Finally a finish!

It took close to two months to finish this but it is finished. Between problems with my eyes and the headaches this small piece took a while. I'm hoping Cardinal and Dogwood goes faster. Looks like it will be easier the print is bigger and not as much back stitching.

August 14 was my birthday. My niece took me out for breakfast and then I spent the day with her and her 4 children. It really was nice. Since my brother totaled his car and won't be getting a new one soon she has taken us grocery shopping a couple of times. Which is nice. Also Tim's son has helped us out.

We've had a lot of hot days this summer and the streak continues. Although it is suppose to cool down Thur and Fri then get hot again. I'll take this over winter though. Why do summers go so fast and winters go so slow?

August was a slower month for the cat shelter which we knew that, but we still adopted out 6 cats and I don't know how many kittens were adopted from Petco or us. I think they said there were 24 adoptions. We were happy as we've had more adoptions so far this year then we had all last year put together. Last weekend I think we broke records for us. I was a "Doubting Thomas" thinking "It's Labor Day Weekend no cats or kittens will get adopted." Boy was I wrong! Five cats adopted from the shelter plus 2 put on hold and at least 10 kittens adopted from Petco. WOW! Of course last week we took in a mom and 4 kittens, then a mom with 8 kittens (which floored us. When the lady down the hall from me told me about them, she thought there were only 4) But when Mel went to pick them up from Marlene's brother's there were 8. Then later in week another mom and 4 kittens came in. It's kitten season! We had some new volunteers come in from another agency who told them they were no longer needed because they had paid staff so they came to us last year. That Shelters lost was our gain, they really got things moving for us knew how to market us, brought in the Shelter Manager and really were able to promote us more then we had been able to in the past.

BSF starts next Wed. I can't wait. This year's study will be Children of the Promise Land (I think is title of it) Part 1, Judges-Song of Solomon I think they said, that's a lot of books. Some may contain more then others will though. Probably next year will be Part 2 Lamentations-Malachi). Since we did New Testament 3 years in a row I imangine we'll do Old Testament 2 years in row anyway.

Well, I'm going to read a few blogs and start my new project. Until next time Happy Stitching!

Mayflower (MA State Flower)

Good afternoon! I thought it was about time I posted on my blog. This is a piece I've been working on for about a month. My kind of piece small but detailed. I think I need to get more ink for my printer though as it says I'm out and I see each scan I do is lighter then the one before.

It's been an eventful month. My brother totaled his car and he was the one that took me everyone. He's not getting another one. His son is taking us some places and a friend of Tim's is taking him other places or he's taking the bus. So far I've been able to get rides when I need them. Like to the Church, Food Pantry and Cat Shelter. Tomorrow Heaven Can Wait and us are having a booth at a craft fair in Fruitport. I'll be working at it noon to 4. They say it's a big fund raiser for us.

Speaking of the Cat Shelter as expected August has proven to be a fairly slow month. People are taking last minute vacations, going camping one last time getting kids ready for school so they don't think about getting cats. Although our kittens are getting adopted. I fostered a kitten for 5 days in July. He showed up at a lady's down the hall and she couldn't keep it asked me for help. So I called our Director and she said we could take him if I fostered him. So I did and I named him Smog. He's a real cute gray kitten. Anyways Smog quit eating on me and I totally went bonkers. Finally someone at the shelter told me to get ahold of Janie (our director). Janie came and got him Sunday and he wouldn't eat for her so she got him in to the Vet on Tues. He was teething, had swollen gums, diarhea and a fever. So they took care of eat, and by the weekend he was eating and very happily playing with the other kittens she was fostering and the cats. She's keeping him until he's ready to be neutered or until we can get him in. It should be fairly soon.

My niece and her husband made a huge announcement. They are adopting a 15 year old from South America. He was one of those that came up illegally and got sent back to the orphanage. He spent a couple nights with them but he stayed with friends of theirs and they did things together. My niece and her husband took in over 60 children . Most were reunited with their families after a week or two, a couple others stayed longer. Right now they are taking a break from it and just enjoying their own 4 children. It's a long process but probably next summer they will be going to South America, living there 4 to 6 weeks then bring the boy home.

I don't know if I mentioned it earlier but my brother in law was diagnosed with a terminal illness earlier this year then had a heart attack a week later. So it's been a roller coaster ride as sometimes it looked good for him to get a new liver (especially since he never smoked, or drank or did drugs), and other times it didn't. This past Monday he was finally strong enough for them to put a stent in his heart and they found a second blockage so put another one in today. After that if all goes well, they will be able to evaluate him in 6 months for a liver transplant. Let's pray it all goes well. He is in end stage of the disease but he can live a while yet. They can now proceed with tests on his liver. It was a circle they couldn't do anything with his heart because of his liver, they couldn't do anything with his liver because of his heart. Finally they said it's now or never, while the disease had progressed, Ken is feeling stronger. So hopefully it will be an uphill climb from here on out.

Well, until next time, Happy Stitching!

Our Flag was still there

Good evening. I said I was just doing small pieces for a while and this is another one. I wanted to do something Patriotic and dug this out. I think this is one of the designs that came out right after 9-11 about 9-11.

My niece is home now and seems to be doing well. Monday she gets her hemoglobin checked again just to be sure. She is so creative, she loves to sew and she made herself some colostomy bags to put over the bag itself.

How was everyone's fouth mine was quiet. I had the chance to go to a pool party but it was so hot that day I passed on it. I stayed inside with my air conditioner.

Well.....until next time....Happy stitching!

Remember The Alamo!

Good afternoon! It is so hot out there I'm staying inside with the air conditioning on! We are in middle of a heat wave that goes through next week although at least after Monday it'll be down to the upper 80's. This is Michigan we do not tolerate warm weather like this! I get out earlier to water my plants, they seem to be doing well. Most of them like the sun.

Sorry if this picture shows up twice. I don't think it worked the first time so I did it again. Anyway this is second kit my brother sent me to do for him and his wife or their grand daughter. One for them, one for Chelsea. I loved doing these pieces. They were small but detailed. I've now started another small piece. With the 4th of July next week I am doing a patriotic piece called " Our Flag was still there"

This past week has been a rollar coaster ride but it looks like it's better now. My youngest niece was told her colon had to be removed. She wasn't responding to those expensive infusions she was getting every month, wasn't responding to steroids and it got to point where she couldn't keep anything down and was in constant pain. Wed. the colon was removed, Thursday she was doing great, but then Friday she blacked out and ended up in ICU, she was bleeding internally but didn't know where. This morning at 6 it showed her hemoglobin dropped during the night and they were going to do a cat scan on her stomach to see if they could find where she was bleeding from but at 9 am her hemoglobin was fine so they cancelled the cat scan. She is hoping to go home Monday. Her father-in-law is with the family for a few days to help them, and her mother (my sister-in-law) is flying out there the end of week to be with them for two weeks. Their church has really been helping them out with their 3 and 4 year old boys while Jared works. Christina is very anxious to go home to her babies. Through all she went through the past two years never did she complain or whine. In fact early this morning she posted she has troubles for now but she had a big bat and soon her troubles would have a huge problem. She never lost her faith never asked "Why God" or anything she just knew God would get her through this. She really is an inspiration and encouragement to people and someone to look up to.

Well, until next time Happy Stitching.

A Small Finish

Good afternoon. Between the headaches and now an eye infection I've done very little stitching. I finally am getting back into it but may be small pieces for a while. My brother sent me two kits. One to do for him and his wife and the other for their Grand Daughter Chelsea. Chelsea really liked The Alamo when she was down their visiting them This piece is the smaller of the two kits. I like this designer but man her kits are expensive. I do love the needle she has with them. Like other designers doesn't really include enough material to frame the piece. Fortunately I had some material here that's a very close match to hers so I did it on that.

I love the warmer weather and seeing the flowers start to bloom in my small garden. (I live in an apartment so they don't have large gardens.) I can't wait for the hydrangias to bloom they are so pretty.

We had a kitten shower a couple of weeks ago and were really happy with the results. A lot of people came through so the kittens got a lot of food, toys, etc. And 4 kittens were adopted out. Plus we got $100.00 in donations. It was a rainy day that day so we were really afraid no one would come out, maybe just the volunteers but we were pleasantly surprised.

Well....until next time....Happy Stitching. I'm off to read some blogs.

Update on European Finches

I have laid this piece down for now as I need to get a cat piece done for a girl from the cat shelter. She graduates next week. Hopefully Whiskers will be done by end of June. I've had a lot of trouble with headaches etc. lately so have done very little stitching, Hopefully I'll get back into it. Also had problems with my eyes. Hopefully I'll get new glasses in about 3 weeks since my appointment is next week.

We were adopting out cats and kittens right and left for a while. Now the summer months are here so it will slow down. People go on vacations and don't want to worry about having to find someone take care of their cat when they are gone. But so far this year we've adopted out 120 cats and kittens so far this year which exceeds any of the previous years so we're happy. Sat. June 9 we are having a kitten shower so more kittens will go that day. Last year was a blast I loved working in and we got a lot of food, litter, etc that was needed.

Well....until next time.....Happy Stitching!

Just a quick post

My brother framed the Cardinal piece and will be sending it to his Grand Daughter with a note telling how her Great Grandma loved Cardinals and a little about her. She only saw our mom once when she was 3 years old and she's 9 now. I hope Chelsea will like it.

One flower down, 1/2 bird down Two leaves down and a lot more to go

Oh and a finish!

I finished this a couple of weeks ago and never posted it. It probably will go to Faithful to Felines to sell. I love these cats but they are tricky. If you don't concentrate you make mistakes, I ended up frogging a whole lot of it but was glad I did. Speaking of the cat shelter, we had 55 cats and kittens adopted out in March! We are thrilled, people are finally finding out we are there.

My new stitching obsession are designs by Crossed Wing Collection I love them. I ordered a couple of them with some other patterns last month or was it Feb. as I ordered the one I finished a couple weeks ago at the same time. I was bad one night and ordered 8 patterns then a 9th one a few days later and I don't regret it.

Slowly but surely I am getting my books and patterns in order according to subject. I had them that way but over time messed them up. I must have over 1,000 books plus the patterns!

How was everyone's Easter? Mine was very quiet. I just had my brother come over and he wasn't feeling well so left soon afterwards. We had a real exciting meal....Lee's Chicken! With the headaches I've been having I didn't feel up to cooking. Last Wed.-Sun. were horrible. Finally feeling like I'm on planet earth at least. But I've had it with these headaches.

Tomorrow my sister and brother-in-law are coming in with their two grandchildren for a few hours anyway. It's Spring Break and both Kay and Ken have just retired so they thought they would go to their daughter's a couple of nights. Heather and Bryan are putting a couple of bedrooms in their basement so Kay and Ken can stay there when in town, and any other member of Heather's family that comes in from out of town or state. Kay and Ken had planned on moving to this side of state but Ken was recently diagnosed with a terminal illness and for now has to stay on that side of state. Maybe in a couple years they can move over here if things go well.

Well...until next time Happy Stitching! I'm going to go catch up on blogs. I've not only been bad about blogging but bad about coming here and reading posts.

Mickey Mouse Finished

Good Morning. I love this weather we are having. Not quite spring but at least no snow! I'm not naive enough to think we won't get any more snow for rest of season, we're not in clear until mid April or a little later.

I finished Mickey Mouse piece and have given it to a friend who likes Disney things. Now I'm doing another easy piece by Brittercup Designs called Lucky Cat. That too is very easy

In Feb we adopted out 43 cats which has to be a record for us. Last year was a really good year from us as far as cat adoptions and this year so far is even better. Petco is having an adoption event this year and gives so much money per a cat adopted as long as we do 5 adoptions so Barb (not me another Barb) took a bunch of kittens out there plus some cats. We should get at least 5 adopted out over the weekend. Although another organization was taking about 60 kittens out there so we'll see. Right now we don't have 60 kittens and not all the kittens are ready to be adopted. But kitten season is coming right around the corner. Last year we took in over 300 kittens and their mothers, most of the kittens were adopted some of the mothers.
This year they said we would not take in that many, they are going to put a limit this time. May be easier said then done.

Well....until next time......Happy Stitching

Cardinal finished

Good morning. It is finally warming up around here but now we are due to get a lot of rain and with all the snow we've had there are fears of flooding. Not so much in my area I don't think but closer to the Lake, River and other lakes. I'll be glad when winter is over it's been a harsh winter.

I finished this Cardinal in memory of my mom last week and have mailed it to my brother who wanted it for his grand daughter to have a link to her great grandma. It'll be a link to him to as the HS we went to had nickname of Cardinals. Now I'm doing a Mickey Mouse piece I've done once or twice before for a friend who likes Disney Designs. I may even do Lady and the Tramp for her too.

About 3 weeks ago my brother-in-law got diagnosed with a terminal illness which shocked his family. Then last week he had a heart attack. Fortunately it was a mild one. For the last 5 years Kay and Ken said they were going to retire. Ken in Feb. 2018 and Kay in March 2018, sell their house, move to this side of state. (Grand Rapids area near their youngest daughter and family. Then travel to see their older daughter in CO and son in Chicago area (in Toronto area for next year in a half). They still plan on retiring both of their companies have their notices. Ken is hoping to work half days to end of this month once he gets clearance from the Dr. And they do plan on moving, in fact when the kids were all there last week they took a lot of their parents furniture to Good Will. We're hoping their house sells fast. As far as traveling well....we'll have to see on that. My sister is just mentally exhausted by the events of the last 3 weeks and she isn't too willing to talk about any of it at this point.

I also have some pictures of "My babies" from room 6, at the Cat Shelter. Room 6 is known as the "Shy room" and the "Cat Maffia" as these cats are so bonded and quite a few have been there 4 or 5 years because of their shyness. Anyways my very favorite cat, Cloud, who is the big gray one bumping heads with Neeson, and his best friend , Sunny, (the orange cat ) left the shelter for good. One of our fosters left room 6 and came in the hall and says to me "I just love Cloud I want him for my Valentines Day present so bad." I said take him, if he is one of the few he'll even let pet him, take him, take Sunny too, he'll do much better with Sunny. I talked hard to her and she wasn't sure yet said she'd be talking to our Director about Cloud anyway. I PM'd our Director (who fostered Sunny and Cloud and knew they had to be together to do well.) and asked her to talk Jordan into taking Sunny with Cloud. SUCCESS she took both Sunny and Cloud last Tuesday and said they were not coming back. And both are doing better then expected . It only took a couple of days for them to come out of hiding but they go up on a shelf not making it easy for Jordan to pet them, but they have let her. I will miss them so much especially Cloud who was my "special baby". He let so few people pet him but those he did he gave good head buts too, and even let us kiss him and even cuddled up to us. The picture of Cloud and Dax shows the bond the cats in that room have. Topper, Neeson, Dax and Barnetta along with some newer cats remain in that room and we so hope to get those 4 adopted out 2 by 2 as they would do best. Also Adso was adopted from that room last week, he was the newest cat in the room and wasn't with us long. I knew he wouldn't be he was so friendly and such a nice cat. So I go back to the shelter tonight and will go to room 6, swallow hard as my baby won't be there but happy for him. I do have Jordan on Facebook and she will give me updates on those two. Tonight Cowboy and Reese from room 3 will be leaving together. Cowboy is another my favorites but he deserves a home. He was found in the dumpster outside of the shelter, the people didn't even have the courtesy to bring him in. He was in rough shape but he's fine now and has a great personality. He lost a part of his ear from either abuse or ear mites. Reese is another very shy cat so we're glad she's going with one of her room mates even though it's not her sister. Well enough on the shelter.

Well...until next time.....Happy Stitching!

Getting my stitching mojo back

Good Morning. I know it's been a while since I've blogged. I started a couple of pieces and they ended up in the garbage. Finally got this piece out and it's going great. I love doing it. An online friend did a lot of pieces by Crossed Wing Collection that I loved. I'm not a bird lover at all but I loved the pieces she was showing so I ordered a couple of their patterns and I love them. This is only after about 8 hours of stitching. It's going quickly and I've had to do very little frogging. I do have to improvise just a tiny bit as I can't find the mistake I made but no one will ever know not even me as it doesn't take away from the final outcome of the piece.

It's been hard to get into stitching until now because of the headaches and neckaches I've been having. I have arthritis in the neck and that's also giving me some good headaches so I've only stitched a little at a time. Plus my eyes are changing I think so I am picking easier patterns for a while. I think in the Spring when the weather is warmer the arthritis pain will go away and so will the headaches. I hope anyway.

We've had our share of snow this winter. We did get the Jan. thaw which was great. Now we are in the deep freeze and lots of snow again. At least there are only 28 days to Feb and then it's March. I know Mar. and Apr. bring good storms but at least there are nice days in between and we know the snow is coming to an end.

Well....until next time......Happy Stitching!