will be turning 5 soon, like Mabel already is.

It is not that Henry is dumb, no. He is just not as smart as our Mabel. She is so very intelligent. The smartest dog we have ever owned. She listens when we say wait. She waits on her own for steps and to get down from furniture. She would just never try it anymore. She will wait patiently for help from her humans. Here is Mabel for you. ;)

 So what are the chances of having two toy poodles with disc issues?! The vet said this is rare!

Still stitching away on Theotokos. No picture update today, didn't get one.

This one is for you Margaret! Can't see it the best, but he IS crossing his front legs.

Thank you for your kind comments my friends. I always look forward to hearing from you. Have a wonderful weekend!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

A Little Finishing

Hi friends! It has been at or below freezing most nights now, so I dug out my dahlia tubers. I have been making tiny progress in the garden. BUT my pain has slowly receded back down to "normal" levels. Well, except that it won't go away on the right. And that IS unusual for me over these last 10 years. I normally have constant pain only on the left side. So I will keep the appointment for the cortisone shot next week. Thank you for all of your kind words, prayers and for caring. ♥

It was making me CRAZY leaving my MMMM SAL finishes in a pile. I just don't do that!! I normally do the finishing work after I stitch something up. So I made one of my finishes from last week up into an ornament. It was the one I am not showing you yet. It is on it's way to my friend right now. I do not expect it to arrive very quickly though. I will show you the back for now. ;)

I am still working on 'Just One More Stitch'. Only because I took a few days break to read The Drowning Spool by Monica Ferris. A good read, except the dumb swearing that she puts in there occasionally. I also read Blessed John The Wonderworker. This is an excellent (but long) book about a saint in the Orthodox Christian Church.

Another thing I did lately instead of stitching is give Henry a haircut. Let me tell you, this is not fun. I have never had a harder time clipping a dog. And I have given our Kerry Blue Terrier, our Lhasa Bichon and Miss Mabel haircuts. And Rascal. A 19 year old neighbor toy poodle!! You know, maybe Henry is just as difficult as Rascal was. At least I got paid $40 to clip Rascal. (Sadly, Rascal is no more.)

The problem is that Henry is so delicate and bony. He positively yipes when I clip his legs. And you just about go deaf when he cries from clipping the mats. I could not let someone else clip him. I know they would man handle him. He is very good, just tiny and wimpy. Sorry Henry.
Here he is after the bath and blow dry.

My fuzzy, little buddy. Here he is after the haircut. A way different looking dog or what?!

This is looking up into our ginkgo tree in front of our home. So very golden now.

I have to give Brian and then Mabel a haircut coming up here too! But I WILL get back to the stitching and soon!

Have a super day my friends! Thank you for stopping by.

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

How About Some More Poodles?! tee hee!

Hi friends! I have had two Charles Craft cross stitch towels in my stash for ages. I decided to stitch up the ivory one. Our kitchen is pale yellow, so why not apricot poodles with yellow neckerchiefs? tee hee!

I searched through my inventory (yes! inventory) of poodle patterns. I love these Swedish Antique poodles from the antique pattern library. This pattern is from 1915. Do you recall me stitching this poodle a few months ago? See this post here to see a mini version of the poodle.

So sweet! And yes, we will be using the towel in the kitchen. I don't want to stash it away, never to be used. I don't wanna wreck it either! ;)

I went searching through my poodle patterns yet again. This time for an embroidery pattern. I needed the shape of a poodle to match our little Henry. :) Do you recall me sharing with you THE french knot poodle? Well it is time for me to knot up a certain little, apricot mister too. :) I found a poodle close in looks to our little boy. I made a few necessary changes, and got out the light box to transfer him onto some white material. I am now happily working on Henry. I have made well over one thousand french knots already. I had hoped to have him finished this week, but that will not be happening. My right hand, wrist and forearm are painful now from so much repetitive work for hours. I must take breaks.

I hope you have a beautiful day today my friends. Thank you for your kind words. I am still trying to fix my yahoo email mess. Just know that I am still commenting, even if the comments are NOT popping up in your email.

It is going to be a sunny, warm day today! I am off to worship shortly. Have a great day in the Lord.

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Mabel Christmas Ornament

Hi friends! Happy Mother's Day to you moms out there. :) I spent the afternoon with my mom yesterday. We got the whole family together for cake and happy times. Today we head to the in-laws for a BBQ.

