Sending love and blessings to my buddies out there in Bloggerland. I haven't forgotten about you, things have just been crazy for me since the middle of November and I haven't had much energy or will to blog. Hopefully my mojo will return in January and if it does, I'll be back then and post the things I've finished the past month or so.
Wishing you all the best for a very Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy New Year... xoxo
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 :)
Well, last year I stitched all but 2 of the thirteen stockings from the Blackbird Designs Tis Halloween book.
Such fun stitches! My original plan was to try and finish these myself, going by Vonna's awesome tutorial, which made it seem so very easy.
Which I'm sure it is....for someone not finishing challenged, like myself.
Let's face it, some people have it (finishing talent) and some don't. I don't. Not yet....maybe someday ;-)
Luckily, I have a really sweet and talented friend, who took pity on me and finished every. single. one. of them for me. How blessed am I?! Patti, I know I've said thank you several times, but seriously...THANK YOU AGAIN!!
I do have a little metal tree to hang these on, but they don't all fit...
and I couldn't get a good picture of it anyway, so here they all are...
that house with the kitty in the yard is one of my favs!
but I love all of them...(even with the pug hairs all over)
these two (below) are other favorites...
which one(s) are your favorite?
Oh, I forgot...I did make the little beaded hangers for all of them AND attach them!
That's all for now! I'm diligently stitching away on the Jenny Bean Halloween Sampler and hope to have it done by Halloween. We'll see....I'm usually not so good with deadlines ;-)
Take care of yourselves and enjoy Fall, while it lasts!
...struggling with this blog! Pictures aren't loading right and heaven knows if I start messing around with things, it's only going to get worse! Someday I will figure out how to widen my margins and load bigger and better pictures, and make things prettier around here, but y'all probably shouldn't wait up for it! Ha!
Thanks for laughing along with me on the CHS chart I already had! Turns out that post was appropriately titled...as in...I need all kinds of help, maybe even professional, LOL! Oh well. You know your stash is a wee bit too big when you don't even know what's in it. But at least I'm in good company! wink wink!
So anyway, here's some pics of things I managed to get uploaded tonight this morning...
Have I posted this here before? I can't really remember. It's an oldie from Lizzie Kate called Fall Y'all...one of my favorites that's been in my home for over ten years now. Love bringing it out every fall :) The flash kind of distorts the color of the fabric, but I couldn't get a good picture without it.
Finished up this...
Hallow Sampler by The Primitive Needle
Stitched on 32 count PTP Dill with recommended WDW threads.
And I finished stitching up a friends Christmas gift...
Hooked Rabbit Pincushion by The Goode Huswife
36 ct. Vintage Pearled Barley w/2 strands WDW threads
It's a little big for a pincushion, so we're going to discuss the options...it's not a surprise to her as you may have guessed, maybe next year I'll try to keep it a secret ;-)
Guess I'll close for now, since it's almost 3 am! Yikes! Will try posting more pics later this week as I have a lot more to share! Hope you'll come back!
PS. Muttley had another good checkup but the Cone is still on, just to be safe...
he seems to think it's a part of his own head now, so no worries ;-)
Isn't it lovely? As you can see, it's not mine....I don't enter things into the fair. But it's fun to see what is there and I love this one. MUST FIND IT!
Can anyone tell me who designed it? (It looks like Carriage House or Goode Huswife?) Thanks a bunch! Will post again soon :)
**edited to add: The design is Carriage House Samplings Farmers Wife! Thanks to everyone that let me know. Now, guess what? I ALREADY have it in my stash, DUH on me, lol! Thanks you all
"I love fall! Fall is exciting. It's apples and cider. It's an airborne spider. It's pumpkins in bins. It's burrs on dog's chins. It's wind blowing leaves. It's chilly red knees. It's nuts on the ground. It's a crisp dry sound. It's green leaves turning. And the smell of them burning. It's clouds in the sky. It's fall. That's why... I love fall."~Author Unknown
I'd like to share with you my Blackbird Designs Autumn Song box. It was finished earlier this year, but it didn't seem the right time to share it then...
I had some help finishing it. Meaning, I tried to do it, messed it up, and ended up sending it to a friend for finishing ;)
Fall stitching is really my favorite :)
Here's my current WIP, Good Huswife's Hooked Rabbit Pincushion...which is a gift for a friend for Christmas. It's being stitched on 36 ct Vintage Pearled Barley with two strands WDW. Lots of solid stitching!
Muttley Pie got his stitches out Tuesday! And the ulcer is healed! Yippee!! He's got a little scar there now (you can make it out if you look closely, the right eye), but he's on medication to minimize that. The other eye is still a bit inflamed and gunky, but all in all, he's doing better....
He has to wear the cone for two more weeks though! I'm beginning to think he won't know how to act when it's finally off. He gets around with it like a pro now!
We'd like to say thank you for all of your good thoughts and prayers...I've shed a lot of tears of worry over this pug while all this was going on. A sweet friend on Facebook reminded me to just have faiththat it would all be ok...it was a reminder I really needed....sometimes (well, most times), I have a tendency to expect the worse...so when/if it happens, I'm prepared to deal with it. Turns out...it takes about the same amount of energy (maybe even less!) to think positively as it does to worry about the worst case scenario! Who would've thought it ;-)
One of those you enjoy working on so much, you almost hate to be done with it!
I had to change the wording along the bottom....my whole name didn't work with the way it was charted, (her sampler, finished in ****), so what you see is my version ;-)
I will miss working on it, but it's headed to the framers soon, so we can enjoy looking at it on the wall :)
Mary Beale, her very ownself, recommended not filling in around the verse, so that's how I left it :)
"Mary Beale, Her Sampler" Designed by Mary Beale from the Pocketbook Needlework series, 1998 editionavailable from Mary's online shop (click on link to go there) Stitched on 40 count Park City Blend by R&R over 2 with one strand DMC thread
Thank you all for visiting my blog and always saying such nice things. The stitching and blogging community is so wonderful...I'm very grateful to be a part of it.
Have a wonderful week ahead and stitch much!
xox
Apologies in advance for these horrible pictures. I've been fighting a cold bug for weeks and it finally hit pretty hard the past few days, so everything I try to do just turns out cruddy!
I recently sent a few things to Tobie for finishing, she makes awesome pillows and other things. Got two of them back today...
Here's Jingles & Jack (design by Becky's Boos)...
and the Daisy Sampler (design by Little House Needleworks)....
Also, I recently stitched up this little freebie from Shepherd's Bush, called Halloween Grins...
Stitched once for my hubby, as he picked it out when he was with me at the LNS last fall. The Frankenstein one is his. Then stitched again for my daughters, the grinning kitty. They are in some tuckable hanging banners that Tobie made for me a few years back. Can't remember what they were originally for, but these fit perfectly. My original plan was to make these into little hanging ornaments, but I feel too shaky to even attempt that, so here they go. I may need to spruce up the banners a little...when I feel better...maybe some cute buttons in the corners.
Thanks to everyone who entered my giveaway. The random generator thing was done and the winners are Tracey for Lot A, and Deborah for Lot B. Congratulations ladies, I will be emailing you soon for your mailing info...or if you see this first, please go ahead and email me with it :)
Back to my Mary sampler...which I've managed to work on in-between my Nyquil shots, lol! She's almost done :)
Just couldn't stand it any longer! Seeing all of the fall finishes on the blogs has put me in the mood! So I took a little break from my Mary sampler to stitch this up for a friend!
Design by Lizzie Kate - Autumn Things #125 stitched on 28 ct. Country French Latte linen with WDW (I left off the square border and put the acorn button in a different spot than shown on the cover of the chart). premade acorn banner from Stitch-A-Gift
Hope she likes it! Now, one more fall stitch to complete and then back to the Mary Beale sampler, which is almost done!
Hello again! How are you this week? So far things are just peachy here at Cone Headquarters. Mr. Muttley had a checkup on Tuesday and all is going well. So far. One more week to go, then another recheck and hopefully the stitches can come out and the eye will be ok. The vet did say if she thinks it needs another week under the patch, she'll sew it back up. Oh boy! Astro is still not happy about the cone, and steers a w i d e path around it, even though I think in his heart, he'd like to play. Muttley says he's tired of feeling like a reject!
Meanwhile, I'm clearing out my stash and wanted to share some goodies with my faithful readers in the process. There will be two winners, one for "lot A" as seen here:
The contents will include: Little House Needleworks Acorns & Pines, with the fabric Lizzie Kate Snippet - Wanted! with fabric and buttons Heart in Hand Grand Old Flag & Lizzie Kate Fall Crazy #131
And another winner for "lot B" as pictured below:
which will include:
Whitman's Tin Sewing Set chart and Whitman's tin BrightNeedle Can You Spy? with fabric and Anchor threads called for Threads of Gold Heart to Heart (Christmas ornament) Homespun Elegance Tiny Stuff Noel Noah Pin/Ornament with fabric and embellishment.
If you'd like a chance to win, please let me know in the comments below this post. I will draw two names next Thursday, Sept. 23. Be sure to let me know which group you'd like, should you win!
Hello my dear and faithful readers! I've thought about you often and wanted to write. Really, I did! But I couldn't think of anything to say and since I'm just working on one project right now, wanted to be further along before posting pictures of it. But time sure is flying, and here we are, in September already, so here's where I am on the Mary Beale sampler (that I still don't know the name of!)
It's kind of big and hard to get a good picture of, so the photo above isn't the best.
But look at this little butterfly, I love it...
and the verse, that I also love. It's just outlined by the green border right now, the chart says to fill in the whole verse area with the same color...but I'm thinking I won't. What do you think?
As there is so much solid stitching around the rest of the sampler...
more grass will fill this area below this blank space (which will have a little couple sitting at a table under some grapevines...
anyway, that's as far as I've gotten on it so far. Almost there!
Some of you that are my Facebook friends will already know about my pug problem, but for those that aren't, here's the problem....Muttley...Munny Pie...Mutt Lee...
It all started when his eyes started looking funny. Cloudy, etc. One eye worse than the other. We took him in to our vet, she did a dye test, which showed a corneal scratch on one eye, and corneal swelling on the other, both due to "injuries" of some sort. All we could figure is, because he's so WILD, he ran into something and scratched it. He loves to bury his face in the carpet or in blankets. So anyway, she prescribes drops, antibiotics and said to come back in a week. TWO DAYS later, the one eye with the scratch turns into the ulcer you see above. How lucky for us it was the holiday weekend, so no going back to the vet until Tuesday, and trust me when I say, it got uglier before Tues. Let me tell you, I pretty much went off the deep end, picturing this little (well, not so little, but you know what I mean), two year old pug, going blind! We've had a bunny rabbit lose an eye, even with excellent specialized medical care, so I knew what it looked like.
But, we made it to Tuesday, took him back in first thing in the morning and now we have this...
The vet made a "patch" over the ulcer, using his extra eye-lid flap, or whatever it's called. It should help speed the healing. It looks seriously gross. He's soooo happy {snort}. It has to stay this way for two weeks, and considering he's WILD, the Cone of Shame must be worn for that amount of time as well, until the stitches come out.
You may notice, the cone is already dented...
He's since figured out that this "Cone of Shame" can be used to his advantage...
*Mom holds his bone for him, so he can get his daily chew on (he chews a LOT on a regular basis, it's his therapy).
*He can terrorize Astro relentlessly (because Astro is terrified of the cone coming at him)
*He can lick food, water and whatever else might get into the cone at his leisure.
*Everyone feels sorry for him when he moans for one solid minute while laying on the couch, so he gets extra treats, rubbin' and kisses.
*If he plants his face straight down on the floor, the cone spreads out and he can pick up miscellaneous crap off said floor.
*He can clear a path really quickly because the humans and other living creatures in the house have figured out that the cone HURTS like h*ll when rammed into their legs, so they get out of the way, and fast!
I'm sure there are other advantages to the cone, but he's only on the first 24 hours, so give him time. Meanwhile, his parents continue to pray really hard that the #1 advantage to all this will be that his eye heals up and when it's opened back up, that ulcer will be much better.
And rain? Yes, lots of it, which normally I love. Except when there's a MONSOON and you're trying to walk doggies with cones on their heads and they are freaking out cause they've never heard all that NOISE before, all around their heads, while they need to peepee reaaaaaaally badly. They hate even getting their feet wet anyway, geesh! (You doggie owners out there know exactly what I'm talking about....don't ya?) I've never been so completely drenched in all of my life, but at least he went potty finally :-)
:::::sigh:::::
Life is good, even when it's nuts! I'm so happy it's the beginning of fall. So happy in fact, that I'm going to have a Fall giveaway very soon, so stay tuned for that. It will be for my loyal blog followers and regular commenting friends only :)
Stay safe! Stay dry! Be happy!
PS. For those that haven't seen the movie UP (such a great movie)...here's a clip about the Cone of Shame:
