well, hello!

Anyone still out there? Hello! It's me, Andrea, and yep, I'm still kickin', chickens! Not sure how time flies by so quickly and how four months have passed since I made a decent post here! Yesterday I was at my eye doctor, getting my annual exam for contacts. Except that it had been TWO years since I'd been there. NO WAY! She showed me my chart as proof, since I didn't believe her, lol! Why is it, the older we get, the faster time flies? Oh well. You know that expression...time flies, whether you're having fun or not!

Anyway. I'm blessed that even when my life gets busy and hectic, I am still able to stitch. So I have lots of stitching to share, almost too much! My plan is to break it up into several posts. Also been doing a LOT of cooking and baking...if I'm on your list on Facebook, you already know this, lol! Sometimes I think I post too much about food. But it's a passion, as well as my stitching.

This is a little something that I stitched a long time ago and sent out for finishing. Love what she did with it!



Love is All You Need
Freebie by Bent Creek

Will be back with more that I've done, but for now, I must share a couple of gifts I'd received for Christmas.

Becky sent me this adorable little cupcake pincushion she made.



I think the design is from Blackbird Designs, but not 100% sure. It's just the cutest bitty thing you've ever seen! Thank you so much Becky, sorry to be so late in posting about it!

From my dear friend Patti:



Design by Carriage House Samplings. Filled with crushed walnut shells and also finished by (?), isn't it beautiful?



OK, one more from me ;-)



Bent Creek Winter Snapperland
I'd stitched this one a while back and sent to my sweet friend Tobie, to do her magic on it. I LOVE what she did :)




The fabrics she used couldn't have been more perfect! I have more Tobie finishing to share with you later :)



That's all for now. If you're still around after all these months, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I promise to come out and play more often ;)
xoxo

everything is good!

Have I mentioned before how I feel about this time of year? No? Well, let me tell ya...this is the BEST, most favorite time of the year for me! To say I LOVE it is such an understatement! Right now, the weather here in Texas has cooled off, and yesterday we had lots of rain. Those two things together sent me into a cooking, baking, stitching, nesting FRENZY! If I could just stretch this couple of months out a wee bit longer, life would be just perfect :)

Here's my Jenny Bean Halloween Sampler...




I did finish it by Oct. 31, but was too lazy to blog about it...



this was such a fun stitch!


Stitched on 36 ct. Vintage Pearled Barley over two with two strands GA Sampler Threads (had to use more than one skein of the black)



Way back at the first of October, I received this lovely ornament from BeckySC...



She just sent it to me out of the blue and I loved it so much I hung it from the lamp by my stitching chair so I could admire it, which I have...every. single. day! But I am soooo bad because even though I thanked her by email, I totally forgot to post about it! Becky is such a sweetheart though and never took offense. Thank you again Becky...I really do love it :)



And look what I received from Mary! She sent me this tree for my BBD stockings when she read that they wouldn't all fit on the one I had....




My hubby twisted and turned the branches so it would look "SPOOKY"...



I LOVE it!! Thank you again Mary! (It was hard to get a good picture of the whole thing where it was sitting in our living room, so I had to take it out to the sun room...but it's so perfect!).
Well, that's about all I have for now...need to get back in the kitchen and tend to my cooking! I'm so thankful for my sweet friends and for all of my readers and visitors here...THANK YOU for blessing me the way you do :)

gift from a friend & rosemary!

Still plugging away on my Village and some other things too...I seem to be having some Attention Deficit problems where my stitching is concerned, ahem. So in the meantime, I wanted to share something my friend Patti stitched for me.
It was actually a Christmas gift this past year, and finally, four months later, I post about it!

Isn't it lovely?








Patti used some sparkly threads in the wings of the bees, it's kind of hard to pick up with the camera though. Thank you again Patti, your stitching is perfect, as always!

OK, see this pretty little rosemary plant?



Well, I am infamous for my plant killing skills. Trust me. Even my hubby calls me "the Morticia of the plant world". Plants come here to die. It's not pretty. But despite my knowledge of this, I keep on lying to myself! I got this on the way into Central Market with Patti a couple of weeks ago, maybe a week and a half. Because there's a killer (oh hahahaha) potato recipe I've been making that uses rosemary and I thought, oh boy, FRESH rosemary, how wonderful would that be? (Silly, stupid disillusioned woman)! So....we're walking through the store and a lady working in the deli department spotted it and said "oh, are you going to plant some rosemary? It's very hardy and easy to grow, it'll take over". I said, "yes, I'm going to try, but I kill everything"! She said "I can't get rid of mine, it keeps coming back, even after I put a big rock on top of it, it grew back up around the rock". I'm just shaking my head, thinking, lady, you don't know me, I'm the grim reaper of plants, seriously.

So can you see where this is headed? I won't show you a picture of it, but believe me when I tell you that part of it is already dead. It's in my sun room, getting plenty of light (indirect), I've watered it, misted it (which did perk it up some), read the directions over and over (not watering too much, etc). But yep, still trying to die. I'd like to plant it in the back yard but with three male pugs that use the back yard as their bathroom, there's a lot of hiking and peeing on things, so that's probably a worse idea. Maybe out front....we have a flower box on the front porch that gets a lot of sun (direct)...any ideas? Put it in a pot or plant it in the ground?

I'd like to keep it alive at least until I make the potatoes again ;-)

blessings abound

Gosh, it sure is hard to believe we're only one day away from December! This year is really flying by! I've been so bad about keeping up with this blog and am so late in posting some things. Figured that late is better than never though, so here goes!

First off, I won a blog give away! Couldn't believe it as I was just commenting on Jolene's blog and wasn't even thinking about entering my name for the prize, and then the next time I read her blog post, just happily reading along, there was my name! Look at what Jolene sent me:



and not just the beautiful chart, but all of the goodies needed to stitch it too!



I know there are lots of us that have received something wonderful from Jolene, she had so many fabulous treasures that she gave away, what fun it was! Her blog is a real blessing, not because of the prizes, but she always posts very inspiring or uplifting things, some things that really make you think or count your blessings.
Thank you so much Jolene, for being a blessing to so many! And especially to me ;-)

OK, on to these things....before it's Christmas time and these are just repulsive to look at, ha!

My stockings from the Blackbird Designs Tis Hallowe'en book, which are not yet finished into actual stockings, but I'll get it done by next fall ;-)



I've worked on these since my last blog post....



and nothing else....



they may be small (about 3 x 5 inches)....



but some of them took me a while :-)



loved each one though....



especially this one.....



but OK, here's where I lost steam people....



it's as far as I could go without tossing it to the curb in favor of another project. Sigh...oh well. Will finish before next year. There are two stockings from the book I chose not to stitch, so once this one is done, that's it!

My friend Patti helped me find a cute little metal tree to hang these from, once they are finished. It has to be spray painted black first, but it'll be really perfect! Look at Hobby Lobby on "the gold table" (that's what the employees there call it I think)....little gold metal tree, got mine half off!




So that's all I have to show for the time being.....thanks for looking even though most of you are probably focused on Christmas stuff now :-)I may not be posting for a while as we're having a crisis with my mother and I'll be going down to East Texas to help her when I can and it will all be very exhausting to say the least.
Until next time, hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season. Stay well and keep safe! Hugs!

no stitching. just pie.

Oh, I have been stitching, and something patriotic to boot, but since it's the "lazy, hazy days of summer", I am trying my best to live up to the lazy part by refusing to iron it and take photos of it until it's complete!

So instead, may I present....

The Easiest and Best Key Lime Pie EVER



I thought twice about making this since it involves turning the oven on for a few minutes, but the fact that there are no eggs in the recipe made me forge ahead.
My family was glad about that ;-)

Here's the recipe (please note that I had a typo on this recipe when it was first posted, but it's correct now)

1 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crust
2 cans sweetened condensed milk (I used Eagle Brand)
1/2 cup sour cream
3/4 cup key lime juice
1 tablespoon grated lime zest

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine condensed milk, sour cream, lime juice, and lime zest. Mix well and pour into graham cracker crust.