Here are the first flowers to appear in my garden.

I have begun planting pots and urns with annuals. They are still waiting in the garage. Not all that warm yet at night.

I had this freebie for a few years. I am sorry, I do not have the link. After Miss Mabel's latest episode of back pain, I realized I did not want to put off stitching this any longer.

Totally adorable right?! Looks so much like our girl. :) I stitched this on 32ct white linen, two over two. I chose my own DMC colors.

I found this sweet fabric for the back in my stash. I used bordeaux velvet ribbon for the trim.

Mabel is off all meds and is doing alright. She is a tiny bit slower than she was before. Much more reserved in play than hyper Henry! ;) We have decided to lift her down out of the house and our one porch step every time now. Why risk flaring up her back pain again.(She has not used the stairs or jumped on/off furniture for a long time.) She is smart and will wait for us to lift her up and down. :) She is definitely the smartest dog we have ever owned. Henry is smart too. Kinda. Well... He is adorable, sweet and oh so loving.

Started stitching on yet another small. :)

I hope your day is a beautiful one my friends! Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate you!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Happy Easter!

Christ is risen! Happy Easter my friends!

I stitched up this freebie, available from alita designs, for this Easter.

I used all of the called for DMC colors. I stitched it on this 14 count Charles Craft Hopscotch fabric I have had sitting in my stash for a long time.

I needed a little something to cover the goodies in my Easter basket. What Easter basket you ask? Well, this one.

I also created this Easter basket liner last week. It is not perfect at all. I will not even give you the link to the tutorial I followed, because I should not have followed it! It skipped steps and I had to wing it. I spent hours embroidering the pussy willows. I am not remaking it.

As soon as I set the basket down to get a few pictures, Mabel and Henry both had to come check it out. Of course!

One of the things I changed on the freebie from above is the cross. I made up my own Orthodox cross. Why? Well, last Sunday, Palm Sunday, Brian and I became Orthodox Christians. Brian has been considering this for years. The both of us together have been considering it for a year. All three of our teenagers live at home with us still. They are all Lutheran. Two of them have attended Orthodox church with us. We do not expect them to change. We will continue attending Lutheran church with them as long as they live in our home with us. We attend church every week. We always have and always will. We are strong in our faith and beliefs. We do not want our children to fall away from the church. We simply could not wait for many years to make this change in our lives. I just cannot describe the awesome reverence and holiness of Orthodox Divine Liturgy.

So this is what our Pascha (Easter) basket looked like on Saturday morning when we took it with us to church. Father blessed everyone's baskets after the Liturgy.

I embroidered pussy willows because our Orthodox church uses pussy willows on Palm Sunday instead of Palm branches. We were given the Pascha bread (Kulich) by a member. The kids and I made pastel Easter eggs this year. You can also see a butter lamb. Orthodox Christians fast from meat, fish, eggs, dairy, wine and oil during the entirety of Lent.

We have had this Lord's Supper icon for over 15 years. We put our pussy willows on top of it, in our kitchen.

Well, I am off to worship! Then lots and lots of family time. The kids last day off is tomorrow.

Oh yes. I have already attacked my chocolate bunny! mmmmmmm! And I had a pumpkin chai latte too! LOVE!

Thanks for stopping by. I am so glad you did! Be blessed!

Beading and praying,
Vickie

Poodles and Pansies

Hi friends! Did you get yourself an Easter hat like this?

This is another one of my vintage poodle cards. :)

This is what Henry looked like before his haircut yesterday.

Here are Mabel and Henry after I gave them both haircuts this week.

The weather has been mild enough that I have been working in the garden for 30 minutes at a time, every other day now without increasing my left SI joint pain. Hooray! Thank you God. What a blessing.

Pink and purple pansies! Another blessing. ♥

I finished Man's Search For Meaning. This a 1946 book by Viktor Frankl chronicling his experiences as an Auschwitz concentration camp inmate during World War II, and describing his psychotherapeutic method, which involved identifying a purpose in life to feel positively about, and then immersively imagining that outcome. He was a Jewish psychiatrist. It was a very interesting book. This was an assigned book for Jacob's Philosophy course. I decided to read it also.

Here is a picture (not the best, sorry) of the beading I have done thus far.

That is it for today my friends. I hope you are well AND happy. :) I am glad you stopped by. Thank you for your kind words. I appreciate them AND YOU!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie