Cute, quick finish

I bought this pattern a couple of years ago. I thought it was cute and funny. I did this on the side of The Caretaker. It really went quick. Besides it was a quick piece to get me toward the 50 mark. This is #9, still have a long ways to go. Now to find another easy piece to do on side of The Caretaker. Sometimes the Caretaker is so intense, you feel like stitching but not something that difficult, especailly late afternoon, early evening, these small easy pieces are great to do then!Well until next time Happy Stitching!

Back to The Caretaker

I picked this piece back up Sunday and started stitching on it again. Today didn't go to well with it but tomorrow will be a better day. This is progress after 220 hours of stitching on it.

I have a small piece out to do along side of this. It's sort of a funny but cute piece. It won't take long to stitch up.

Our weather has been so cold and snowy. Last night alone we received 10 inches plus whatever fell today. It's suppose to snow off and on through tomorrow. My sister was going to come to town today but because of the weather isn't. None of the schools were open today either. I knocked the icicles off my deck this morning and less then 2 hours later they were back again. What was the use. My mom says their dog doesn't mind the snow but hates the cold, and this snow she sinks down into it instead of staying on top so she doesn't like that too well. It's low teens now but this weekend we are suppose to get to 30's. The snow is pretty to look at especially fresh but I'm ready for Spring. But we have about 3 more months of snow to deal with yet.

Thank you for reading my blog and for the comments you have left on it. I really appreciate them.

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

They are Finished!

Thank you for all the comments to my blog lately. I really appreciate them.

I loved doing this piece. They really went fairly quick for as detailed they are. I will be doing more animals from this book believe me! The only reason this piece took as long as I did is because I did railroad all the way through it. It takes longer but makes the stitches lay flatter and look neater. I love the look and worth the extra time it takes. This is no 7 toward the 50 challenge. I'm not flying through it but that's okay. I have over 860 books and kits, not counting the magazines and have only stitched from a little over 220 of them. I need to stitch more from what I have! Now they are done I will be going back to The Caretaker.

It is not nice out there. Yesterday we had temps sub zero and snow and this is to continue through tomorrow. I'm ready for spring! Oh well....this is the first real winter we've had in a couple of years.

It's too bad as today we are having a potluck at church and our Annual Business Meeting and the turnout will be poor because of the weather.

Well I want to get a little stitching done and I have to make my dish to pass so guess I better go. Until next time Happy Stitching!

Golden Lion Tamrin

This is moving right along. I really hope to finish this over the weekend or Monday. I'll have quite a bit of time today and tomorrow to stitch it and don't really have that much to do. This is progress after 72 hours of stitching. I think I'm going to be using my digital camera for the finished piece my scanner isn't quite wide enough to get all of it in.

Is everyone keeping warm? It's cold out then and going to get colder. I'm ready for winter to end. This year we are really getting winter. Although I wouldn't call it a hard winter. We've just had consistant snow only a couple days of it being really nasty.

Today is my sister's birthday. So Happy Birthday Kay. I don't think she even knows about this blog so probably won't see it. She's not much for computers except to get in touch with her 3 children.

Sunday we are having our Annual Business Meeting and potluck at church. I'm with Pastor have the meeting first then eat. It'll be a quick meeting then as everyone will want to eat. But we'll eat first. We're having our election of officers. I'm going off Equip Board and on to the Evangelism Board. If you're nominated you're voted in.

Until next time Happy Stitching

Golden Lion Tamarin Updated

I've gotten quite a bit of progress done on this the past few days. It really is a fun stitch.

I have a question I want to add Feedjit to my Template to see where visitors come from but can't figure out where to add it. Could someone instruct me on it?

It's been a wierd weather week here. Earlier this week we had severe storms and tornado warnings out. Now we have snow! Of course snow is more typical in January.

I have a busy weekend ahead so probably won't get much stitching in now until Monday. Tomorrow I have to go to a workshop at church. They want the Elders, those and those going to the board and Evangelism Board Members and those going to the Board to go to it. I am going to be going on the Evangelism Board in Feb. so have to go to the meeting. Then Sunday after church we are going to my brother's house to celebrate my dad's birthday. His birthday was yesterday.

Well until next time Happy Stitching.

Golden Lion Tamarin (Monkey

Happy New Year everyone! Hope you all had a good and safe New Year weekend.

