have yourself...

...a merry little Christmas!



let your heart be light....



from now on



our troubles will be out of sight....



Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Make the Yuletide gay
From now on
Our troubles will be miles away



Here we are as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Gather near to us once more

Through the years
We all will be together
If the Fates allow
Hang a shining star
Upon the highest bough
And have yourself
A merry little Christmas right now

love letters

This little stitch from the new Blackbird Designs Joyeux Noel book was so much fun to stitch, I did it twice :-)




Once for me, and one for a friend!
I do believe it's my favorite thing I've stitched in all of 2009!
I used the recommended threads (except for using CC Pea Pod instead of the Putty called for) on the called for fabric, which is 32 count PTP Dill. Good stuff, wonderful stitch. My plan is to have these made into the little tokens box like pictured in the book :-)

Jingle, Sparkle, Joy!

My friend Patti stitched this ornament for me last year (a freebie design from Deborah) but because we had just moved, I was too frazzled to post about it...




It came attached to a really pretty wreath, but I had to take it off to get a decent picture.
(Santa, please bring me a new camera for Christmas!)

I really love it!

Just decorating today and thought I'd share!

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!

all about fall

Happy Fall Y'all!!!
It's my favorite time of the year! All of my stitching this past month has been centered around fall or Halloween, and I'm kinda on a roll, lol! In truth, I haven't felt very well for a while (dental problems), and being a hermit has helped my stitching life somewhat.

So with apologies for the craptastic photos and pug hairs, here are my finishes....

This one is Halloween Fun, by Birds of a Feather (the linen came with the chart)

I loved this little spider :-)



this is Autumn Song, one of the Loose Feathers from Blackbird Designs



It will be finished into a box someday, as shown on the cover of the chart....
the colors on this one really made me happy...



this is part of the pincushion that goes with it....



a tiny ornament from the Lizzie Kate Fall Crazy chart...



Trick or Treat from La D Da (I think this was in the 2008 JCS Halloween issue)
(I really love designs featuring Witches shoes ;-) )



and this is Boo, from Lilybet Designs....those pumpkins crack me up, I'd be scared of that spider too!




This is not stitching related, but so cute, I wanted to share. It's from the Oct. 2009 issue of Southern Living magazine (if you click that link, you'll get a better picture than mine, and better directions too, lol)




These are MOON PIES on a stick! You just use some melted candy coating (almond bark) to "glue" the stick in (push it into the marshmallow center) and secure the goodies to make the faces. The ones with "eyes" is made with open faced Oreo cookies with M&M's, candy corn nose and sprinkles for the hair. You can find the dowels or sticks at Michael's or Hobby Lobby where the candy making stuff is. Aren't these adorable? These would be a fun project for kids and I love that they're totally edible :-)

yes, there are still cupcakes here

It's been overcast and raining here, so the picture is the best I could get, just a little peek of our strawberry cupcakes with strawberry frosting....

when the weather is like this, all I want to do is cook, bake, and make stuff!
Today for dinner I made oven baked cornflake chicken, garlic mashed potatoes, cheddar bay biscuits, and green beans. And of course, the cupcakes for dessert :-)
I had some leftover strawberry frosting (the recipe was enough to frost a three layer cake!)so that will go on some fluffy sugar cookies and with me to work later in the week...too much sugar for one household!

Speaking of sugar, did you know you can make your very own brown sugar? I was kinda skeptical, but tried it and DUH, it works! (I may be 45, but I can learn new tricks ;-) !
All you do is add one tablespoon molasses to one cup white sugar and stir it around with a fork until it's blended together. If you want dark brown sugar, add 2 tablespoons molasses for each cup of sugar. Store it in a ziplock bag and TADA!! No more $2 bags of brown sugar for me! Hah, take that Imperial, lol!

Stitching wise, a little more progress on my SB Sail Away SAL...



it seems very appropriate to be finishing up this SAL up as we head into fall....the best time of year to me!

greetings (with a little help from my friend)

A dear, sweet friend of mine that likes to stitch and talk about stitching (Patti, I'm talking about you)asked me if I'd seen this book by BBD. Of course I had seen it, and not only that, but I owned it! So I found it and took it to her so she could look at it (I'm pretty sure she ended up ordering it). Anyhoo...it was buried in my stash along with a project I'd started from it several years ago. Like 2004. For whatever reason, (well, honestly, because I have stitching related ADD) I'd become disgusted with it at the midway point and tossed it to the side.
But when it saw the light of day again after so many years stuck away, it sang a pretty song to me and that song was "I'm so beautiful, you know you want to finish me"...so thanks to Patti, for inquiring about the book, Greetings is now finished!



It's supposed to have some snowflakes, which are made from Queen stitches, scattered about, but I'd rather dance with the devil than do queen stitches, so yeah, no snowflakes!



The fabric is actually much darker than it's showing here, I just can't get a good picture with this camera....anyway, it's 32 ct. Autumn Gold from Lakeside and stitched with GAST and WDW threads.




This is totally random, but after hearing it the other day, I haven't been able to get it out of my head....

From back in early 1986, when I was pregnant with my oldest daughter....



Ah hey ma ma ma! Take it easy on yourself....

sailing along...

A little more progress on my Sail Away SAL piece....



still need to put some initials and the heart charm in that flower wreath, but will save that for last.

Also finished up my Finch Song....



which was a joy to stitch!










On a non-stitchy note, we had a little, well, big actually, health scare with my hubby, but after visiting the cardiologist and then the family physician today, we got news that it wasn't anything serious. Still have some blood work results to look at, but so far, so good! Hubby's health is always an issue around here, guess when you have heart problems, that's to be expected, but sometimes even small things get magnified out of fear it could be something serious. At least now he goes in when I force the subject. Back in the 80's when he was sick with his thyroid (to the point of being hospitalized), I'd told him then, for months before the hospital trip, that something was seriously wrong. I just knew it! He wouldn't go. Turns out he had Graves disease, with all sorts of complications, you can't imagine. Then again in '97 when he had the heart attack, he didn't listen again and wouldn't go to the doctor, kept saying it was just indigestion, etc. Didn't go until three days later! The serious damage from that one he lives with EVERY DAY! But, ever since then, when I say "you're going", he doesn't argue! MEN! Gosh, it takes soooooo long to train them!

if only...

....I could be near a cool ocean breeze right now....that would be Heaven! Instead, I'm just pretending to be... as I stitch along with my fellow Sail Away pals...



I am actually further along right now than these pics show, but just haven't busted out the camera yet to get pics...



If you haven't guessed by now, this is Sail Away, a kit from Shepherd's Bush. To say I'm lovin' it would be an understatement!



Something else we've loved recently is a tomato pie recipe I found here, it is truly yummy, and just like she says, it's better served cold, so after I made this one and it cooled off, it went straight to the fridge and we ate it the next day...



Once again (this is our second pie), it was consumed before a picture could be taken of the baked pie, so you'll just have to look at the vanilla sugar blog to check out what the final product looks like! It's so awesome! Fresh Texas grown tomatoes, bacon, cheddar cheese, how could you go wrong?! Make it! (My pie crust looks so pitiful in this picture, it's a homemade one and doesn't look perfect, but it's the best!You can find the recipe to it in my sidebar.)

Thanks for visiting! Stay cool y'all!

whatever

Long time, no blog!
It's not really that I have nothing to say. Or anything to show (see below), it's just that I haven't really felt like saying it or showing it. Anyone know what I mean? So, there are few words for this post, just mostly pictures, it's the best I can do for now...




Design by Shakespeare's Peddler
"I Love the Birds"
NPI and Belle Soie silks
over two on 35 ct. Daily Grind linen







and a recent package from the finisher. You can click on this picture to see all of these better....



Designs by Birds of a Feather
WDW, GAST threads over 2 on
36 ct. Meadowlark linen




and a design from Twisted Threads


"America" (kit)
one over one, with threads and linen from kit