Happy Dance

Good afternoon! After a week of crummy weather the sun is shinning. We bit the bullet as far as the winter storm goes, it went all around us. We did get a lot of rain though. Now the next week is suppose to be nice, Right now 37 and 38 are at end of 10 day forecast but that can change by the time the days get here. It can go up.

I finished this heart piece a couple of days ago. It was a love-hate relationship. I loved doing it but hated the blending filament. It will go to one of the quilts being done for the Kalamazoo shooting victims.

My sister was going to come in on Tuesday for a couple of days but because of the weather forecast she didn't want to get here and then not get home Thurs. So she'll come a couple of weeks from today.

The last two Easters my brother and I went to another brother's house for Easter. This year nothing was said about it. But I think because of their daughter and son in law moving this weekend they will be busy helping them. So I'm just going to have Tim come here after church and we'll have a ham dinner. I've never made a good ham before but I think I bought a good one this time. (Usually I just buy canned ham and I didn't
like that as well as the real ham which I bought this time.)

With it being Easter, I decided to do a cross piece by Sudbury House. It had 4 seasonal crosses. I made a couple color changes because I didn't have the Silver Krenik but had another one that made the cross more rustic, plus didn't have enough 761 so used 760 instead. So both changes do make a difference on the appearance of the piece I can see that already.

Well Hope everyone has a nice Easter. Until next time.....Happy Stitching

More Progress on A Loving Heart

Good evening!
I have been stitching on this piece. I think I will have to do some frogging though as the two sides are not coming out even. I'm hoping it's an easy fix. I really like this piece so if I have to frog some to make it right then I will. There is a facebook group planning to do quilts for the Kalamazoo shooting victims and I'm thinking this piece will be perfect for one of the women.

Today I took my cat to the Vet. He got a clean bill of health. He was so sweet at the Vet's. He was making her pet him the whole time he was there even when giving him the shots (Rabies and FIV) and when clipping his nails. The Vet did tell me to watch his diet as he is over weight. He weighed 17 lbs. He's not a big eater but I was feeding him 2/3 cup cat food and she said to cut it down to a half cup. He doesn't like canned cat food or human food or like any treats so the dry food is all he eats. So that part is good. She said I could try diet cat food but some cats don't do well with it so she only recommends it if cutting down food doesn't work. Think I'll try to get him more active too. He sleeps most of the time like most cats.

One of these days I will finish off the Amazing Grace piece, that is so huge. A lady from our church gave it to me to finish because her eye sight got so bad. She gave me a bunch of other started projects and projects she wanted to do but couldn't. Well today she died. So I think I should get it out and finish it in her honor. Her stitching is so much better then mine, I discovered on Friends are the flowers....piece so that just discouraged me. Plus someone on line in a group I'm in told me my stitching wasn't what it use to be and asked me not to stitch for the group any more. So I just took myself out of the group. I will still stitch for Love Quilts though and a Quilts for Older Children and Adults. Although I haven't lately as I've mostly been stitching for family and will for a while.
Well...until next time.....Happy Stitching!

Adoption Heart finished

Good evening! I finished Mady's adoption piece yesterday. Just getting around to posting it tonight. I covered her last name and place of adoption to protect her and her family.

Monday Mady was adopted. It was such a nice short ceremony. About 30-40 of us showed up to support the family and witness the adoption. I think more than what they were use to, they had to find chairs for all of us. Most of us were related, plus the family Mady had lived with before and some of their relatives and som other friends were there. (Mady had lived with a family from John and Melissa's church and was a good friend of Kate's). One weekend she spent with Melissa and John and she went home saying she wanted to live with them. Things weren't going too well where she was. So they asked Melissa and John (knowing they had been foster parents) and in time Melissa and John said yes, then it had to go through the court system. It worked out well at their house and 1 year later they got to adopt Mady. In fact a couple of months ago 5 year old Kate said to Mady, "All I want for my birthday is to have you as my sister for good." One day before Kate's birthday, her wish came true. It was a ceremony I was so happy to witnessed and felt honored to be invited. Mady had wanted to announce her middle name herself but the judge didn't know that and right off the bat he said this is the adoption ceremony for "Madyson Jane........" Madyson had chosen the middle name of Jane as she hated the middle name she had. She wanted it to be after Great Grandma Jane who she never met but had heard about and wanted to keep her name going. We were surprised and thrilled for our mom. I could almost see Mom and Dad looking down from heaven and smiling all through the ceremony.

Afterwards we all went out to pizza. I'm fussy when it comes to pizza but this pizza was really good. Then my brother, sister-in-law and I stopped at an Amish store on the way home. We really like that store too bad it's not closer to home. All in all it was a great, fun day. Mady was queen and very excited and hyper.

This Sat. we'll celebrate Kate's birthday as it was Tuesday. Can't believe she is 6 years old already.

Today at BSF I worked with the 2 and 3 year olds. I never thought I would like that age, but these kids were really good for most part. I really enjoyed it. So much so I told them I would work anytime needed and even have me considering working with the kids at church again.

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

A Finish and a Start

Good afternoon! We've been enjoying some beautiful weather the past few days. So far this winter has been mild. Except for a couple weeks in Jan. it's been very mild. My brother says we'll get creamed in March. I tell him to shut up and it's just going to be a mild winter, it owes us after the last two winters. We'll see who is right.

Anyway I finished this piece. Another quick and easy piece for Feb. It was a fun piece. I'm not sure what I'll do with it yet. It just caught my eye a while back. And since I'm on a kick to stitch from my stash and not buy any new patterns except for 2 (Winter and Summer Bell Pulls by Stoney Creek) in 2016. I am so far stitching from my stash. So far so good but it's still early in the year. We'll see when it comes to this summer, but that's when I may buy the bell pulls.

Here is the start to
"A Loving Heart" by Stoney Creek Collection. Now that I've stitched on it a couple of days it's going easier. At first I wasn't so sure I made a good decision there. But it's so pretty. I can't wait to get it further along.

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

Two New Starts

Good evening. I have two starts to show. This one is Mady's heart for her adoption. I'll have Mady inside then on the side it will have her full name, date of birth, and her adoption date. I really can't show them until after her adoption is finalized. They want her full middle name on it and Mady won't be announcing that until the adoption ceremony. We only know it will start with letter J.
This piece here I just liked and decided to do it. Not sure what I will do with it yet.

Last Saturday my favorite cat at the cat shelter got adopted. She was an 8 year old deaf cat all white. She was a sweetheart. They tried hard to get me to adopt her as a second cat, but we can only have one cat here and as much as I loved Snowflake I couldn't get rid of Saturn for her. Besides I was a little worried that if Snowflake hissed at Saturn he'd beat her up. That was why she was returned to us the person had another cat who kept beating up on her, so they thought they better return her. This time she went to a family with a little girl who loved her and they have a dog but Snowflake seemed to do okay with dogs. We hope it works. I had already left by time she was adopted but I did get a little time with her on Sat. just the two of us when she didn't want to return to her room I got to pick her up, carry her she even put her head on my shoulder and gave me a little kiss and hug I think we both knew it would be last time we would see each other. I was sad she was adopted yet happy. I had wanted someone I knew to adopt her but that didn't happen. All that matters is she went to a good home and it sounds like she did. I was there when another of my favorites Goldilocks got adopted.

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

Another quick Finish

I know my needle is smoking right now anyway. This went much quicker and easier than I thought it would. I saw this a couple years ago and it caught my eye ....I've finally decided to stitch it. I'm on this kick to stitch from stash anyway and not get any new patterns this year..So far so good, but the year is barely under way.

I went to my brothers the last couple of days to make sure he's doing okay following his back surgery this past week. I can't get there this weekend so I think I made enough food for him to have left overs through the weekend, and I made sure his cat had plenty of food. She is really watching over her daddy. She knows he's not up to par.

I have decided on Madyson's adoption piece. I found a small heart and will put her name in middle then on side have her full name and date of adoption. I can't post a picture until after her adoption as she is still technically in the foster system until then. I'll have her full name on the piece and my sister-in-law will make it into a pillow for her.

Well....I'm going to go read some blogs. Until next time....Happy Stitching!

Shuttle piece Done

I finished the Shuttle piece for Nolan this morning. It really was a fast, easy piece to do. I enjoyed it. Now I'm looking for a piece to do for Madyson's adoption. Any suggestions? We just want it to be small something for her to remember the day by.

My brother had back surgery yesterday and everything went great. In fact he is home now. While talking to me on the phone I could hear his cat meowing at him. Scolding him for leaving her. I'm sure she's cuddling up to him now, she is a real cuddler.

Well....until next time.....Happy stitching. I'm going to go look for my next piece. I think it's going to be a piece by My Big Toe called The Journey to a friend's house.

Shuttle a little over half done

Good morning! It's starting out to be a nice morning weather wise but in an hour or so it's suppose to start snowing through tomorrow. It's lake effect snow which means it will be heavier.

Thank you for reading my blog and for your comments. I appreciate them. It's fun reading everyone else's blogs. Some of you I am totally jealous of you do such nice work and have a way with words, make your blogs interesting. I'm not that gifted, so I'm jealous! Seriously I do love reading the blogs.

Tomorrow is my brother's back surgery. He broke a rod in his back so they have to replace it. Hopefully they won't have to undo everything done before as that will be more extensive. But they won't know until they get in there. The Dr. said he had never seen that happen before, he has know idea how that rod broke. Only Tim could do that. I tell him it's by playing ping pong like he did.

I have the shuttle well underway for my great nephew, Nolan. It's going fairly quick and easy. But like most easy pieces, I'm having to frog quite abit. I think it's because I get going too fast and make careless mistakes by not concentrating like I do on the more difficult pieces. Do you find you do that?

Tomorrow is the Grand Opening of the Resource Room. We are so excited. It would be nice if a client or two came to use it but on the grounds the classes at Love Inc are just starting the clients may wait a week or two to let the points build a little. They get 10 points for attending and 5 points for doing their homework so they earn up to 15 points each session. I may in future teach a cross stitch class but we'll see.

Until next time.....Happy Stitching!

First real finish of 2016

Good Afternoon! I finished the hearts for Addie earlier this morning. So now I'm working on the Shuttle for her brother, Nolan. It was funny when Nolan was trying to choose a piece for me to stitch for him. He'd see something he liked and put it in a pile, then kept adding on to it. We figured he thought if he took them home, they'd be there. Anyway he finally understood and picked the shuttle for me to do. I was happy as this piece is as easy as the hearts were challenging. Plus a little over a year earlier, Addie, Heather, Kay, and I were in the LNS and Heather and Addie thought Nolan would like that stitched for him. So it will be done well before his 5th birthday in June. It may be done Monday or Tuesday as fast as it's going.

Tuesday the Resource room opens. We are getting so excited. We finished the final touches yesterday. Put together some meal baskets for the people to choose if they wanted. \

Also Tuesday my brother is having back surgery again. A rod that had been put in his back earlier broke! The Dr. said he had never seen that happen before. So they have to replace the rod. They are hoping they don't have to do anything else.

Wednesday I spent the day with my niece and her family. It was fun. We took the kids to a toy store where they could spend the gift certificates I got them for Christmas. Plus Katelyn and Madyson both have birthdays coming up so they chose their birthday gift too.

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

A New Start

Good afternoon. I know this is barely a start. Believe it or not I have worked on it about 16 hours. It's just the stiffness of the material and the pattern slows me down. Once I get going on it it'll be fine I think, the material will loosen up I hope. At least now I can get a hoop on it where as I couldn't at first. I'm not sure the little swirls in the heart will show up, I don't have very many of them done. But this will be a fun piece. I did have to order some floss but it's on it's way to me and I can get enough done between now and the time it arrives without having to stop working on the piece. I didn't have 3844 or 3845 or Krenik Braid # 4 Silver. So I ordered them from 123 stitch and they have mailed them out so I should get them Monday or Tuesday.

I can't believe this is already the end of Jan. February will be a busy month. My brother has back surgery on the 9th. He had a rod in his back from a previous back surgery and of all things the rod broke! The Dr. said that had never happened to him before. Who knows how that happened. Anyway that explains why he was in so much pain. They are hoping that's all they will have to do just replace the rod. They may in future have to clean the whole back out and replace everything they did before, but we're hoping it doesn't come to that.

The highlight of the month will be my niece and her husband finally get to adopt Madyson on the 29th. They were hoping for earlier in the month for her birthday but it's still the same month as her 7th birthday. I get to go to the adoption ceremony. That will be fun. Then we'll go celebrate her adoption. A few days later will be family birthday party for Madyson and Katelyn. Katelyn will be 6 March 1. Madyson became their foster child about a year ago and she fits in with the family really good so they decided to adopt her. (Her prvious foster parents went to same church as Melissa and John but she didn't get along with the other children.) One weekend she went to Melissa and John's as Katelyn and her were good friends, and she informed them she wanted to live with Melissa and John. So they went through all the channels and Madyson got to live with them. Oh her and Katelyn have their sisterly fights but that's typical. So now Melissa and John will have 4 children and unless they are really needed to foster they won't be fostering anymore. They were heart broken when the 3 previous foster children left to live with their grandparents. Though it worked out great as they get to see the kids from time to time and have contact with them. They were lucky there as usually that doesn't happen. In their case the grandparents allow it even have asked them to babysit the kids so they could get a weekend a way from time to time.

We are going through our January melt right now. We got so much snow in a little over a weeks time, now it's melting but more will come end of next week they say.

Oh has anyone else downloaded Windows 10? I turned on my computer this morning and it downloaded itself. I wasn't happy as I kept saying no to it. How it just downloaded itself I don't know unless I did it accidentally. But once it started I didn't want to stop it as I remembered my dad once telling me if you stop a download it messes up your computer. So far it seems to be okay really not much different from Windows 8. I know a lot of people say it's easier and they never liked Windows 8. I never had a problem with it.

Tuesday is our last training section for the Resource room. It opens Feb. 9. The countdown is on. We are getting so excited. We have a lot of nice things in there.

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

Two more small finishes

I took a day's break from America to do these two quick name pieces. My sister in law will make all 3 pieces (Katelyn's was posted earlier) into Bible Covers for her oldest 3 grandchildren. Tomorrow after church my brother and I are going to our other brother's and will take the pieces with me tomorrow. The children will be there then too. Beth said she'd sew the two girls pieces into their covers tomorrow so I can see what they look like. Johnny has yet to pick out his material, so I may be redoing his if the colors don't match material he picks. Beth told me to do it in green so I did, but I think she thought he would like the green material she had and apparently he didn't. They are easy to do so no problem to redo it. His took a whole 2 hours I think to do.

I hope those of you on the east coast get through the storms fine. We got hit hard last week and earlier this week. Finally it has calmed down. I think we have 2 feet of snow but will probably melt somewhat over the next week or so. If you can depend on weather forecast being correct this far ahead we are suppose to be 50 Feb. 1 and thunder showers Feb. 2 we'll wait and see. This is Michigan so it can change real fast. Rarely is the forecast right this far ahead.

Last night we tied together some blankets for the cats at the cat shelter. Quite a few showed up. Once I was convinced my blankets were as good as the others it was fun. One cat that had been with us for 5 years got adopted this past week and it looks like she is in her forever home. We were so happy for Joy. Joy was the cat that ran into the woods last fall when someone let the cats from her room into the wrong hallway and some of the cats got outside. We were able to get all but Joy, two days later another worker went to the shelter to look for Joy (she lived close so had been looking for Joy) and there was Joy at the door waiting to get in. After that Joy was a different cat and much friendlier to us. In fact I was laughing as Soldier who is a very shy cat had been returned to us because the owners other cat kept beating him up. Joy recognized him, and one day she say me open the kennel Soldier was in and after I closed it, here she is trying to open the kennel with her paws and teeth. Had she been stronger, she would have been successful. Then last week I laughed because we were keepin the Kennel open for Soldier to roam with the other cats when he wanted, and she got on the stool next to the kennel and just winked at Soldier trying to get him to come out. I claim she was flirting with him. Anyway they took Joy to Petco last Sat. hoping she would be adopted and she was adopted really fast! Also Sheila who was in same room as Joy but taken to Petco a couple weeks earlier got adopted and today Duncan is suppose to be going to his forever home on the other side of the state. Duncan was also in room 7. My babies are getting adopted. Rooms 6 and 7 were always my favorite two rooms, especially room 7 where Joy, Duncan, and Sheila were, and the cats in that room do seem to get adopted. I've worked there a little over a year and all but one of the cats that were in there when I started have been adopted. Burt, we wonder if he'll ever get adopted as he isn't real friendly but he is coming out of his shell more. He never wanted to be petted before he'd just stay on top of the kennels and watch us since Christmas he's let everyone pet him. Maybe he's realizing he might get a forever home, as he's seen so many other cats get adopted.

We are on the home stretch to opening up our Resource Room at church we are getting so excited. After all these months of preparing for it. We have one more training section Feb. 2 and we will open up Feb. 9. So excited to finally get it going!

Well...we are buried....Back to stitchingon on America

Good afternoon! Everyone staying safe and warm! It is not nice out there. Before Jan. 9 we had very little snow, now we have over 20 inches. We've had a lot of snow needless to say and yesterday and today were absolutely horrible out there. We only have flurries but the flurries mixed in with the wind and cold well it's not nice out there. A few schools were closed for MLK day anyway but those that weren't were closed because of weather. As pretty as it is outside I still say the older I get the more I hate winter!

I know it's been a while since I posted, but this piece just isn't moving that fast, so much confetti stitching. I am determined to finish this page though. My goal was to finish two pages by end of Jan, or what wasn't done in Jan. on second page would be finished in Feb. I'll be lucky to finish this page by end of Jan. I'm not sure I'll even start the second page, I may just lay it down for a couple of months as I do have other stitching to do.

We are finally in the final stages of getting the Resource room ready. We are having a meeting tomorrow to put the tags on everything and a little more training. Hopefully we'll be good to go in the next week or two. We are getting so excited. Because of the weather we've been having last week we didn't even meet so that put us back a little.

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

Very Small finish Need Opinions

Hi again! This was just a real simple, quick finish. My sister-in-law asked me to do 3 name pieces and she was making them into Bible Covers for her 3 oldest grandchildren. So this is the trial piece. I kind of like the way it turned out. They had to be simple as the material she is using is busy. I went through my alphabet books and decided to use this alphabet.

We are going to be doing the finishing touches to the Resource Room at church for the Love Inc. clients. I'm getting more and more excited. When I first opened the Food Pantry a few years ago I had no idea what direction it would go. It was very slow going at first and we had our ups and downs. But in spite of it God has blessed it and now is opening the door to extend the ministry. We're really excited about the Resource Room and the connection it will give us to people.

Well....until next time....Happy Stitching! Thank you for reading my posts and making comments. I really appreciate them. Now to go read other blogs and get jealous of their projects, and how they communicate on facebook some are gifted with words and know what to talk about and make it interesting.

Finished Come All Ye Faithful

After I scanned this piece yesterday this piece just flew into place. So I did finish 31 projects this year. Although I didn't join Debbie's Crazy Challenge (I think that is what it's called) I did 31 pieces. Wonder if I can do that next year. Anyway I loved this piece.

Tomorrow I will go back to the America piece, I got most of the floss out tonight. I had a little 4 legged helper so decided I would finish getting the floss when Saturn wasn't so helpful.

Anyone have plans for tonight? I'm planning on staying home. If I'm awake at midnight which hopefully I will be I'll watch the New York ball drop. I never make a big deal out of New Years. So I'll just watch the Rose Bowl Parade listen to my CD player and stitch. I might run up to the store but we'll see. I didn't want to go today because I thought the grocery store would be too busy. Hopefully tomorrow it won't be and hopefully they'll be open. If not well then Saturday, I don't need much anyway.

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

Progress on Come All Ye Faithful!

Hello again. This piece is really moving along. In fact I made quite a bit more progress since scanning this 3 hours ago. I have 2 of the 4 windows completely done and the other two half done plus some of the inbetween windows done. I didn't think it would go so fast. I had hoped to finish this piece tomorrow but I'm not sure, I may finish it early New Year's Day if not tomorrow. I don't have any plans for New Years Day.

New Years is never a big deal today. I'll watch the Rose Bowl Parade on HGTV because it's without commercials and then decide from there what to watch, or I just may play CD's the rest of day. Watching HGTV's Dream Home just doesn't appeal to me and neither does football.

Usually I'm happy when the holidays are over, well actually I celebrate! This year I enjoyed them, first time in several years. And this year was so much better then the last two years. Last year, things were in an uproar, this year much quieter.

Have a Happy New Year, stay safe New Year's Eve. I can't believe it's here already! Where does the time go!

Until next time......Happy Stitching!

Come All Ye Faithful

Good afternoon. The designer says this piece is for beginners. I love working on it, but I think it's more for intermediate stitchers because of all the detail and back stitching. Unfortunately I didn't have the Krenik braids for the cross so improvise. That cross may be coming out next year and I may buy the Krenik 4 braid thread it calls for. I'm not happy with the cross but I have to pout for a year first! LOL. The rest of piece is going well though.

How was everyone's Christmas? Mine was fine. I got to see my brother and sister-in-law and their two daughters,and their families on Christmas eve. Christmas Day I went to a friends house we had a nice time. I got spoiled this Christmas.

Unfortunately my crock pot died, yesterday. I was trying to heat up Chicken Noodle Cook as it tastes better cooked in the crockpot. Unfortunately it tasted alright yesterday, but when I had reheated it today the chicken was like rubber! I threw away a whole bunch of chicken noodle soup. I wasn't thinking and dumped it down the garbage disposal and thought "oh no! Noodles back the disposal up and plug the sinks up!" I'm really hoping that will not happen hoping to have bitten the bullet on that one. We'll see. A neighbor down the hall walked down and gave me 3 cans of canned chicken to try next time I make soup. I do not do good chicken. I can boil it but that's about it.

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

Another quick stitch

Good evening! Well now that we have passed Winter Solice our days will get longer. Hurray! Little things excite me but I love seeing it get lighter and lighter although so gradual at first. We notice it more in evening then morning.

Anyway I did this quick stitch. Red is not my favorite color at all, probably my least favorite but the designer called for red and I'm one that follows what designer recommends. Although it was tempting to do it in dark blue, and if I do it again I will. I have started my next piece which also looks to be a quick stitch although a little larger then the ones I have done this month. It's a church and has "Come All Ye Faithful on it. It's by Glendon Place.

The weekend proved to be really busy, my sister decided to come in after all. We didn't do a whole lot but played Push Rummy with our brother, Tim and played Mexican Dominoes. We use to play both games with our mom all the time when Kay came to town. In fact I found a score sheet with Mom on it, Kay had won that game.

The next few days will be busy. It seems everyone is busy at Christmas. Once again as far as our family getting together, it will not happen this year. But we did have Christmas with Kay Sunday. Christmas Eve I'll have Christmas with our brother Kevin and his family. Our brother, Tim's son is coming in to town, so he's spending Christmas with him.

If I'm not here before Christmas, I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas. Until next time....Happy Stitching!

Another small finish

Good afternoon! At one time I saw a blogging group doing smalls I should have joined for Dec. as December seems to be a month of smalls for me. I couldn't resist this cute piece and it was such a fun and easy stitch, very enjoyable. It probably will be made into a flatfold later on.

Now I'm doing Sharing the Christmas Story by Eileen Gurak. She's a new designer to me so was Country Cottage new to me. I really like these silhouettes that Eileen Gurak has come out with.

Yesterday I got my Christmas shopping done, thanks to my sister-in-law taking me. She said she was getting her hair cut so I said "Wonder if she has openings, I should get mine cut." Well she had an opening right after Beth so she cut mine. It really needed to be cut and my family had been after me a long time to get it cut. It does look better now. But it was a fun day yesterday.

I have sad news, little Andrea, (the cat I wrote about in my last post) kept getting weaker and weaker by the day. Yesterday they said she couldn't even walk so they made the hard decision to put her to sleep. They tried hard to save her but just couldn't. We think she had a blood disease. When I saw her last Sat., the first thing I thought of was Nomi, who was my parents cat. She also died of a blood disease, and Andrea just reminded me of her, so I wasn't surprised but was sad. She was such a sweet cat, with us for only a little over a month but we all fell in love we her.

My sister might come to town this weekend if she gets it off. She asked for it off a while back but since she put in her resignation and with everything going on there, I have a feeling she'll be working.

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

Four more ornaments

Goof Afternoon. Even though it doesn't look much like Christmas there is all sorts of Christmas activity being done. I did these four tiny pieces from Leisure Arts Holiday Quickies. They'll be made into individual ornaments later on. Actually the Santa and Teddy Bear were much more enjoyable then the Gingerbread man and Bells. They were boring but the Santa and Teddy Bear had enough detail to make them fun. I think each piece took about 4 to 6 hours at most. I'll probably be doing more mini pieces. My next pieces isn't this small but it's small like about 4 x 4. I have to kit that up

Yesterday I went to church with my brother and sister in law to see 3 of their grandchildren in their Christmas program. The 2 girls and Johnny had speaking parts and they did really good. Afterwards we went to Melissa and John's to have Johnny's birthday dinner. The poor child he had some things on his list he didn't get but he was told he wouldn't get them. He wanted a bee bee gun, 22 rifle, bull dog and chuwawa (sp) those real small dogs. He was okay with not getting them, he got a lot of other nice things. And no he isn't getting them for Christmas either.

I just talked to my sister and she told me after 25 years she is quitting her job. Something she never thought she would do. She's a RN at a Nursing Home near their house, and it was bought out this summer and since then things have been getting worse and and worse so many have quit. An opportunity came up for her and she looked into it and got hired. So she has mixed emotions right now, nervous about starting a new job and leaving the residents and staff she worked with. Twenty-five years is a long time to work at a place and then quit.

We were able to find homes for 4 of our cats at the shelter over the weekend and 8 others at Petco. (The cats and kittens that we have in foster care go to Petco, sometimes a shelter cat will go there.) But we were happy. But one of our very favorite cats, Andrea has only been with us a little over a month got really sick and I asked today and they said she's not doing good at all so we are worried about her. We had hoped she'd be adopted for Christmas and probably would be but now if she recovers it'll have to be Jan. at earliest. Speaking of cats my own cat is meowing at me to get off computer well he just jumped up and got in front of screen he means business. So until next time.....Happy Stitching!

Another ornament finish

Good afternoon. Most of my finishes this month (if not all of them) are going to be ornaments for my family to put together hopefully this summer. A lot of them will come from Christmas Quickies by Leisure Arts. I have discovered that while small these ornaments are not the easiest to do they are very detailed, but I like stitching them and most of them are so cute.

Tomorrow our Johnny (my great nephew) will be 9! I can't believe it. Where did the years go. Today would have been my grandfather's birthday and we were hoping he'd be born today but he waited to be born on his aunt Denise's birthday. We have so many birthdays and anniversaries from now to the end of Dec. it's not even funny. Without exageration at least 12.

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