They say these are monkey's and I guess they look like them except for the fur around their face. I really love stitching this piece. It's coming along fairly fast and easy. I'm railroading on it so it slows me down some but I want to make railroading a habit as the stitching is so much neater that way. This piece will be going to our Youth Pastor's baby boy. His wife asked me to do either a zebra, monkey, or elephant and I chose to do these monkey's. I love the animals in this book and will be doing 3 more sometime between now and May.

Last week was fairly quiet, this week will be somewhat busier. I half expect my sister to come into town Tues. & Wed. but not sure.


Last night we had our Contemporary Worship service but the attendance really was down. I think it's because of the Holidays, everyone just wanted a relaxing night home. I only had 3 kids in the children's program so that was nice expecially since I was alone the two that usually work with me were not there either. But the kids are pretty good and we behaved.

Well for some reason I'm tired I'm going to lay down a little. My cat likes to wake me up early and this morning he was successful in getting me up at 6 am. So if I lay down a half hour I'll make it through rest of day. Until next time Happy Stitching!

Finish # 6

I just finished this about an hour ago. This angel will go to Ashley V at Love Quilts who chose Angels as theme of her quilt. This was a fun piece to do. Now to start stitching on the Monkey's for our Youth Pastor's baby.

It's hard to believe 2007 is now at an end. It's been a very interesting year and ended in a way we never thought it would. It's been a year of the good and bad but we all got through it. Now to move on to 2008. I hope you all Have a Happy New Year. Until next time Happy Stitching!

A New Start

I am a little past half way on done on this angel. There is a lot of white but I really am enjoying it. It's fairly easy and is coming together well. Much better than Baby Jesus was. (That one I will try to finish next Christmas Season. I promise.) It's too cute of a piece and I put too much time into it to not finish it then. As far as this piece goes I hope to finish up Monday but we'll see. It'd be nice to start a new piece (an Endangered Young'uns piece) on the first day of 2008.
If I don't have this finished then I hope you all have a Happy and Safe New Year. Until next time Happy Stitching!

Family Christmas

I am having a problem with my asthma and acid reflux so I thought I would come to the computer and try posting some pictures of our family Christmas today. I didn't get very many pictures though most of them had either Johnny or Ashton in them. They were our two little stars today anyway. Hopefully I am doing these right. It is almost 2 am I'll try going to bed after this post as things are finally starting to calm down and I think I'll be able to sleep. My brother Tim's grandson, Ashton found a friend in John (my niece's husband and liked roughing up with him.
This picture is of my sister in law Beth and her grandson, Johnny, yes she got him a few times.
This one is of Ashton and John. Ashton really took to John..
This one is my brother Kevin and his Grandson Johnny who is now 1. He loves his Grandpa and pretty much stuck to him today. That is when he wasn't crawling around to get into mishief. He's at that age curious about everything.
I can see I didn't do this exactly right but this is first time I was able to do Multiple pictures and at least have them gone almost the way I wanted so practice makes perfect. Sorry if you get confused. On the picture of Beth and Johnny you can see my Niece, Christina, and Nephew, Jeremy in back ground, Jeremy is really blurred he must have moved just then. and on (I think Ashton and John roughing it up you can see my dad in background. I also see some of the pictures aren't the best quality. Sorry, I'll try to figure out later what I did wrong.
On the stitching front I have quit stitching on Baby Jesus. I just couldn't handle it any longer, so laid it down until next Christmas. I am stitching on an Angel for a little girl at Love Quilts. I'll post a picture of it in a few days. Well, until next time Happy Stitching!

More Progress on Baby Jesus

It's been a little while since I posted. I've been gone day and night the last few days. It's been really busy. My poor cat had his nose out of joint as I was never home and when I returned he could smell my parents dog on me! How dare I dessert him for another animal! Today I'm staying home all day! Neither one of us are going to know how to act. Oh I have housework to do but I'm stitching instead!

I finished my Christmas shopping yesterday! A friend took me and we really had fun. It was so nice to do something away from church and with someone other than family. Not putting either one down, but it was just a nice break. Now to get those Christmas Cards out! They are on my table, and some are addressed.

My mom is doing really good. She continues to have a great attitude which really helps in her recovery. In a couple of weeks she'll get fitted for her prosthesis.

Baby Jesus is going very slow. I do fear a little more improvising is going to be done, so I'm going to the angel on the left and just do the improvising on the blanket. I'm still really not enjoying this piece. I will be so glad when it's done. Hopefully before Christmas which is 4 days away!

We are having our family Christmas Dec. 26, at least those who can be there. Several are out of state and my niece, Tabitha, lives in town but she might have to work so we don't know if her or her little boy, Ashton will be there.

Well if I don't post before Christmas Have a Merry Christmas. Until next time, Happy Stitching!

Baby Jesus WIP

This is the piece you have heard me whine about. The verdict is still out as to enjoying it, but it does go better at times! This is #6 towards the 50 challenge and no. 5 towards the 25 challenge of stitching from 25 books or magazines I haven't stitched from before.

It is snowing heavy out sides. They are huge flakes falling from the sky. Keep that up we'll be buried in a few hours! LOL! Oh well it is Dec. and it's early in the season. Maybe it will leave in Feb. instead of March or Apr. I can only hope! And maybe we will have our White Christmas. We haven't had a pure White Christmas for awhile. Last year it was green and the year before very little snow.
It is pretty to look out at but I'm going out in it in about 30 minutes to go up and see my mom.

Today is Johnny's first birthday! Can you believe he is already a year old. We had a party for him on Sunday. It was fun but so many people were there. There were 5 babies (including Johnny) under 1 2 or 3 toddlers, and about 5 other kids 10 or under plus 3 older. It was noisy! But Johnny was so cute. He wasn't sure he liked everyone at his house and he definitely wasn't sure about the babies playing with his toys, but he was good.

I'm going to go back to stitching. Until next time Happy Stitching!

Swirly Snow

This is finish #5 towards the 50 challenge. I started this a while back but got it back out yesterday to finish it. I love the look of white on black fabric so I chose to do it this way. You could use whatever color and whatever material you wanted. I enjoyed this piece so much I may try using another color of floss and material in the future, just for the variation.

Well until next time Happy Stitching

Swirly Snow Update

I have been working on this a little the past couple of days just to get a break from Baby Jesus. That one angel is just giving me fits. Maybe Monday I'll post a picture of that. I hope to finish this piece tomorrow but not sure. I have a busy weekend ahead. I'll get some stitcing in tomorrow morning I think.

Our SS class is having a Christmas potluck at the church tomorrow. We were to bring a $5.00 gift exchange. I got told what to bring for the potluck and as a gift. My 7 layer bars. I don't like those things they are too rich but so many people like them. So tomorrow I'll make 2 batches of my seven layer bars, one to eat and the other as a gift. Hmmm....wonder if I would get away with that for our family Christmas Dec. 26, having the 7 layer bars be a gift too. We'll see. I still have to get 3 more gifts so I may just pick up a gift then too.

I just got back from seeing my mom. She's doing really good. She is in Rehab right now and will come home for good next Friday.

Well...until next time Happy Stitching!

Just an Update

This particular piece was done a couple of years ago but thought I would post it now with the events of this past week.

My mom decided to have her foot amputated. She really was at peace about it. Thursday, my mom, dad, and sister all met with the Dr. to really have a discussion on mom's options. Yes they could have attempted to save her foot but it would have meant 2 to 4 surgeries in the next few days and no guarantees. Then when they finally did put the new rod and screws in that the screws wouldn't break loose again. Each surgery now and future would also increase the risk of another infection and going higher in her leg. If it went obove the knee because of her age she would not get a prosethesis. Whereas now she could and probably walk better than she has. So she decided on the amputation. She is recovering very well and will probably go to Rehab tomorrow.

My procedure went fine. They did find some palyps which the Dr. does not expect to be cancerous and they can usually pretty much tell on site. He did send one of them to be biopsied just to make sure. He did say to start eating 5 small meals a day rather then 1 or 2 big meals. I tend to skip breakfast and supper just eat lunch. That is difficult for me.

We have been hit by winter! It's been a dreary week but we got hit by the storm Friday and Sat. nights. We woke up to lots of ice this morning. And it's still yucky out there, dark and dreary, rainish. Just not a nice day out there. We told dad not to go see mom tonight as it's so slippery out there. Rather or not he'll listen who knows. Mom would rather he stayed home too.

I am slowly working on Baby Jesus by Stoney Creek. I will post my progress on it in a couple of days. I just haven't had that much time to stitch on the piece with all that's been happening. Until next time Happy Stitching!

Shocking News

This isn't the shocking news that will come after this. But this is a piece I finished last fall and my sister framed it brought it back with her Monday. It's hanging in my parents room now.

I haven't had much time to stitch this past week and probably won't until stitch a lot until the weekend. The next few days are going to be rough and hectic.

I've mentioned my parents health problems before and that my mom had a second ankle surgery taking out the screws putting in earlier as they broke loose. The surgery was a month ago. It was healing good but then last week in Physical Therapy the therapist noticed a blister on back of her foot. So the therapist called the Dr. Her regular Dr. wasn't there and she saw one of his partners. That partner was not nice and just says..."That is just a popped blister." and put a small bandaid on it and left. Yea right with all that drainage! My dad rewrapped it. Thursday morning she found a second popped blister that was draining very bad so dad called the office emergency. That Dr. was really nice told dad how to wrap it and prescribed a strong antibiotic. That seemed to be working so we thought. Although mom and dad could feel the screw at bottom of her foot. She went back to the Dr. and received really bad news and her and dad have 24 hours to make their decision. One is they can redo the surgery clean everything out and put a rod in. No guarantees that will work. Or two lose her her leg up to the shin bone. Needless to say mom is very upset and dad is concearned. My sister left yesterday but she's coming back today to be with mom. Kay is a RN and she wants to talk to someone in the Dr. office etc.

Also tomorrow I have a scope scheduled to find out if my Acid Reflux Disease has progressed or if something else is going on in my stomach. I've had problems with my chest and upper stomach for months now and the past couple weeks have been worse. I was going to cancel it by my family will be very upset if I do. Don't know how I'll get to the hospital as I don't drive. Maybe if my sister is still here she will take me. I just hope it isn't bad news. If it is I'm not telling my parents at this point.

I usually don't ask this and I usually try to be up beat but we are really concearned about our parents they are up in age and both have CHF. So please pray for them as they make this decision. Thank you.

At last a Finish

This is finish no. 4 towards the 25-50 challenge. (Twenty five books I haven't stitched from or 50 pieces altogether. So far this counts as 4 both ways. It was a quick easy finish. Now to go start the Christmas piece I kitted up.

I'm keeping this one short as I've said plenty the last few days. Until next time. Happy Stitching!

Thanksgiving

How was everyone's Thanksgiving? Ours was good. This picture is funny. My niece's husband held up this big Turkey Leg asked who wanted it and 12-year-old Andrew spoke up for it. So here he is holding up the Turkey Leg before we all get ready to eat. He didn't eat quite all of it, but he gave it a good try. We had so much food and it was fun.

My nephew Bryan and his fiancee Krissy made it in from Chicago. They just announced their engagement and Krissy has a beautiful ring. It had been a couple of years since I had seen Bryan and he has sure matured a lot. He was a 21 year old kid and Krissy had just came into his life when I last saw him at Heather's Wedding 23 months ago. He was a man now not a kid. Michelle made it in from OR. Michelle the vegetarian, and Heather who had never made a turkey before made the turkey and did a good job. The meal was so good. Bryan did take some teasing from us because he was asked to bring the ingrediants for Greaen Bean Casserole and Krissy would make it up at Heather's house. Well, he brought a can of Peas along with the other stuff. He felt peas belonged in the casserole.

My sister and brother-in-law made it in with their dog from other side of state. Because of a skin problem healing up they didn't want to kennel Maveric. He got along well with Heather and Brian's dog, Trisket. The dogs were in the basement most of the time, but some of us went and saw them and the dogs were brought up a couple of times to greet everyone. Michelle and I took the dogs for a walk and Trisket for being so big was so good to walk with. She didn't pull, she just walked beside me. Maverick is on a mission when he walks, he just wants to walk, Trisket wanted to "stop and smell the flowers" and observe everything.

It was a fun day that ended too soon. Fortunately the weather was decent for us I don't know about those going to other side of the state. Today it is snowing out so let the Christmas Holidays begin I guess.

Well until next time Happy Stitching! I hope to have Autumn's Harvest finished tomorrow morning so I'll post then.

Start No. 4-Swirly Snow

I decied to lay down The Caretaker for a few days to do a couple of easy projects. This piece is called Swirly Snow. It's a SAL with some members at 123 stitch. One of the members designed it and we really liked it. I will have to lay it down for the day since it is on black and the sun just isn't out today and it's getting drearier out so lighting is poor. I'm going to start Autumn Harvest by Brittercup Designs. That one I will work on in the car tomorrow on our way to my niece's house. We call it my "shut up" piece that way I'm not all over the driver who in this case will be my dad. We are taking the back way as it is much quicker and easier than getting on to the expressway. As long as we don't get behind a slowpoke.
Hopefully the roads are clear for my nephew and his girlfriend coming in from Chicago and my niece is flying in from OR. Hopefully she will miss the messy weather.

Michelle will be in MI for a week although most of it at her parents on other side of state. Tues. we are having a mini get together as some won't be there tomorrow. We are hoping Tabitha can take her noon hour and join us and meet Michelle. She looks so much like Michelle. (Tabitha is my niece but we only recently learned about her long story I don't care to go into at this point). Michelle has a job interview at a college near here on Monday. In the spring her Internship ends so her and Scott have applied to be Professors at several different colleges. Needless to say they are applying all over but going to live where they can either be at the same college or a college near by. (Both have their Phd.'s in Chemistry)

Our weather is iffy the next couple of days although they said today would be bad and so bad it's not. Tomorrow is suppose to be okay, snow or rain at times but not bad.

Well Hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving. Until next time Happy Stitching!

The Caretaker 200 Hours

I've done a lot of stitching this past week and got quit a bit further. Three in a half pages are now completed. Page 4 is going quite fast and so far it's been my favorite page. You can see the elk just barely coming in. I have now stitched on it 200 hours and will still keep at it.

My mom felt like she was Queen for the Day at church. This lady gave her a lot of jewlery she had made. It was beautiful stuff. This lady is very talented in crafts she can do almost everything including cross stitching, quilting, fabric painting, sewing, jewlery making. Well you got the idea. Than another lady made some Pecan Pie and gave her a piece to make sure she took home with her. Mom loved it.

We had our annual Harvest Dinner after church today. As usual the food was really good. And there was lots left over. We had a large turnout. On the way home we had a little excitement. One of the ladies on the bus lives in a bad part of town and we saw a fight. The bus driver gets off the bus yells at the boys to stop and after 3 attempts at calling 911 he just got through when a police car came behind and he stopped the car to tell them what happened. The lady that lives in the neighborhood also got off the bus to talk to the boys. Man Jim was lucky one of the boys didn't pull a knife on him or have a gun. But they really were beating that boy bad and we were nervous they'd kill him. But all is well that ends well....well hopefully the boy will be okay. Hopefully they won't get the boy later.

Does everyone have Thanksgiving plans? We are going to my niece's house. They just bought a new house so we'll get to see it.

Well, I'm going to try to get a little more stitching in. Just wanted to show the progress after 200 hours stitching even.

The Caretaker

Almost 3 complete pages are done. I'm going to start the 4th page in a few minutes as the blue is getting monotonous. I'm really anxious to get to the next section as I think the Elk will start to come in and the pattern will really look like something then. I am really enjoying this piece. So far I've put in a little over 160 hours and I have worked on it 5 weeks now. I started it 5 weeks ago today infact, so you can see I do have spent probably more time than I should have on it. Oh well.....I'll keep at it for awhile anyway.

We had a Pizza Party for the 3rd-5th graders from Adventure Club last night. They played a lot of games and had pizza. The kids seemed to enjoy themselves. They played a couple of games that usually aren't played at Adventure Club.

I had the Ultra Sound yesterday to see if it's my Gall Bladder causing my problems. We really don't think it is, we sort of think it's the Acid Reflux Disease in large part. And I think it is but man the discomfort and nausea I feel at times. A part of me wonders if I'm just drinking too much Pepsi.
Afterwards I went to my parents to unpack some of their photo albums etc. But the ones mom really want are still in storage so we'll need to get them out. Also spoiled the dog some more. I missed that dog. She's quite a character and when I left I told her I'd try not to stay away so long and she just looked at me and listened intently. Of course she got a couple good walks out of me. She leads me where she wants to go!

Well until next time Happy Stitching!