Well It's One For The Money, Two For The Show, Three To Get Ready..

Good Morning friends! Hello new friends! Glad everyone is here. More snow coming our way today. It is just beginning now.

What the heck is the post title about? Well, I finally got the new shoes I have been looking for.

I wanted some new casual shoes, and well, these are them!! They are navy blue. And now "Blue Suede Shoes" keeps  rolling through my head!

I finished that Valentine Banner.

I made this one with felt. Too bad I did not get a closer view for you. Maybe you can see, I used the lace type blade for the rotary cutter, on the white heart, for the backing. It looks like handmade valentines with lace. =)

I have two finishes to work up today. Sorry I cannot show those once completed even. Not for a bit anyways. I did begin a new Valentine stitch last night.

Have a great day my friends. I am praying specifically for a handful of you. But I do often thank God for ALL of you! =)

Stitching and Finishing and Praying,
Vickie

Okay, I couldn't resist! tee hee. This is "Honey", Priscilla's apricot toy poodle present from Elvis. ;)

A Very Close Call

Good Morning my friends! How are ya? All's well here. I have not been slacking, but it is one of those times when you are making a handful of gifts and you cannot show them for a while. I am also so very close to finishing the Valentine Banner I made yesterday. I just need to run over to JoAnn and get some white ribbon, so I can attach my big, beautiful hearts. Pictures very, very soon. =)

Yesterday we got snow. Only 2 inches. It came down rather quickly in the afternoon time. Well, Little Miss Mabel wanted to play in it. So I let her out for 5 minutes to run and play in the backyard. Twenty minutes later, she wanted to play in it again. =) So, I convinced Madeleine to get snow clothes on and play. They had fun. I stood on the back porch, under the awning taking a few pictures.

Here she is rounding the corner of the garage. Madeleine is chasing her. You can see her back has been without trouble for 3 months now. Hooray!

Well, as I am trying to focus a picture of Madeleine and Mabel, I notice out of the corner of my eye,  a bird coming into the yard, headed for them. I assume the bird did not see me, under the awning. Madeleine was crouched down out of sight,to the side of the trampoline. I quit taking pictures, because I realized the size of this bird and hear the almost silent wings. HOLY SMOKES!! This was a female Red Tailed Hawk. It must have been 3 or 4 pounds. It came in and down to kill, you guessed it! Our precious Mabel. When it was about 7 feet up and above, it found Madeleine. Thank you God!! We watched as it pulled up and tried to correct it's path. It grabbed on to the top of the fence, not 10 feet from Madeleine at eye level. It flew off 2 seconds later. Whoa!! It was obviously watching from the park behind our home.

This is Mabel catching sent of the bird, just after it flew off. It landed right above the little apple tree you can see against the fence.

When Mabel was one, she was almost eaten by a Great Horned Owl. It landed on the fence at the back of the yard. I let her out for the last time at night. She barked and yipped  to be let in. Very unusual. So  I figured, what on earth is wrong here? I saw it straight ahead of me, before I opened the back door to let her in. Wow! Those owls are BIG! I opened that door so quick!! And off it flew. Wow! I think it is hard being a toy poodle when you live so near the woods and these creatures. Yikes!

I am so near 200 followers now. =) I will have a giveaway very soon. I am making something for it. I also have a gift for it already. Keep watch! ;)

I will be back soon. Have a fantastic day in the Lord my friends.♥

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Two Winners!!

Good morning my friends! How are you all today? Evalina decided to stitch up Life's A Stitch after she saw my finish. =) She also decided to pass along her chart as another Travelling Pattern. She asked me to draw an additional name to win! So, Emma and Cucki are the two winners!! Keep an eye on their blogs for news on the Travelling Patterns. ;)

Unfortunately my pain is spiked up again. It happened from having to rise up and down out of my seat to allow people to come and go down the aisle two nights ago. That is when we went to see Itzhak Perlman and the Milwaukee Symphony. It was fabulous. I have got to say, seeing him perform is humbling. I do live in pain every day, but I am quite sure it is not at his level. Mr. Perlman lives in  daily pain, as he suffered polio as a child. Beethoven's Violin Concerto was absolute astounding. He has such amazing talent.

