Keepin' Busy

Hi friends! I have been busy stitching, but I cannot show you just yet. I need to get busy with finishing. I have several pieces waiting now. I can show you a giveaway win I received from our friend Sally.

I have been weeding in the garden.

All five of us went to see the movie Inside Out. An innocent, good movie.

Madeleine's first day of work is tonight. She got a job at a local frozen yogurt shop.

The boys work tomorrow, so it is just Brian, Madeleine and I off to Cedarburg tomorrow. We are going to the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts. Woo hoo! My baby brother is performing there in their Barn Gallery with his band, Brewgrass.  He plays mandolin. Tomorrow is the Strawberry Festival in gorgeous Cedarburg. So I can support my brother while admiring stitching! Great plan, right? I am bringing the camera. ;)

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Blessed By Friends

Hi friends! Welcome new friends! I am glad you all stopped by today. Thank you for your words of encouragement on Theotokos. I am still enjoying it, but my heart just truly adores smalls. So I am taking quick breaks here and there to get a small or two done.

I have finished the stitching on the 45ct linen. I have two samplers and two tiny pieces featuring my favorite stitching subject. Any guesses?! I will be doing the finishing on those four tiny pieces very soon and will be sharing with you then. =)

Our dear friend Nancy of Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe has done it again! I won her Valentine's Day Giveaway. She sent me 2 red flosses,cluny lace, red ric rac trim, red heart buttons, adorable charms, the Alphabet Ornament Chart in "V" and the Treasured Friend red heart pattern! Have you come across a more generous, kind, giving stitcher?! She is ALWAYS having a giveaway. What a lovely, Christian lady. Thank you again Nancy.

Guess what? I also was chosen as the winner by Chris for this sweet chart by The Cross-Eyed Cricket.

I will be stitching Crazy Love, but with the alternate "L", the "normal" one. ;) Thank you again Chris!

In case you missed it, check out my prior post. I am having a giveaway for my Second Blogoversary.

Still snowy and cold here. Only the frigid, below zero temps have now returned. :( So we keep warm with things like this Cheese Bread I baked.

And of course the poodles stay warm sleeping in the sun.

So glad you stopped by today! Leave me a note, they always make me smile. =) I thanked God for you today! I am praying for a few of you my friends who have medical problems right now. ♥

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

All The Way From Malaysia

Good Morning my friends! How are you? I am doing pretty well, thank you! The acid reflux is taming down. Not gone, but better. My hip pain is low.Hooray! God is good!

I won the recent giveaway of Lillie. Take a look at these wonderful gifts she sent me, all the way from Malaysia!

What a neat thing this needle pocket is. I love the Malaysian beads!

I read about your beautiful country on every one of these postcards you sent me Lillie. Thank you. I find it fascinating to learn of our fellow stitcher's countries. Lillie also sent me these adorable, little scissors.

I finished reading Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker by Jennifer Chiaverini. What a great book! I loved it and highly recommend it.  I have never been disappointed with any of Jennifer Chiaverini's books. I am now listening to Sovereign The Books of Mortals by Ted Dekker. He is my all-time favorite author. I have never listened to a book on CD before. I thought I would give it a try since I love to read, but then my stitching time is greatly reduced. It is working out great.  I still prefer to read a real paper book, but this is rather awesome being able to do both, at the same time!!

I am very close to a finish, probably today. It is a Lizzie Kate I bought this summer at our LNS, The Stitch Inn. Which reminds me, The Stitch Inn, closed. I no longer have an LNS. =( I buy all my floss at JoAnn. Looks like I will be buying all my short needles and linen online now. So sad really isn't it?

Emerson is gone on a Kairos Retreat until Friday evening. You can read about Kairos (with Jacob) in my post here. Jacob is partly involved in this one again. They like to bring back former students who are willing to participate and support the younger students in faith formation. I WILL remember to bring my tissues to the closing ceremony on Friday evening. ;)

I thanked God for all of you today! There are some of you who need extra prayer.♥ You got it!! Shirlee is most heavily on my mind and heart right now. She is in surgery as I type this. She is having heart surgery. Say a prayer for her too, won't you?

