E is for Eeyore

I finished this about an hour-in-a-half ago. It really wasn't so bad to do. I thought he would be boring with all that blue but it wasn't bad. The mane gave me some problems but I got through it. This will go to my Great Nephew, John Jr. who will be 3 weeks old tomorrow. My niece asked me to do four Winnie the Pooh & friends pieces plus the birth sampler. Her mother will make them into a wall hanging. The other 3 will be done in the coming months. This is project 11 towards the 50 challenge! Slowly plugging away at it!

I have gotten out the floss and material for the Precious Moments piece. It will go to a special quilt we are doing at CSA for a little girl. It's due Jan. 15 so I am cutting it real close. It's called "Our Friendship is Soda Licious". I'll start on it tomorrow.

I did much better on my Dec. goals then I did Nov. ones I didn't finish the Christmas Cat or Christmas Wish. But did work on them some, and did two other Christmas ones. I finished the Teapot, and I not only started Eeyore but finished him. So I did very well. Let's see how my January goals go. They are:
1. Do Our Friendship is Soda-licious
2. Work more on Light of Peace (an UFO for 8 years) maybe and I stress maybe finish it.
3. Do an angel piece for Love Quilts.
4. Maybe and I stress maybe start Winnie the Pooh.

Have a Happy and safe New Year's Eve! Until next time Happy Stitching!

A Balanced Diet

I had promised a picture of the Apron but unfortunately I forgot to take my camera Wed. night, so this is a picture of the piece before being made into an apron. My sister ended up with it which is what she wanted.

We had fun at the Family Christmas though. Of course Baby John was the star of it all. He was really fussy, we think it's because there were so many people around. His parents say he is really fussy when too many people come over. Even though only 2 weeks I still say at one point he was watching his parents awful close even though he was in someone elses' arms. He is so cute though. He'll outgrow his fussiness as he grows. I claim he's fussy because he is so intelligent he wants to do more and can't yet.

It was great to see my niece Michelle again. She is at her parents house on other side of state but came here for a couple of days. She returns to OR Dec. 31. She is doing her Internship out there. Probably willl just stay out there afterwards if she gets a job. She has her Phd. in Chemistry and just has to finish up her Internship now.


I haven't had a whole lot of time to stitch these past two weeks but starting today things will slow down a lot. Even my cat is getting grumpy with my leaving him so much! So outside of going to do the church sign I will be home most of today and stitch and enjoy my cat. Laundry will wait until Tuesday. Eeyore is 2/3 of way done. I'd love to finish him off Sunday, then start the PM piece that is due Jan. 15. Well until next time Happy Stitching!

The Magic of the Holidays

I know it's been a week since I posted but it's been a very busy week.

I did stitch The Magic of the Holidays. Companion piece to Have A Merry Christmas. This is project #10 of the 50 challenge. I am 1/5 of way through! A long ways to go. I did order material and floss from 123 stitch the other day but no patterns, so I'm staying on track so far. I also have Eeyore about half done.

How was everyone's Christmas? Ours started Sunday and will end tomorrow night.
Sunday we went to church, walked in and the choir was lined up on the steps singing to everyone as they walked in. It was the start of a Beautiful Musical Service. The front of the auditorium had the Poinsettas, and the Christmas Tree and a Manger scene. The highlights I felt were a flute quartet, teenage girls quartet, the choir did wonderful. They had some young children sing with them and those children did great. It's was such a nice service. Pastor gave a sermonette.

After church I went to my parents house and we had our Christmas Dinner. Andrew unwrapped his presents since he would be with his mother on Christmas. I unwrapped a gift from my sister and her family. It was a VCR-DVD. Mine broke earlier this year and I didn't think I missed it but when I got home and put in a DVD I borrowed from my mom and played a Bill Gaither tape I realized I missed it. I've been having a reunion with my Bill Gaither Videos believe me! I have Isreal Oh Israel on now. But I'm leaving before long.

Yesterday we had Christmas with my brother and exchanged gifts there. We also played a new game I forgot the name of it.

Today my brother is picking me up, we'll go pick up some ingredients for Veg. pizza then make it at my parents house as they have room to store it I don't. Then tomorrow we have our family gathering. Well those that can be there anyway. We are having a White Elephant Exchange. My gift is going to be an apron that I stitched a piece that says "A balanced diet is a cookie in both hands." My sister made the apron. I'll try to get a picture tomorrow.

Baby John is going to be the star of tomorrow. He is a whole two weeks old. Growing up isn't he. Most of us haven't seen him yet.

Well I better get going so I don't keep my brother waiting. Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and Happy Stitching! Barb

A small Christmas Finish

I finished Have a Merry Christmas and today will start the companion to it. I just love the Brittercup Designs. They are so cute and refreshing. They have detail but easy to do. A nice break from the larger pieces I tend to do.

Tonight is our much anticipated Adventure Club Christmas Program for the parents and friends of the children. The children that were there Sun. night did so well, that hopefully tonight will go fine too. I just think the song was a little too hard but oh well. The kids did do better with it last week.

It just doesn't seem like Christmas without snow. That's bad when it takes snow to get you in the Christmas Spirit. It's going to be a green Christmas this year they say. It's a very mild winter so far except for that week we got hit with lots of snow we've really had nothing since and that snow all melted. Problem with mild winters is it really aggravates the asthma and allergies in the spring.

On the stitching front, I will start The Magic of the Holidays. It's a piece I can easily do in the car if I go to my sister's tomorrow. I get so hyper that I have to take my stitching or I'm driving the driver nuts. So we call it my "shut up" piece.

Well until next time Happy Stitching and if I don't blog before Christmas Have a Merry Christmas!

A new start

I laid down the Christmas Cat. I just needed a break from it. So I'm doing this cute piece by Brittercup Designs. I just love their designs. They are so cute and refreshing to do. This one is Have A Merry Christmas. I just started it Sat. and this is progress after about 8 hours of stitching.

I'm trying to get into the Christmas Spirit but I'm just not a Christmas person I guess. I don't know why....maybe it's because my nieces and nephews are grown up and don't live around here. But as baby John gets older and more Great Nieces and Nephews are born it'll be fun again. I can tell you the children at our church are all getting excited.

We had our Christmas program last night and it really went well. Everything ran smoothly and the children, and the choir all did well. We missed our organ though. It had been there since the 50's, wasn't used anymore but some people were really upset. Unfortunately nothing lasts forever, and the men who removed it did not mean any harm. But our church needs a lot more than that to get into the 1980's let alone the 21st century! Our kitchen is the same it was in the 50's. That whole down stairs needs redone, most is same as it was in the 50's and I'm not kidding. Well maybe some painting but you get the idea. We had a lot more people there last night than anticipated. My dad and I got the candybars, 140 thinking that would be plenty there were close to 200 there! So they gave to the children and teens first. I'll be honest I didn't like the candy bar anyway. I took a taste in the office of one bar and didn't like it but I'm not big on chocolate. I don't like ice cream either. I know something's wrong with me!

A whole lot of food came into the food pantry last night. I was so happy, as what came in earlier in the day I had to throw a lot of it away, they brought in damaged cans which we cannot used, and rice in a baggie, can't use that either. Has to be in an unopened box. I guess people think we should accept everything. I just quietly threw the items away and glad to have a couple of cans and the boxes of lasgna was useable.

My niece from Oregon should be flying in Dec. 24. We'll have to hear about the weather they have out there from her. Although it's better now. So sad though they found the body of the one mountain climber and still looking for the other two young men. Michelle and her boyfriend love to climb mountains and have climbed Mt. Hood.

Well on the stitching front, like I said Christmas Cat is laid down, hopefully I'll pick him back up after this piece but no guarantees. Right now so many pieces sound like fun to do and Christmas cat isn't one of them. But I don't it to be a UFO. I completed 3 UFO's this year and have 2 that turned into UFO's this year. Well until next time....Happy Stitching!

Another update, Santa, I can Explain!

I really haven't stitched a whole lot on it. For some reason it's not really holding my interest. Plus it's been a busy week. Hopefully Sat. and Sun. I'll get more stitching on it.

I had planned on going to see Baby John this afternoon but my parents went a little later than they planned as Melissa wanted them to stay for supper. I'm going to a band concert that Melissa's younger sister is in so I couldn't go see the baby as I wouldn't be back in time. In fact I need to be ready to go in 45 minutes so guess I better step on it.

This Sunday is the SS program at church so I went with my dad to get the candy for it. I had to get a couple of bags of candy for our Adventure Club program Wed. night. I had to be at church by Sunday. So I picked it up. Tues. night we'll make the cupcakes. Everyone gets a cupcake Wed. night, and the children will get a bag of candy to take home.

Tomorrow I'm going to finish my Christmas shopping I think. I planned to today but the lady I was going with wasn't feeling good so we'll go tomorrow hopefully.

Well, until next time Happy Stitching.

We have a Baby Boy

My niece had baby John Jr. late this morning. He weighed in at 6 lbs I forgot how many ounces and is 19 inches long. We are excited can't wait to see him. Because our family doesn't like pictures of the children on line, I probably will not be able to post one. He lives around here so we will get to see him from time to time!

Update on Santa, I Can Explain

It's been a few days since I've been here. I've been busy. Friday night I got together with some friends. We had a light supper than watched a video. Sat. we had our Sunday School Class party. It was fun. We had so much food there and it was good! We massacred some of the Christmas Songs as we just couldn't remember all the words. We totally blew the 12 days of Christmas. Then we had our gift exchange. Sunday was the Pastor's Annual Open Houses. Every year the church is invited out to all three of the Pastor's houses and of course once again lots of food.

I'm finally going to finish off my Christmas shopping on Thursday I think. Maybe I'll be in the mood for Christmas then, we'll see. I think most of the people are just going to get gift cards.

We still don't have a baby. The baby was due yesterday. Saturday my brother and sister-in-law had Melissa and John over to their house to give them the cradle Kevin made for the baby. John knew about it but Melissa didn't. They said she was so happy she was in tears. That's going to be a heirloom as Grandpa made it for his first grandchild. It's a few hours later now and my mom said Melissa is in hard labor now. Her water broke so she went to the hospital. So by end of the day we should have a baby. On our sister-in-laws birthday. (This is the week with lots of birthdays and anniversaries in our family.)

I am stitching on Santa I can Explain. It is coming slow but sure. The cat looks so sweet and innocent I wonder what he could have done! You'll find out eventually at least those of you who don't have the magazine. Well....until next time Happy Stitching!

Picture of Whiskers

Whiskers was complaining because I haven't shown any pictures of him recently and he has seen the other cats on line so here is a picture of him. Honest his eyes really aren't that scary, I don't know what was with that picture. I took it a few years ago.

Last night I went to a Christmas Sing-along at one of our BGC churches. I got to see the two people I really wanted to. One was a former Pastor of our church who is now 93 I think and Pastor to Seniors at this particular church. He is amazing, we should all be so active at 93. The other was a lady I knew long ago. Her older sister use to babysit us when we were young. (Linda was my favorite baby sitter and to this day I remember her so well with the love and compassion she showed us.) Sharon babysat when Linda couldn't. Anyway I hadn't seen Sharon since my youngest brother was 2 and then I saw her again at Center Lake 2 or 3 years ago. Last night I saw her again and talked to her some. It was nice. It's funny how many years it's been and you just don't forget some people. Sharon and Linda and their family are among those special people. I got caught up on some of the news of the family as they really had a hard year this year with two major losses and other things. So it was good to know they were okay. They are a strong family with strong faith.
Now I wish I could find a few other peoople but oh well...I guess I feel nostalgic. I even got in contact with an old college roomate again.

Over the weekend my nephew, Bryan, moved to Chicago area. He is starting his first job as an Electrical Engineer today. He graduates from college in spring but his studies are done. My nieces and nephews are all growing up to fast. Only 2 are in school one in 5th grade and the other in 12th grade.

On the stitching front I started Santa I can Explain. I found in Just Cross Stitch. It's a cat with a Christmas tree bulb. Reminded me of my brother's cat who died this past Aug. She loved playing with the bulbs on the christmas tree if she could get away with it. Whiskers has never seen a Christmas Tree, I don't think he would leave it alone. Well until next time Happy Stitching!

Teapot is finished

Well here is No.8 towards the 50 challenge! I'm very unhappy with this one but have to send it. If they don't use it for the quilt that's okay. I think it turned out sloppy and made a couple of mistakes and I tried to correct them, but with the same result. I'm not doing anymore of these Teapots!
I do have the material and thread pulled for my Christmas cat.

Pieces I have finished towards the 50 challenge:
1. Room for One More
2. Boo
3. Teddy & Pumpkins
4. Serenity Heart
5. Bathing Puppy
6. Perhaps I should Retire
7. Give Thanks
8. Tea Pot

Yet to do
1. Santa I can Explain starting today
2. Eeyore
3. Pigglet
4. Tigger
5. Winnie The Pooh
6. Birth Announcment
7. Our Friendship (PM piece)
8. Eiffel Tower
9. Angel
10. Lighthouse
11. Bent Creek's Winter Wonderland (4 pieces really)
12. Christmas Wish
I have enough to keep me busy for a while.
Until next time Happy Stitching

The Weather Outside is Frightful

And I'm staying inside all day. I'm going to stitch and stitch and vaccuum and clean the bathroom and stitch some more. My brother was going to take me up to the store, but I'm going to call him and tell him to stay home. I hope dad doesn't go to Sr. Resources to work but I think he will. They say the snow is falling 1 to 2 inches an hour although to be honest it doesn't look that bad to me. But does look nasty out there.

Well I flunked my Nov. goals so bad my Dec. goals are very simple. They are:
1. Finish the teapot this afternoon or tomorrow.
2. Do a Christmas cat
3. Either do the Chrstimas snowmen or the angel
4. Start either the PM piece or Eeyore.

I am still working on the teapot. I did make a mistake as I should have done 712 in last few rows and did 739. Didn't discover it until I had the outlining in, I'm just going to leave it, it's not that big of a deal. Well until next time Happy Stitching!