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

Queen Bee

Good Morning my friends! The beautiful autumn weather continues here. Love it. Gorgeous colors in the leaves too. =)

I was so moved by "Pumpkins For Cathey" on Friday. So very touched. I have been praying for Cathey for a long time now. I know I am not alone. I just keep thinking how absolutely blessed Cathey is to have sooooooooo many people beseeching God for her.♥ Oh the power of prayer!

I have stitched and finished a tiny, little Queen Bee for myself. This pattern is by Maria Diaz. It is from the Rustic Style Cross Stitch booklet by Cross Stitcher. I love this booklet! I have a handful of patterns I will be stitching from it.

This little bee was stitched on 25ct Antique White linen. I used the DMC called for and stitched two over one.

I knew I wanted to use a yoyo to finish it off. I used fabric from my stash that works very well. =)

For now, I have mounted it onto my linen valence above the kitchen sink.  I made these valences years ago from an old embroidered table cloth. It is all done is greys and pale yellow. Our kitchen is pale yellow. =)

I am excited to begin my first SALs!!! Today I will start stitching Paulette's free SAL . I am stitching Mary's Sampler on 40ct Sandstone linen. I will be starting the Barbara Ana Autumn Delights SAL with Vicki, Annette and Donna on October 1st. Wanna join us? Take a look here.

I have been listening to yet another CD I checked out from the library. This one is The Bible narrated by Sir Laurence Olivier. Well, let me tell you in one word............ POWERFUL!! It is a selection of familiar and important passages from the Old Testament. Wowie zowie! I have only volume 5 & 6 so far. I am on the waiting list for the other 4 CDs. Disappointing only in that the WHOLE Bible is not done. That would have taken nearly 100 hours of recordings. I would listen to it!! There is also some dramatic music provided by leading composers from the Holy Land. Just awesome! Just saying!

I also picked up from the library The Spymistress by Jennifer Chiaverini. Another historical fiction book by her. Looks really, really good!

I have found ONE tea on this planet that I like. ;)

Imagine that, huh?! Otherwise, I just don't drink tea or coffee at all. I DO like Chai Lattes! yum yum!

I baked brownies a few days ago. I bought a bag of Pumpkin Spice Hershey Kisses. I thought it might be yummy to put a kiss into each brownie top. Well, I found my first pumpkin anything that I don't care for. The flavor of the kisses is toooooooo much for us. Only Jacob likes the kisses. I wonder if he will when he finishes off the bag himself. ;)

I baked Pumpkin Yeast Bread yesterday. We all liked it..... a little. The problem is that my mom has made Pumpkin Bread for decades, and so have I. My mom's is like a desert bread/cake. This yeast bread tastes so similar, except that it is yeast bread and less sweet. I think it has us all confused, do you know what I mean? I think our brains our expecting the yummy, sweet treat from Grandma. So, since the recipe makes two loaves, I am going to attempt to make Pumpkin Bread Pudding today with the second loaf. We will see how that works out.

This is what I look at, on my kitchen window sill, as I wash dishes every day.

I planted these pansies into my pink window planters last week. They are more pinkish purple than pink, but I still love 'em. The pink, white and green sedum and the artemisia 'silver mound' are always in the planters. I put all the planters in the garage over winter. I water them about once a month, and the two perennials stay alive that way. I just replace the pansies twice a year, in spring and fall.  Pansies are my favorite flower. =)

Have a beautiful Sunday friends! Thanks for stopping by. So very glad to hear from you.♥

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Sewing and Gardening

Good Morning friends! Wow! We shot right up to 89º yesterday! Lovely day for gardening. I have been getting some done every day this week. Madeleine and Brian even helped a bit on Sunday. I am so glad. I just cannot garden all day long anymore at all. Take a look at my garden pals.

These two were hanging out under the trampoline for a shady rest. They continue to get along. The biggest issue is that Mabel wants Henry's food and he wants her diet food! I have to stand watch every time or they will switch!

These two sit on the back porch now. =)

I could not find the same pink pansies as last year. These are a pretty pinkish purple. I also planted the two pots in front of the garage with the Pius XI colors, since the graduation and party are not far off now for Jacob.

I am not sure if I made mention that he is officially registered at Marquette University. He will begin the nursing program in the fall. They only had room for 125 nursing students. Over 1,100 applied from around the country and world. It will be so very interesting to see how many male students there are.  It appears there will be few. Jacob received very good scholarships and grants.

Jacob just went to his Senior Prom with a friend. They had an excellent time. It is now a whirlwind of school activities. School is done before May is over. Jacob and Emerson have both begun studying for Advanced Placement course final exams. These will be difficult, but if they do well, they will receive college credits for the courses. Lots of money saved then. ;)

This is the little bed I made for Henry. Now he has two, like Mabel. He loves it. Have I mentioned I love HIM?!?

SQUEE!!

I finished the book A Skeleton In God's Closet by Paul Maier. A very good fiction book. It is twenty years old. I read it because our Pastor mentioned it. I just began The Twelve Clues of Christmas by Rhys Bowen last night. This is one of the Royal Spyness series I very much enjoy.

No cross stitch to show at all. I must get this latest book read and back to the library so I can begin another waiting for me. =) I just love books. I love to stitch too, but sometimes new books just need to be read. ;)

Today promises to be another hot one. I may garden again, don't want to push the pain too far. I have prayed for all of you today my friends! I hope you have a glorious day!

Reading and planting,
Vickie

An award and some gardening pictures

Hey everybody!
So glad you are here!  I received an award from Dana at maplecottagestitcher.  Thanks Dana. :)

Some background:
Liebster is a German word meaning favorite, dearest or beloved and the Leibster is awarded by Bloggers to other newer Bloggers who have fewer than 200 followers to spread the word and help the new(er) Bloggers gain wider recognition. The award comes with four conditions which each recipient must satisfy when accepting:

1. Choose five up- and- coming blogs (with fewer than 200 followers) to award the Liebster to.
2. Show your thanks to the Blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.
3. Post the award on your blog. list the Bloggers you are giving the award to with links to their sites. Leave comments on their blogs so they know about the award.
4. Share five random facts about yourself that people don't know about you.

And the award goes to these favorite, dearest and beloved blogs:

1. Tricia at Tricia's Craft Box
2. Lucie at Lucie's Stitching Journey
3. Krista at Just Stitching Along
4. Joanie at Joanie's World
5. Terri at Rosy Stitches

Five random facts about me:

1. I am 5'11" (or slightly under nowadays, as I seem to be compacting!)
2. My husband Brian and I have been together 26 years.  We began dating when I was17 and he was 18.
3. I went to college and became a certified veterinary nurse.  I stopped working when Jacob was 6 months.
4. I danced ballet when I was young.  Stopped when I was a teen. (Remember the 5'11"??)
5. My youngest brother Jonathan was the McDonald's Monopoly Millionaire winner two years ago.

Congratulations to the winners - please visit their blogs.

Maggie in the lambs ears outside the kitchen

You can see how the dogs help me with gardening. :)  The lambs ears and sedum are coming in nicely.
Madeleine and I purchased this sweet little tea pot birdhouse at JoAnn.  Hubby hung it from garage.  We will see who moves in.

pink pansies on kitchen window sill

pink pansies in pink window planter

 I have 5 of these pink planters, we won and collected off of ebay a few years ago.  They are in the windows seen from the street.
That's about it for today folks.  I am trying to get gardening work done.  Quite a few hours put in, many more to go. :(  I planted some zinnia seeds.  Gotta do the lettuce seeds as well. 
Thanks for visiting and your sweet comments!
still reading and not really stitching,
Vickie