Thanks for stopping by today old friends and new! I am so glad you did. =)

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Pretty Pink Gifts For Me!!

Good Morning my friends! It has cooled here a bit. So nice. I received this wonderful, beautiful gift from Chris a few days ago. This was what she sent me for her 200th follower giveaway.

Isn't it wonderful! Look at all this great pinkness!!  A lovely patchwork pincushion, a quilted needlecase front and center,  berry pins, a quilted fan zip up purse in back and sweet pink Angel scissors.

Here is a close up of the very sharp scissors. I have parked "her" in a spool of pink thread that was my Auntie Ethel's. She is in front of my big wooden bowl of smalls on Auntie Ethel's antique sewing machine.Thank you so very, very much Chris. What a wonderfully made,perfectly colored, generous gift!!

Emerson's birthday weekend was great. So was the cake! ;) He already treasures the bookmark, I can tell. I found him reading his Bible that night, with the bookmark. =)

Yesterday I had a follow up appointment for the ablation I had. Basically, it did NOT work. The PA now says to do those "test injections" and the the radio frequency for my SI joint. I told her I didn't understand why we didn't do the SI joint first, since this has been diagnosed as my pain point for years. She said based on the exam and the good test injection results for my medial branch (my lower spine, I guess) the doctor felt he had it pinpointed. So more trial and error junk. sigh. This should get started in two weeks, I think. I will now hope and pray this spot works. In the mean time she is going to try and get authorization for the brand name Neurontin for me. This drug kept me at a 2 pain level daily, years ago. I had to go off it eventually because of insurance changes. It was no longer covered. Only the generic. I tried 4 different manufacturers of this generic. None worked well. Not at all close to keeping me at a 2. So she said we should go for both the meds and the procedure, to really knock my pain down. Well, we will see won't we? sigh again!

I finished A Place Of Healing by Joni Eareckson Tada. This book was recommended to me by my friend Julie. Thank you Julie. I am very glad I read it. It was inspirational. It helped me understand some of the things that bother me in dealing with my constant pain.

Do not forget I am having a giveaway right now. It is for Plum Street Samplers  Love Notes. See  this post to still enter.

I am almost done stitching Snappy Sampler by Bent Creek. It is a small, quick little thing. Fun too. I changed one of the colors and I like it. Pictures soon. And I will be offering the chart up next time to you,if you like.

Have a fun day! Hope it includes some stitchy time.

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Friends Are Like Angels

Good Morning my friends! I am so glad you stopped by. Thank you for your kind words on my tiny Henry design. Even such a small attempt at designing gave me a real appreciation of the hard work our cross stitch designers do.

I have forgotten to mention that I gave the small poodle tin to the mail carrier last week. She was actually amazed. She was very happy with it, and told me she has just the place for it with her mail work. Well, that made me happy. She is really such a very, very nice person. =)

I would like to show you the two different ways I made up Friends Are Like Angels. This first one I am giving to my friend Heather. I made it to be a door knob hanger.

The trim I chose may appear to be red and white here to you, not sure, but it is dark pink and cream. It matches very well. The back is a dark  pink. I agonized over the perfect pink fabric. And I have small quantities of many pink fabrics in the hundreds I have to admit! tee hee!

Here is the flatfold. I had a pale pink organdy ribbon in the perfect shade to match the pink cross stitch border. So I made a bow for the top.

I used the same dark pink fabric as the "knob knocker".

Take a look at what I just received in the mail from the UK.

This came from our wonderful friend Mii. =) I was chosen as the next stitcher of Love Notes. I am a true chocoholic, so the Cadbury really hit the spot!! I even shared a tiny bit. ;) Now I am not a tea drinker, but never fear if you have ever sent me tea! My husband and Miss Madeleine are. Ha! You should have seen! BOTH of their eyes lit up for this tea packet. They both wanted it. So, they made two cups from it. ;) And they both liked it very much. Thank you Mii. That was very kind.

I really took my time choosing the linen for this one. I have decided to stitch the long french pattern you see at the bottom. I will not be making a pin pillow however. I have something special in mind. Not sure of the exact outcome quite yet, but I have ideas rolling around the old noggin. We shall see. I began stitching just before bed last night. Looks to be quick, but I am busy, busy with the garden too. So hang in there. You will be seeing this pattern posted for the Traveling Pattern Giveaway soon. =)

Last night, at church, our pastor opened his sermon with a story that is really sticking with me. I did a search just now, and found the story. It really is not long at all. I have no connection with this site, but it has the exact same story our pastor used last night, so this is the link I am giving you. If you care to read this short story, click here. We sang the exact song mentioned, after pastor's sermon. I am still singing it right now. =)

Have a wonderful day in the Lord my friends! Thanks for stopping by. See ya soon!

Stitching and Gardening and Praying,
Vickie

Whatsoever Your Hands Findeth To Do

Good Morning friends! How are you? I have been having a rough week pain wise. Are you familiar with the song "Abide With Me" ? I have sung this many times in church, and here at home. It is a comfort to me when quite frankly things are uncomfortable.

1. Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
   The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide;
   When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
   Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me.
2. Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
   Earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away;
   Change and decay in all around I see—
   O Thou who changest not, abide with me.
3. I need Thy presence every passing hour;
   What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s pow’r?
   Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?
   Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.
4. I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;
   Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness;
   Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
   I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.
5. Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;
   Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies;
   Heav’n’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;
   In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.

Well,I just had that on my heart to share with you all. Hope you don't mind.

So , onto what I have been stitching. This precious little sampler pattern given to me by Maggee.

 Now I showed you the picture here on the pattern itself. They used a mink colored linen and dark threads. I knew what I wanted this finished as, and I knew I wanted to use this lovely Wild Raspberry linen.  I wanted to use variegated threads as the pattern calls for. So I went over to JoAnn to get myself some. I had seen this ad in the quilting magazine from the library quite a while back. I thought that might be a great idea.

Have you seen this? Have you tried it? Well, let me tell you, I was on percocet while shopping. INTERESTlNG! I bought RAYON thread, not COTTON. Kind of a difference. I came home and excitedly started to stitch. Well, I got to thinking this seems very different. (Thinking gets a little clouded while on narcotics friends. ;) When it finally dawned on me what the problem was, I said forget it. I am just going for it. Well, I will use the threads again..... FOR SEWING, NOT STITCHING!

I like the way it turned out, yes. But the process wasn't all that fun. The linen is dark to stitch on. I really couldn't at night. The linen is loosely woven, another trouble for me at night time. The holes looked wonky to me in the evening. And rayon thread is not fun to use with rougher linen. I got a lot of reading done during the last week in the evenings. =)

The fabric in front is what I lined the sampler with. The little basket is a gift from Peggy. Nothing is in it YET!

Did you notice I changed the cat to a POODLE?! ;) This is stitched two over one on 28ct Wild Raspberry linen.

This chart will be making it's way to Cucki. ♥

I just received a gift in the mail today from Nicola. She recently had a giveaway and I was the winner!

Thank you so much Nicola. This is a beautiful chart. A few sweet extras for me too. You are so kind.♥

That is all for today friends. I am stitching another small from my stash. We are waiting for warm weather like quite a few of you have already.

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Mabel waiting for the kids to come home from school.

200 Follower Giveaway Winner

Good Morning my friends! I want to thank every one of you who prayed for and thought of our Mabel. Finally, yesterday morning she woke up with improvement. We are so very thankful for this. It will probably take a few more days til she is good as new. She is so very precious to us.♥

We have a winner for my 200 Follower Giveaway! Carol! I have emailed you Carol. As soon as I get your mailing address, your STITCH pen, your pattern and your bottle cap pincushion will be on their way! =)

Made Cinnamon Swirl Bread in the bread machine yesterday. It's gone. ;) A loaf of any bread I bake does not make it 24 hours with us. =)

I am doing the finishing on the piece that I designed my own pattern for. It turned out just how I wanted. It will be off to the post office this week. Making it's way across the ocean. And that is about all we are going to hear about it for quite a while. It is a mysterious thing this project. Something I have never done. Sorry but it must remain a secret until spring. @_@

I am working on my own scissors fob. Lots of pinks and purples, imagine that. ;)

Look what came in the mail yesterday!

 Barb had a giveaway with numerous gifts. This is what I received from her. Such a wonderful pattern. She was so generous to also send the linen. Thank you again Barb.♥

Guess what? I am having ANOTHER GIVEAWAY very, very soon! My First Blogoversary! So exciting friends. That is what makes it exciting!! YOU! ALL OF YOU! It is just so neat to have "met" so many new friends. What a wonderful adventure this blogging is. Thank you for sharing your world with me. Thank you for sharing part of my world. I am honored to have you as a friend.♥

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Gifts From Shirlee

Good morning friends! Welcome new friends!

Such tragedy. Such severe sadness. Pray. Pray not only for those families in Newtown, but the many, many lives affected by this. We also need to pray for our nation. Our nation is so very violent. We need to make changes. And those changes need to be in the homes of America. It needs to start with the family.

I would like to show you what I received in the mail yesterday from dear Shirlee. I was a winner of her recent giveaway. It is a wonderful LizzieKate chart called When We Do. It reads: When we do what we can God will do what we cannot. I love it! She also made me this wonderful tuck pillow. I have never made or owned a tuck pillow. Hooray for me!

Guess what friends?! Baby Jesus has two french knots for eyes! I noticed that right away, and I felt special. To know Shirlee put herself through that for me, well I feel honored. Thank you Shirlee.♥

I told Trace last week I would post a picture of our nativity. This is the nativity we purchased for ourselves the December we moved into our first home back in 1993.

 My family gave me additional pieces each year for my Christmas gifts, until I told them, "That's enough now, thank you!" I just didn't want the entire town of Bethlehem there! I already wonder about the bagpiper you see on the left?!?

I am waiting for some snow. We are having such extremely mild weather here. It is in the forties! I love it. But if we had some snow, I would take a picture of our outdoor nativity. I would prefer to show it to you that way. It looks so nice that way. I will just wait a bit longer.

I got the gingerbread cookies baked and will work on a batch of another kind this weekend. I am still being naughty! I have not even touched my Christmas cards. This is extremely unusual for me. I am actually stitching another poodle bottlecap magnet! ;) Brian approached me while I was stitching it last night. He wondered if we really needed another one. HA!! My response was just a smile. =)

Annie recently asked me a few questions about those bottlecap magnets. I realized that I never fully explained to you all. They are called Giant Bottle Cap- Chrome from  Darice. I buy them at the larger JoAnn stores. They come in a six pack.

You have probably noticed I include a poodle with each post? ;) Well there is one here this time too. It is just not that obvious. ;)

Have a wonderful weekend my friends. Thank you for visiting and commenting. You make me glad.♥

Stitching and baking and reading,
Vickie

A Gift From June and The Giveaway Winner(s)

Good morning everybody! It is a chilly 32º right now. It will be a very cool weekend. I wanted to share with you what finally arrived for me all the way from England.

A lovely package from our friend June.♥ She told me I could decide if I wanted to open them up or wait for Christmas. So I opened the pink gingham wrapped gift along with this beautiful card.

One of the ladies in June's club made this wonderful card. It is so perfect for me!♥ Brian always, always opens gifts early. He makes me open my gifts from  him early. So, I was somewhat weak and I opened this also.

Beautiful, wonderful, pink thoughtfulness. Thank you dear June. I put away the Christmas card and the angel tissue wrapped gift. I shall open those much closer to Christmas.

I did draw the names of two winners this morning. Why two you ask? Well, Laurie (who has no blog) has generously offered her copy of the Nov/Dec Just Cross Stitch Magazine also for a second person. So the winners are Lany and Janet!! Congratulations ladies. We are so glad to have the magazines go to good homes in Ireland and England. =)

I have not stitched much lately. But I do hope to finish up the gift for the new mom and baby soon. Busy, busy. Giving haircuts, hemming pants, taking in pants.

Jacob's birthday party with our family will be on Sunday.I need to bake and decorate a cake. He turns 18 on this coming Wednesday. Hard to believe. Our 6'2" blonde haired, brown eyed young man!! Oh my! We are so proud of him. He is such a fine young man. He is in the National Honor Society. He has applied to the most prestigious college in our state for the nursing program. Yes, I am a proud momma.

Take care my friends. I welcome my new followers. Come back often everyone.♥

Stitching and baking and praying,
Vickie

A Giveaway Win

Hi everybody! It is sunny, but there is a very cold wind today. I still  went out and took pictures of what I just made this morning. =) I will show you in just a moment. I thought I would show you what I just received in the mail yesterday afternoon first.

Isn't this lovely? Mary Kathryn made this great acorn. I have nothing like it. There are fabulous beads attached to the top, you will see if you look closely.  Sorry you can't see them better. I took this photo this morning. The sun was shining so brightly on the kitchen floor, I just grabbed the beautiful rose my husband gave me earlier this week and Mary Kathryn's acorn and put them right in the sun. Thank you again Mary Kathryn. It went from your dough bowl to mine. =)

So, I finished another giftie yesterday. You cannot see yet, so sorry. ;) I then decided to make myself a small project pouch for my counting pin supplies. I had a small mess. It is now all in one place. =)

I found this tutorial to help me. I had this pansy fabric for over one year. I love pansies. They are my favorite flower. I finally figured out what to use it for. I stopped in at JoAnn last night and found the fabric for the lining. The pink matches the pink pansies perfectly. It is called Moonstone Glitter in a rose color. It has a golden glitter to it. The pansies are outlined in gold. Perfect!!

I adapted the pattern a bit. I have no closure as of now. Don't know that I will need one, as I make my counting pins at the kitchen table. I do not travel around with them. I added batting between the two fabrics. I made a larger felt area for my counting pins.♥ All my beads, pins and glue are tucked away in one spot now. Hooray!

Would you mind terribly if I asked you to maybe say a prayer for Mabel? Her back has "flared up" on her again, starting last night. She could barely walk or urinate. I got her onto her medications right away. This morning there is a little improvement. We are still hand feeding her, as it hurts her to bend her neck. The pain pills are definitely helping her. Unfortunately, she seems to be having these "flare ups" with her slipped discs once a month. She is able to go on a 5 minute walk most days of the week. This helped her lose one pound of the three! she gained in the last few months. Now she is back on the steroid that causes the weight gain, and of course she will not be able to go for any walks for a few weeks. Argh! So frustrating. It is what the vet said it would be. Helping her back, but weight gain in the process. :(

You can see from this picture taken a few hours ago, that she is not very happy.

On to the next project. Well I have two small ones calling me. Not sure yet  which I will choose. I'll let you know next time. Til then, take care sweet friends. Thank you for stopping by.

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

A Giveaway Win!

Good morning everybody! It is another cool, sunny morning here. =) Brian called and pushed the woman at the doctor's office yesterday. She was on vacation for one week, last week. She is the only one who takes care of insurance and MRIs. What?!? So amazingly coincidental that she calls a few hours later and the insurance went through for it. We just have to wait until today to set it up with the hospital by our home. She needed time to get it to them.ROAR!! Man, I am trying to control my rage here. It's just that health care things can be so DUMB! I am waiting 2 weeks just to make the appointment for  the MRI the doctor ordered. I am living in pain every stinkin'day. Sorry, sorry. Ugly bitterness tries to budge back in there. Forgive me. Moving on.......

Maggee sent me this.

AND this! A surprise she added. Isn't she sweet? Thank you Maggee. I made you a little something to show my appreciation of you. =) It is in the mail, on it's way to you way down there.

I am stitching on this.














I made an assumption that this was cross stitch. Surprise!! When it arrived and I opened up the package, I started reading it. Holy Toledo! This is needlepoint over one on 40ct silk gauze! Oh my goodness! Now what?! I made a start the other day. Then I frogged the other day. :(  When, when this ever gets done, it will be really cool. I hope. I think. At least it should be. This is to be for Brian for our 20th anniversary along with the Pixel People I have yet to finish "finish".

Mabel say "Hi"! She is sporting her haircut I gave her on Saturday. Isn't she lightening up? Hard to believe she was jet black as a 2lb, 7 week old puppy I received on Mother's Day 3 years ago.

Have a great day my friends. Thank you for visiting me. I do so appreciate you.♥

Slowly stitching and reading,
Vickie

W.O.W.!! A Huge Giveaway Win From Peggy Lee

Hey everybody! Cool opening ceremonies for the Olympics yesterday huh? I just received in the mail yesterday a very big gift from Peggy. She had a giveaway, and boy did she give away!

Let the pink goodness begin! These beautiful, wood, like balsa I believe, roses are now residing in my big, wood bowl with my smalls, and the pink flower June sent me.

She sent a box of Itty Bitty Buddy Biscuits for Mabel. So sweet. I am happy to say she loves them. Maybe a little too much! ;) Two notepads with Bible verses on them. :) Beautiful notecards. These things were stuffed in that little corn meal bag. It is a perfect sized project pouch for me right now.

Strawberry preserves from Kentucky. My kids have asked for it for their toast this morning. :)  Three fat quarters of pink fabric has already been added to my evergrowing pink fabric collection. Beautiful pink scrapbook papers. You should have seen the kids and Brian's faces when I undid the drawstring on that little burlap sack. I could see it was crushed walnut shells right away. They all looked very puzzled. "What is it?!"

Look at this cool, little sewing basket. Do you see the wonderful things Peggy made for me? And even counting pins too. I now own two pair of scissors. Look! They are pink.♥ Madeleine wanted them, but no! Mama wants them. :) Even a poodle!

Pink trim, buttons, measuring tape, and the cool measuring tape trim. This little basket is really neat. I can see a small stitched piece mounted on top. :)

Wonderfulness that makes me think of Peggy.

Wow! This pattern is awesome. The flosses and 36 ct Toasted Coconut linen from Tree of Life Samplings. Very pretty.

More floss, and 4 fantastic charts!! I was so excited over this, I was so moved, I almost cried. I want to thank you once again Peggy Lee AND Master Chief!! How thoughtful, kind and generous you are! My husband, my three children, and I were all stunned. I am NOT exaggerating at all. Wanna know something great? I know you have experienced it yourself. This wonderful thing has allowed Peggy and I to get to know each other better. It is very nice to follow all of you. But is even better to get to KNOW some of you!

I hope you all have a great weekend. I still feel a little like I am floating around on a cloud. Such a warm, fuzzy feeling to know someone took such care JUST FOR YOU. It has been in the 80's here. It did rain a few days last week. The pond has filled again. HOORAY! I will be making a birthday cake for Madeleine today. Party with family tomorrow. Her birthday is the 31st. She will be 14. :)

Thanks for all of your wonderful comments ladies. You are such nice people.

Stitching and praying,
Vickie