I actually felt guilt for clapping so long. The crowd cheered and cheered. He emerged just a little ways from the wings, on his crutches, for his curtain calls. Before his third curtain call, he played a joke. He threw in the towel. He threw a towel on stage, to say enough already! I had teary eyes, watching this man struggle so. What an experience!

Well, our Jacob received his letter from Marquette University. :( He is on the waiting list for the Nursing College. They have received almost 200 applications, only 56 will be admitted. We contacted our "impressive" people for letters of recommendations. He will have 4 in total. Quite honestly we still feel pretty good about it. He has a 3.9 GPA and is on the National Honor Society. He has an impressive list of accomplishments and community service too. Time will tell. Can you believe it might take until May for us to find out if he is one of the 56 students?!?

I have no pictures of stitching today friends. I have just a few final touches for the bottlecap pincushion yet. The stitching of my own design is coming along nicely. No, I am not sharing pictures of that until it is done. Believe it or not, it is not pink! And it does not involve a poodle! The shock, I know! ;)

I hope you all have a wonderful day today. There are a few of you, Shirlee, June, Cathey, who need a real big {{HUG}} today. I am thinking of you ladies and praying for you too. Take care.♥

Stitching and praying and reading a really good book too,
Vickie

(Thinking of you June)

Life's A Stitch

Good morning friends! It is icy and cold here. Currently 10º! Yuck! I finished off the Lizzie Kate Life's A Stitch into a small pillow for my big, wood bread bowl.

The little, purple poodle was a gift from Brian. She is a very cool handmade pottery piece made in France.♥ I backed this pillow with the fabric you see. It was a perfect match. I have many, many pink fabrics. Many! Quilt plans don'tcha know! Someday!

For now I am working on the mystery stitch I designed. Also I began the next bottlecap pincushion last night. I am not happy with how it is going. I am going to restart today. I suppose that was bound to happen one of these days, after having made so many. I just kinda develop an idea in my head and go with it.

Got all the Christmas stuff put away. We are waiting to hear from Marquette University for Jacob. We are praying and hoping. Any day now.

So, that's it for today friends. Have a most wonderful day. I am so glad you took time to visit with me. I appreciate my old friends and the new ones too! Welcome! If you would like to be the next one to stitch Life's A Stitch, leave me a comment telling me so. Check out my last post. ;)

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

A Travelling Pattern Up For Grabs!

Good morning my friends! Hello to new followers, so good to have you here. =) We are having very, very mild weather. I woke up to 51º this morning!! Crazy for January. Almost all the snow is gone.

I was the one chosen by March Ann to receive the Lizzie Kate Travelling Pattern.

I used Crescent Colours Aunt Marle's Violet 28ct linen. My current favorite linen. ;) I just went through my DMC and found flosses that went well with the linen. The only color I used from the chart was the green for the leaves.

The first picture is true to the colors.

Do you see this wonderful, fat thread of linen? That is right in my satin stitched sawtooth border? Argh!! Grrr! Let me tell you, yesterday had a few lessons for me. The first lesson I learned the very hard way. We went to DSW Warehouse shoe shopping for me. Never got a pair of shoes. But I did take percocet before leaving the store. :(  Brian caught up with me after a bit, and told me I really should sit down to try those shoes on. Boy, am I dumb! Duh! Such a simple thing to do. I could have avoided spiking my pain up. And why on earth do I try one shoe on?!? I need to remember to always try both on and sit down to do it. The next lesson learned is no matter how much I want those totally awesome blue leather dutch clogs, this girl should not wear 2 1/4" heels as comfort shoes. It somehow doesn't work well with the whole hip disability thing. :(

So, where was I ? Oh yes, I blabbered on about that because I wanted to tell you the next lesson I learned yesterday. Stitching a satin stitched sawtooth border for the first time yesterday was challenging enough. Girls, don't try it while on percocet! It becomes interesting. I learned to go back very, very often and recount. Lots of double checking made it possible.

And that gross linen slub in the upper right side? Well, I took my scissors and carefully cut away some of the thickness. Just at that hole. I have no idea what you are supposed to do. But while struggling to stay focused while medicated and stitching, that is what I came up with.

So, would you like to be the next person to stitch this little cutie up? This pattern originally started with Angela. Click on her name to see the list of all 20 stitchers before me! I am number 21. Who will be number 22? You must leave a comment on this post telling me you would like to stitch it. You must be a follower. And you must have a blog. I will draw a name on Friday, January 18th.

Now on to the next project. I want to make another bottlecap pincushion. I am designing a secret cross stitch pattern right now. ooOoo! Mysterious! Yes, challenging is more like it!!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

My Latest Work That Made Me Mental

Good morning my friends! So glad you are here. =) I have been working on a small piece for a few weeks now. It is from the JCS 2012 Christmas Ornament Issue. It is by Charlotte's Web Needlework, and it is called First Star. Death Star crossed my mind a few times during it's creation. ;)   A little Star Wars humor for you.

It calls for being stitched over two on 28ct Amsterdam Blue Cashel. I used my mystery blue 32ct. OVER ONE! Yup! Gotta say I love it, EXCEPT for the darn grey snow. It is supposed to be snow in the shadows, as the sun goes down.

  It is just a little too dark in my opinion. It is DMC 762. It was crazy how long it took me to stitch it really. I mean besides the delays due to busyness of the season and all that. Those backstitched trees over one on 32ct were actually fun to do. It was supposed to be a fawn, but, well, I haven't seen a fawn venture out on it's own. It is always near mama. I just like the look of a doe better.

I am noticing neither picture shows you the silver star well at all! Trust me, that is what is up there in the sky. I backed it with the same linen with the year and my initials. I used petite cluny lace. Now that part was not fun. It was difficult to get it done correctly with the sewing machine, so I hand sewed this little pillow together.

Peggy posted this:

I was one of her 5 to sign up. She found this Creative Pay It Forward here.

The first five of my friends to comment will receive a random gift from me sometime during the year...maybe something handcrafted, maybe a book, baked goodies, a surprise! Your gift will arrive whenever the mood strikes me without warning. Here's the only requirement: You have to post this on your blog as well and commit do doing the same for five of your friends. Please email me with your address if I don't already have it.

The first five people who leave a comment saying you are interested in joining me and who also posts about it on their blog will get a random gift me from me sometime during the year.  Sorry you must have a blog.

Want to spread a little kindness? =)  Leave me a comment and be one of the first five to do so! Remember,YOU HAVE TO TELL ME YOU WANT TO BE A PART OF THE CREATIVE PAY IT FORWARD, NOT JUST BE IN THE FIRST FIVE!

I finished reading Identity Book One of Eyes Wide Open by Ted Dekker. Fabulous read! Loved all of it. Cannot wait for more in this series. I am now going to start Illusion by Frank Peretti. Looks very good also. Two of my most favorite authors. Ever. ♥

Made two new recipes over the weekend. Lemon Sour Cream Bread and Cheddar Cheese Bread. Both for the bread machine. Hardly could tell it was lemon, but very good. A little too much cheese, but would make it again with less cheese.

 Here is Little Miss Mabel all snuggled up under Madeleine's quilt on her bed with her.♥

I hope you all have a beautiful day! It is going to be sunshiny and almost 50º today! Whoo hoo! 

Stitching and praying,

Vickie

We Have A Winner!

Good morning my friends! A big welcome to my new friends! How are you? We are still surrounded by snow. It is so cold every day, the snow is going nowhere.

The winner of the January Cross Stitch & Needlework magazine is Jo! I have emailed you Jo. I cannot find your address at the moment. Would you please email it to me again? =)

So these would be my orts from 2012. I began collecting them when I began this blog, back in February.

This vase in the snow is 10 inches high. I have emptied it now. I will save up for another year. I plan to set the orts outside in a few months, for the birds to build beautiful, colored nests. ;)

I have no stitching pictures to share right now. I am still stitching on that Christmas ornament over one on 32ct. That takes longer than you plan on. ;)

This is what I see every day.

 Little Miss Mabel and her monkey. Enough with the monkey!!! Some days I literally feel like hiding the monkey. I never have. That would be mean. And I do love my poodle. But this is one tireless, fetching poodle. Oh my, does she ever love to play fetch with that monkey. *_*

I hope you have a wonderful, stitchy day my friends. God bless you!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie