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

The October Snippet

Hi friends! Back in October I shared a tiny snippet with you of a Christmas ornament gift that I finished. Well I can now show you the whole thing. I waited until that Canadian friend received it. Then I waited until she shared her little bean news. Yep! Anne is who I am speaking of. =)

This pattern is titled 'Snowflake'. It is by SamSarah Design Studio. You can find it in the 2011 Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament Issue. I stitched this on 32 count straw? linen two over two, using the called for DMC, except I used 3865 for the white to make it just a bit brighter. I like my snow white! ;) I had this backing material in my stash. I had bought this flannel for another SamSarah snowman ornament design I made several years ago. Most of the same DMC colors are used for that one too. So it worked perfectly.

I am happy to report that Anne is thrilled with it. :) And I am just so happy for her, Lee and Little Bean. ♥

Thanksgiving Day was wonderful. Yes!! David did come home. God is good.

Thanksgiving evening we watched God Is Not Dead. Have you seen this movie? What a good movie it is. All five of us think so.

Henry is very much recovered. You would NEVER know he was injured. Yay! God is good.

I was making such good progress on my current catechism book, The Living God vol.2, and then we went to the library. I like to check the new book section. Do you too? Well, I found the last book by Louis Zamperini, called Don't Give Up, Don't Give In:  Lessons From An Extraordinary Life. I say last book, because Louie died in July. Just two days before the book was published. He was 97. I am 60% done with it. What a great book! He was an Olympic athlete and WWII pow.

Still plugging along on Theotokos.

Thank you for your kind words. I appreciate you stopping in. Have a super weekend my friends!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Progress

Hi friends! It is a frigid 14º and the ground is covered with an icy snow, but I am thankful. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day. Yes, I thank God every day for blessings, but tomorrow. Tomorrow if this all goes through as planned my brother is coming home. David has had a problem with my mom's husband for many years. If he truly reconciles tomorrow, we will be together again. I am so happy to think of it. I have three younger brothers. We have not ALL been together for almost 10 years now. God is good!

I have had Jacob's Christmas ornament stitched up for over a week now. I just needed to get the finishing done. Now it is complete.

Sorry for the picture quality. It is dreary here without the bright sun. I stitched this on 28ct Navy Jobelan, one over one using DMC 972. I once again used my 365 Alphabets Cross Stitch All Through The Year by Kooler Design Studio.

I have been working diligently on Theotokos. Frogging once in a while with those black scrolls in the border. I am doing up the border first.

I finished a large book on St. Seraphim last week. I am now close to finishing a catechism book. You can see the titles in my sidebar.

To my American friends a very Blessed Thanksgiving to you! To ALL of you a very blessed weekend! I am so glad to "know" you. Thank you for being you! Thank you for stopping by.

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

P.S. Henry is recovering so very well. You would NEVER know he had a problem! Thank you for all of your well wishes and prayers. God is good!

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

What Was I Thinking?!

Hi friends! It snowed over the weekend and it is frigid too. Our high for today is 18º. So I stayed in and stitched. ;) I began a new project. I had ordered this kit months ago.  It is to be a gift for our Orthodox priest's family. I want to give it for Christmas, but WHAT WAS I THINKING?!

This is a needlepoint kit. A very beautiful icon. It is the Kazan Mother of God. Well, I am not that fast at needlepoint at all. And this is all in petit point on 24ct mono canvas. o_0 This one is not as large as our Theotokos. I began the year stitching a Theotokos, and now I will finish the year stitching another!

Here is my progress after many hours this weekend.

I am truly loving the looks of this border so very much. There are four different golden brown colors in there. This is not the best picture.

When we had gone to a graduation party for Father's oldest son, back in June, I had admired two different cross stitched icons in their home. I asked Father's wife if she made them. No, an old woman back in Ukraine had made these for them. She told me she would love to have a Theotokos also some day. AHA! And so I decided to make one for her. I did give it weeks of thought before purchasing the kit. Once I get an idea, I can sometimes be like a terrier and not let go of it. ;) So here I am. The pattern I fell in love with just happened to be petit point instead. It is a good thing Orthodox Christmas is January 7th! We will see.

This whole subject has bored Mabel to sleep.

Here is one of my beautiful pansies from less than a week ago. Before all this bitter cold and snow moved in.

Now I have none. The pansies are always my last flower to hold out. And the first I plant in the spring. :)

In between stitching up this icon, I plan to do finishing on the smalls I got stitched last month during the Mega Mini Month Madness SAL that I was in.

Keep warm! Have a wonderful day! Thank you for stopping by. You brighten my day.

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Matroyshka and Poodles

Hi friends! It has turned cold, windy and rainy here. blech!

That darned frog came to visit over the weekend. Rats! Of course I noticed the problem AFTER I was halfway done stitching the back of the matroyshka. All over one on 28ct. puh! So after many frustrating sessions of ripping out and fixing it back up again, she is done!

I decided to whip stitch this little doll closed. I hand sewed the last matroyshka that was half this size. I think hand sewing the smaller one was easier!

This is the back I designed for her. I used the same flower pattern from the front. This freebie can be found HERE.

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I used a coordinating fabric to cover a little washer for her base. I hot glued this in place.

I used all DMC for her. I used B5200 instead of white,and also used 948, 894 and 304 instead of the called for numbers, because I liked them better. ;) Love this color combination.

I am trying to get time in on Jacob's ornament.

I finished Salt Of The Earth by Saint Paul Florensky in one week. It was a good book on the life of a saint. My favorite quote from this saint is, "A kind man will lend freely to God, and God will pay for everything." Father Isadore.

I found this fun pincushion from 1958 on Etsy. ♥

 I found these match boxes with matches still in them from the 50's/60's, on Ebay. ♥

Thank you for stopping by today. I appreciate your kind words and friendship.

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Matroyshkas And Stuff

Hi friends! I am stitching a sweet little matroyshka. This is a different pattern than the one I made last year. Remember her?
 
 Well, it was hard for me to do, because I love this little doll, but I gave her to a friend from church for her birthday. My friend is Ukrainian and she collects matroyshkas. I knew she did not have one like this. ;) She likes her very much and I know this little doll has a good home. =) I will make myself another. Yep! Just not right now. ;) Here is the one I am going to make up in the same way.

This precious little doll is a freebie you can find right HERE.

I decided to stitch up a back for this doll, instead of using fabric. The little doll up top, I used coordinating fabric for the back.  Stitching a back is taking a long time! Ugh!

I do have a finish this week. This is Emerson's Christmas ornament this year.

Not the most exciting stitching. Especially using  only DMC 311. I did it all in half cross stitch because it is stitched over one on 45ct linen. I had to, to make it fit the silver 2-inch frame.  I used an alphabet, I modified a little, that I found in my 365 Alphabets by Kooler Design Studio. Madeleine and Emerson's ornaments are done! Now I have begun Jacob's.

I listened to Ted Dekker's new book on CD from the library. FABULOUS! If you have never read a book by Ted before, go read this one! He is my favorite author. "He is known for adrenaline-laced plots with incredible confrontations between good and evil."  This is "a sweeping epic set in the harsh deserts of Arabia and ancient Palestine. A war that rages between kingdoms on the earth and in the heart. The harrowing journey of the woman at the center of it all. Step back in time to the year of our Lord...".

Yes, I am still going to share with you about this book. Two of my favorite snippets.
"Yeshua's(Jesus') Way is surrendering what we think we know about the Father so we can truly know Him. It is the great reversal of all that we think will give us significance and meaning in this life so we can live with more peace and power than we have yet imagined."
"Clarity came to me like the clearing of dark clouds. In Him! Not by believing the truth about Him, but by surrendering to Him and trusting in Him, I would have no need to protect myself from this or any storm. Would it then matter what happened to me, if my life was submitted to him?"

Jacob thanks all of you who have wished him a Happy Birthday! =) It was! This is the cake I made him. He requested marble cake. I found a new recipe for fudge frosting. It was perfect. It was NOT overly sweet. I cannot stand overly sweet frosting on my cakes.

Stitching and  praying,
Vickie