Bake in preheated oven for 5 to 8 minutes, until tiny pinhole bubbles burst on the surface of pie. DO NOT BROWN! (mine never did get the little pinholes and I baked it ten minutes then took it out and it was perfect!)

Chill pie thoroughly before serving. Garnish with lime slices and whipped cream if desired.

If you would like to be lazy like me, you can use this stuff, instead of squeezing all those tiny limes....



We happen to go through a LOT of limes in this house, so I had some zest already, but I think this pie would be fine without it. You can also use the fat free Eagle Brand milk to reduce calories but whatever!
One piece ain't gonna kill ya.


Last week was my birthday and here's one of the bestest things I received, just had to share....



Isn't it adorable?! (thank you sweet Nancy if you're reading this, I love you!)
I was truly spoiled by my family, friends and coworkers and felt completely undeserving of everything!

Life is good. Pie is good. Enjoy it.

link for the angel ornament

Several of you have asked where I got the tombstone angel ornament, so I wanted to let y'all know...(in case you don't win the drawing on Sat.), that I got them from the Bay of Evil (as I've heard it called...I for one, love ebay!)...anyhoo...this seller, stitchinthedayaway was lovely to deal with! I don't know her personally, but thought these were very reasonably priced, and her shipping charges were good as well! Not to mention, these are adorable in person :-)

sweet gift

Finally found the battery charger for the camera AND we finally have some sun today after several days of severe weather...so I want to share what Nancy surprised me with this Easter.



Isn't it lovely? Just like Nancy, so sweet and dear...



Every stitch perfection, each pin so perfectly placed...

Thank you again dearest Nancy! I will always think of you and our friendship when I look at my lovely pinkeep!

treats!

Look what Tracey sent me for my Halloween Exchange gift:


Isn't it adorable?!



Tracey made this little shelf pillow out of a Prairie Schooler design, I think it's a newer one, but I can't think of the name of it.



How lucky am I?

Thanks again Tracey!

for my friend

Here's what I stitched for my BFF, for her birthday this year. I posted it before on here, when I first finished stitching it, but here it is in it's finished form:



This design is from the Stitch Every Day series, by Just Another Button Company and is called "For the Cure". I stitched it on 30 ct. For the Cure Pink by R&R, and used WDW threads. The buttons are from JABC.

The finisher finished this into a cube-it for me, and here's the fabric she chose for the back:



I thought it was just perfect, and so did my friend. It made me so happy that she really liked it.



Stay tuned next week for pictures of a couple of framed finishes I picked up from the LNS and an awesome recipe for mocha brownies!

a beautiful exchange

Ann in New Jersey sent me the most wonderful package for a Summer Exchange we participated in.

A beautiful needle book and fob made from a Blackbird Designs chart, and wonderful cupcake tags and towel!

I will let the pictures speak for themselves:

It's one of the best packages I've received all year!

Thank you so much Ann! Your beautiful handwork is a treasure that I will always cherish!

exchange gift

Tricia received the exchange gift I sent her, so now I can show it here:



This is from the BBD book, With Needle and Thread.

over the top

At the quilt shop, I found these little do-dads, made by Moda. This one is a little purse. I brought several home and then took the label off one of them, attached a yo-yo and a Mary Engelbreit button. It's a bit "too much", huh?




That's a lot of "cute" in small package, lol! But I sent it to Nancy for her birthday and she liked it and that's all that matters! Also sent her this:



A pinkeep for her basket.

OMG, I just looked at this picture closely and see so many things wrong with it! I have terrible finishing "skills" to say the least!

Here's the back of it, truly sad, but cute fabric, lol!



Nancy, hope you had a wonderful birthday!

And Tobie was the recipient of the BOAF cube it box from my previous post. She wrote and said she got it...Tobie, hope you have a great birthday!!

Now I'm waiting for something else I made recently to arrive at it's new home, and then I can share that here too.

I'm so thankful for the wonderful friends I've made.