The Giraffes are Finished! Happy Dancing

I finished them about a half hour ago. Did anyone hear the screaming and shouting! This pattern has been retired! It looked like it was going to be so easy and it was deceiving! Their cuteness lured me in!
Oh no! I just thought of something. I concentrated so hard on finishing these today I forgot to mail Addie her birthday card! She will be 2 tomorrow! I'll call her and tell her her card is coming and she has to make her mommy cash the check and take her to the store! She should get it Monday since they aren't that far from here. Also baby Katelyn will be 2 months tomorrow. Boy time goes fast when you grow old!
Tomorrow I'll start a bookmark in the morning then in the afternoon I'm going to a Pantry Chef party. It should be interesting. I've been to a couple of them a few years ago.
Our weather is so nice and warm! It feels wonderful.
Well---until next time Happy Stitching! I'm going to have a can of Pepsi to celebrate this finish of this piece!

Largest Giraffe is done!

I am so happy to have this giraffe finished. I also got the leaves in the middle in today. Real pleased with today's progress! Now I just have to finish the smaller giraffe. I hope to have this finished Firday, or Sat. morning for sure.
I am sorry this picture is a little dark. I have two scanners, the one I prefer to use for some reason isn't cooperating with me so had to use the other one. I need to figure out why the first one refuses to scan the pictures the way it should, it is getting older maybe that's why .
Not much has happened since last Friday so until next time Happy Stitching!

Progress on Giraffes

Thank you for all your comments to my blog and reading it. I love hearing from people. I am finding more and more blogs out there to read and enjoy. My blogroll is growing!
The larger giraffe is almost done. I am getting anxious to get this piece done but probably won't be for another 10 days. I won't have much stitching time over the weekend, if I do I will be working on the bookmarks again, only doing a couple of them this time.
This morning my sister brought her granddaughter in to see us, and another niece, Melissa, brought her two children. Johnny and Addie get along so well and just love playing together so we thought since Addie was coming in we'd ask Melissa to bring her two. Kate is only a month old so she just mostly slept but was so cute when she was awake. It was a noisy but fun morning. By the time everyone left, mom, Johnny, and Addie were all ready for naps. I'm hoping we can have a day this summer when Heather is off and take the kids to the park. They'd like that.
Well, until next time Happy Stitching!

Back to the Giraffes

I've only stitched on them about 14 hours the past two weeks but have made some progress on them. They are a little monotonous but enjoyable at the same time. I am anxious to get them done.
It is so nice out. Great walking weather. I just called my brother to see if I could walk their dog. He has to come get me. They are down to one car and Wendy has the car right now so we'll see.
Thank you for your comments to my bloggs, they mean a lot to me.
Tuesday the ladies put the Care Baskets together. I don't know if the book marks go sewn in time to get into the baskets. I had to go to a dinner for Love Inc. that night. We heard a really good quartet called Reaching out. It really was a nice evening. The food was good of course.
My niece, Amanda had her first child on Monday. They named him Scott Lucas. He lives in AL so once again, we won't see much of him. That brings total to 12 great nieces and nephews.
Kids club is winding down for the season. Only one more Wed. night and the carvival will be Sat. Apr. 24. I can't go to the carnival as other plans had been made. I was sort of disappointed this year. For one thing we went to new material and I wasn't impressed and the attendance dropped so severaly this year. Last Wed. we had 12 kids, and that was it. 13 adults. Now what's wrong with that picture. My big grip is the story time was a half hour way too long for the 4 th and 5th graders let alone the 4 year olds through 2 nd grade. Someone flunked Christian Ed 101 and it wasn't Tina and Tifany it was whoever wrote the material. Come to find out the use the very same material for adults, there's the problem. So hopefully next year different material will be used or this material will be modified. No wonder the kids dropped out. At one time we had close to 100 kids in Adventure Club. Sad... The church itself is growing so it's not we're shrinking.
Well...I've rambled enough. Until next time....Happy Stitching!

Third Bookmark done

I didn't get 5 done this week like I wanted. I didn't realize they would take so much time, especially this one. I talked to our Pastor's wife as she is in charge of the project and she said someone else was making bookmarks too so 2 or 3 a month would be fine. I had not planned on doing them every month I had planned on other things too but I'll talk to Char about that later. But if bookmarks is what she wants every month I will need to get more patterns won't I? Too bad for me, LOL! Any excuse to buy more patterns. I wish I could go Tuesday night to our first meeting but I'm going to a dinner with Love Inc. instead. They are having a dinner for the volunteers and those who run their food pantries. I committed myself to that without thinking. Oh well....they do have good food and the program isn't that long.

Now that I have these 3 bookmarks done it's back to the giraffes. I'll get them finished off then work on the bookmarks again. Until next time...Happy Stitching!

Second Bookmark done

This one was cute and fun to do. Once again someone else will make it into a bookmark. I had hoped to have 3 or 4 done by tomorrow. Not going to make it. Now I just hope I can get all 5 done by Sunday. I don't know.....

I am curious....Is anyone doing the 50 challenge? Or has that gone by the wayside? Did anyone actually make the 50 challenge? I'm hoping to this time....I've attempted several times but this time I hope to do it. Even if it means doing several small ones like bookmarks to get there.

Until next time Happy Stitching!

First Bookmark done

Well....it will be made into a bookmark, not by me but someone else. Our church is just starting a Women's Ministry, where we will do Care Baskets for those sick or shutin. I saw last Sunday they were looking for Bookmarks so I told our Pastor's wife I would do 5 of them. So the giraffes are laid aside for this week to get these done. I am hoping to have most of them done by Thurs. to give Charlene more time to find someone to make them into bookmarks. I do not sew! I flunked Home Ec in high school because I couldn't sew. And I haven't touched a machine since then.
Happy Belated Easter! I hope you all had a good one. We had a really nice Easter Service at church. A little sadness as a lady everyone liked who helped anyone she could, was in church last Sunday, died suddenly on Monday so her lost was very much felt and mentioned a lot through out the service. Her husband and all 5 of her children were in church and her grandchildren. She'd been delighted to of seen them all there. The music was wonderful. The choir sang and our Christian Ed Pastor sang a wonderful song tracing Christ life from birth to the cross to His Ressurrection. It was great.
After church I came home made my 7 layer bars for our family get together at my brother Kevin's. It was so good to see the kids again. Johnny got an Easter egg hunt. Katelyn smiled a lot. She's only a month old now. So all in all it was a great day.
Well....Dancing with the Stars is on so I want to watch it. You'll be hearing from me a lot this week anyway. Until next time Happy Stitching!

The worst part is done I think

I finally have the heads of both giraffes done. The second one was a challenge but it's finally done. Now I hope the rest of it goes better.

It is a beautiful day outside! It's 60's for us since we are on the Lakeshore but Inland is 70's. Very warm for this time of year. Next week is suppose to be a little cooler, but still above average. Snow is all gone until next season I am sure!


My niece posted a really cute picture of Nicholas in the outfit I got him when he was born and playing with his tools that I also got him when he was born. I just have to share it. A rare smile on his face as he usually is mezmorized by the camera and quits smiling and just stares when you take his picture. I think most babies are that way.
Well....until next time Happy Stitching!

Pictures of baby Nicholas

My sister is out west visiting her daughter-son-in-law and Nicholas right now. My niece posted these 3 pictures and I grabbed them. Nicholas looks like he is pinching my sister. My niece says that is his way of showing love. I love that picture of the two of them. Who Nicholas looks like is unknown. My niece and her husband claim there was a baby swap. LOL I doubt that. I think he has his Grandpa K's face shape and his mommy's big eyes, and I see some of his dad in him too. He just looks like Nicholas!
Our weather is starting to warm up! I think we are done with winter! I hung my winter coat up I hope for the last time. It's suppose to be 60's tomorrow and hit 70 later this week.
I have made some progress on the giraffes. I've had to improvise on the second giraffe as I made a couple of mistakes and refuse to take him out. Too much will have to be ripped out. So improvising I am.
Well....until next time Happy stitching.

Second Giraffe coming in

This is my progress on the giraffes. I really am enjoying this piece. It's going so much better then the Tiger did and yet by a designer that is harder to do so they say. It's detailed but I love Stoney Creek pieces.

Last week I mentioned I was going to hear Ernie Haase and Signature Sound. It was really a good concert. They were somewhat noisy but not bad. They danced around quite a bit. I just clainm they are 4 hyper men that need to dance when they sing. I didn't feel it was out of line though. They are a Southern Gospel group but I'd say with a contemporary twist. I'd recomment anyone to see their concert who gets a chance.

It looks like Spring has sprung here. We didn't have a bad winter like most places in the country did, but it's still nice to have it be spring. I love the spring time even if my allergies don't like it. And believe me I am already feeling it. Last night was awful. So I really overslept. Can't do that tomorrow. I have to be at my parents to stay with my mom as my dad has meetings at church all day.

I can really tell it's almost Spring as our kids on Wednesday nights are having cabin fever and it's hard for them to sit still and be quiet. This past Wed. our group (grades 3 -5) were really good. The week before they were awful. This week we also had a pizza party for the kids which they liked real well. The year is almost drawing to a close. It's gone so fast. It's been a different year as we switched programs. It's had it's disappointments as not nearly as many kids came this eyar it was mostly church kids with a few others. In past there were a lot of neighborhood kids. We need to reach out to them a little better and we will make more of an effort this summer.
Well....until next time Happy Stitching!

An Award

Thank you Deb S. for this award. Sorry it took so long to post. I don't know how to do the blue link so if you look in my blog roll under Deb S you will find her blog.

I am suppose to say 10 things about me.
1. I have 13 nieces and nephews.
2. I have 11 great nieces and nephews and 1 more due in April.
3. I will not cross a busy highway.
4. I am petrified of elevators.
5. I love cats and have 1.
6. I drink way too much Pepsi and am trying to cut back
7. I am a born again Christian and proud of it.
8. I am active in our church
9. I love to Cross Stitch especially for Love Quilts
10. I do not drive

Now to pick 10 people. That's hard as there are so many good blogs. There again I can't do the link but here they are:
1. Ginny
2. Sharon
3. Kathryn NZ
4. Mary
5. Margie (3 cool Pugs & Me)
6. Glenda
7. Dawn (Golden Angel Works)
8. Sue P
9. Sue (Stitcherw)
10. Vondalee

Coming up with just ten was hard. Until next time Happy Stitching!

Progress on Giraffees

I haven't started the second giraffe yet but have the first one well underway. I haven't had that much time to work on it this week.
Tonight I'm going to hear Ernie Haase and Signature Sound. I've seen them on the Gaither Videos but have never seen them in person so I'm looking forward to it.
We didn't get to see baby Kate last Friday as planned as Melissa, Johnny and Kate were all sick. But on Saturday evening we were at our parents and Melissa and John stopped by with the kids. Kate is so cute. Johnny hammed it up of course, and was very inquisitive about everything. Nothing gets beyond that 3 year old. LOL! He's cute though.
Thank you for reading my blogs and your comments. I appreciate them they give encouragement. Also reading all your blogs and seeing your pieces encourages me to keep stitching. Thank you for your comments to Addie's picture. She looks so serious like she has watched her mommy apply her make up and is copying her. I couldn't resist showing that picture.
My brother and his fiancee set their wedding date for Aug. 27 as our family will be in town anyway as we are celebrating our parents 60th wedding anniversary on the 28th. So it'll be a full weekend then. It would be nice if all the grandkids could come in but 3 of my brother's kids say they can't because of college. They said they would try to come earlier in the summer I hope so.

Before I close I want to include a picture of another great niece. Chelsea now 14 months old. This is her first birthday and she couldn't decide between the bows or presents. Looks like the bows temporarily won. LOL!
Until next time....Happy Stitching!

Just have to show this picture

This is a picture of my 22 month old great niece. I think is darling. We have a similiar picture of her mother also applying makeup about the same age. Addie is growing up too fast!

Another New Start

The tiger had an "accident" with the scissors. So I started this piece for the Jungle life quilt. It will be a couple of giraffes. It's a Stoney Creek piece. I know a lot of people feel they are hard and challenging and yes this one has plenty of backstitching. But I love doing Stoney Creek pieces. I find a lot of the easier designs too boring or not chalenging enough or I make too many mistakes etc. I think I've done about 40 SC designs over the years. And this particular piece is from Wild and Free, an older book that I have done several other pieces from. So I'm confidant this will get finished. I will go back to His Eye is on the Sparrow but needed a break from it.
I finally figured out how to follow blogs! I tried several times earlier and failed. I finally discovered the follow at top of blog, klicked that and get to be a follower. How simple was that? Anything simple I have to make difficult you know and that's why it took so long. So I'm going to go read some blogs and click on follow! LOL!
Tomorrow we get to see baby Kate. We're all invited out to Melissa's to see her. Only now one of my brother's and his wife is sick. (Melissa's parents) so we don't know for sure if Melissa still plans on us or not. My sister had planned on coming in to town tomorrow, so I told her we were planning to see the baby. It'll be a busy weekend. I'm excited to meet Katie and see Johnny. They say he is still doing great with his sister. Of course I plan on taking my camera and getting pictures. And yes I will show them, probably Sunday or Monday though.

Well...until next time Happy Stitching!

I'm back. More progress on His Eye is On the Sparrow

A lot has happend since I last posted. First the Big News. Johnny is a big brother. Remember Dec. 11, 2006 I was waiting for Johnny to be born and finally he was. Well it was that way yesterday only I couldn't post. More on that latter. Any way Katelyn Brianne was born at 11:09 am to my niece Melissa and her husband, John. She weighed 8 lbs 11.oz. Johnny is so thrilled with her. We can't wait to see her.
I was off line a few days. Long story. Then today I was talking to my sister in law she was all excited telling me about the birth of Katelyn and how she got to be in the room and my phone went dead. I was so mad! I was angry enough with the company for loosing the internet and the way they handled it. So I went to a friends house and called the company. Same response I got on Friday and Saturday, "we can't figure out what happened." I thought it was because I changed companies and that was to start later this week. I had had it with this company and the ring around I got etc. Anyway. I got home and amazingly not only did I have my phone service back but the Internet! Here I thought I would be without it until Friday. So today I have the Internet I'm taking advantage of it. Who knows tomorrow it may be gone again. Friday I get High Speed Internet I can't wait!
I got a lot of progress on His Eye is on the Sparrow. I did scan the piece and except for the last 2 letters of sparrow it all fit. Next time it won't, so I'll take a picture.
We are enjoying some really nice days here. Our snow is starting to melt and the sun is out. Spring is coming!
Oh I have to tell you something cute Johnny said to his grandma. This noon they decided to eat on their porch since it was so nice out. Beth asked Johnny if he wanted to tell God and thank Him for it and hs said "No you thank God for the sun, I'll tell Him and and thank Him for my baby sister!" Out of the mouths of babes!
By the way How many of you saw the Olympics? Weren't they great?! I love the winter ones. I really enjoyed the skating, skiing, tobbaggoning events. I'm not too into hockey but it was a good game between Canada and USA.
Well until next time Happy Stitching!

Trying out new camera

I got my income tax back so I got a new camera digital today and of course the first picture I had to take was of my cat sleeping in my stitching chair. Best way to get a picture of him as usually if he sees a camera he is gone. He doesn't like his picture taken. Now I have my new camera I suppose the one I lost will show up. Isn't that the way it always works?
Sorry this isn't the best picture of the piece. I have to get use to my camera, but you have the idea of the progress I have made on it anyway. I really am enjoying it and will be done in a couple of weeks I think.
How many of you are ennjoying the Olympics? I sure am. I really enjoyed the speed and figure skating and skiing events! I can't believe how much pressure is on these athletes. Why can't they just have fun with the sport instead of feeling like they have to medal. I suppose the top athletes are the ones that feel it the most and the others probably do have more fun. Too bad the media just doesn't leave the athletes alone until after the performance and not spotlight certain athletes and follow them through their systems so much.
Well enough for my soapbox. Thank you to everyone who reads my blog and to those who make comments. I really appreciate the encouragement and remarks. Until next time Happy stitching!

This piece is Flying!

I can't believe how fast this is moving in such little time. I've only stitched on it about 20 hours and it's 1/4 of way done already. Outside of the bird, I am enjoying the place. I may just keep stitching on it until it's finished. We'll see.
Our Speghetti Dinner was a success. We played Deal or No Deal. My name was drawn to play. Having never seen the TV show I didn't know from adam what I was doing but I listened to the audience and ended up winning a box of chocolates. I'm not a big chocolate eater so it will last a while.
We are planning my parents 60th Anniversary celebration the end of the summer. Yesterday I asked the caterer if he would do it and how much he would charge. He said he would do it for free. I couldn't beleive it. We are going to negotiate with him so he gets paid for the food at least.
Anyone else enjoying the Olympics? I sure am. I loved the skiing and figure skating last night and look forward to seeing a lot more in the coming days.
Oh...before I forget....Happy Birthday to my brother Kevin! Hope he has a great day. I don't think he even knows about this blog so doubt he reads it.
Well...until next time Happy Stitching!

A New Start

Yes I'm slowly working on the Tiger but I kept saying I was anxious to start "His Eye is on the Sparrow." So I finally did. I really am enjoying it. I can see it is going to take quite awhile and will be laid down 2 or 3 times before it's done I'm sure.
Tonight the Olympics begin! I'm looking forward to them. I'm not a big fan of Opening and Closing Ceremonies but I'll watch some of it anyway. I really like the Figure Skating, Sledding, Ludging, Tobagooning, Skiing events. The man carrying the USA flag for the Olympians is from our town so he's been in the news a lot. He's a 5 time Olympian I think they said and has won a bronze medal and gold medal with his team partner in Ludging. He trained on the Luudge run here. It really is a nice set up they have down by the Lake. We use to go skating and sledding there a lot when growing up. His name is Mark Grimmack.
Tomorrow we are having our Speghetti dinner at church sponsored by our Department. It's going to be a busy year for us. We have several outreach events planned this year. I think this will be my last year on the Board then I have to take a year off. I'm presenting a new situation for the church, I was on another board for 3 years but it got dissolved and so transfered over to Evangelism. The terms are 3 years, and you can run again for the Board for another 3 years after that a year off then you can go back on if nominated. So yes I will have been on a Board for 6 years but not the same board so where does that put me. My dad is Elder Chairman and I asked him, he didn't know, but more than likely I'll have to take a year off. Not sure I want to as I love being on this board. We'll see. It gets a lot done.Two of the things I wanted to see happen on this board did happen and the 3rd thing I'm still negotiating for, and might happen this year.
An update on my mom. Well...she twisted her knee and iced it the whole weekend before finally going to the Dr. on Monday. He x rayed it and she never heard anything and finally on Wed I said you call DR or I will, dad called the dr. and then today there is another problem with the knee so she's waiting for him to call back. She did call and tell what was going on. She was told several years ago she would need another knee replacement and last fall was told her bones were so brittle twisting the wrong way would break them. So we'll see what happens. Probably will have a knee replacement sooner than later.
Well until next time Happy Stitching!

A Very Quick Finish

This only took about 8 hours overall. It is so me. I love Chocolate Chip Cookies! There is one cookie missing....I must have ate it LOL. It'll show up and I'll add it on later. This afternoon I'll probably go back to the tiger. Actually I didn't lay it down. I did this in the afternoon when I wanted to stitch but was too tired to work anymore on the tiger.
We did get hit by the winter storm this time. Not so much yesterday but overnight. Several schools around our area are closed though none in our town. We actually were lucky we only got 6.5 inches of snow.
Well...until next time Happy Stitching!

Back to the Tiger

I have gone back to the Tiger and made quite a bit of progress for how detail it is. It is a fun piece to do my kind of piece, small but detailed. But I'm also really anxious to get going on "His Eye is on the Sparrow" so I may be laying it down again in a few days if it's not finished.
We are getting ready for a winter storm that is suppose to come in tomorrow and last through Wed. They already have the warnings out. Our area is to get 6 to 10 inches so that isn't too bad I guess. Further south it goes up. We'll see what happens when it gets here. Unfortunately this system is heading on east where they don't need it.
Wonder if we'll have BSF Wed. I so enjoy it and really am getting a lot out of it I never caught before. We are going through the book of John. Even Mary's sincere love in oinointing Christ verses the acts of Judas struck me how Judas rebuked her and Christ said "leave her alone she's preparing me for my burial" never struckk me before. I never noticed that before I guess. You grow up learning the stories and taking them for granted and go Yea Yea Yea I know that story and not see the little or behind scene things.
I'm waiting to hear what is going on with my mom's knee. She twisted it in going to bed the other night and waited until Monday to see the Dr. She was told quite some time back she needed a knee replacement and may have to do it now rather she wants to or not. She also was told her bones are so brittle that if she twists wrong she could break a bone. So we'll see what happened. She kept it iced over the weekend.
Well....until next time Happy Stitching