Summer House

Lately I have not been getting the best pictures of my finishes...natural light washes the colors out and scans don't seem to work either.
Anyway, here's another recent finish...

Loose Feathers #14, Summer House, by Blackbird Designs....



stitched on recommended fabric with WDW and DMC threads....













Thanks for visiting, have a great weekend!

Bitter Flower (version 2008)

Just finished this one up last night....I'd stitched it before and a good and dear friend fell in love with it, so I gave it to her :) But I loved it so much myself, that I knew it would have to be stitched again someday...



The above scan is pretty small, so I took some pics with the camera. The scan really shows the true colors however...



These are taken with natural light, no flash. Strange how the fabric color gets so washed out...



This one was a joy to stitch...both times ;)

Design by Birds of A Feather
Bitter Flower
Stitched on 32 count Barn Owl with WDW threads, two over two.

Now we both can enjoy this sampler :)

a happy place...

Busy weekend, not any stitching to show. Mostly working, dealing with a psycho ex-employee, visiting with my mother, going over her issues (and mine) cooking, grocery shopping, telling Muttley to "not lick the brick" (the fireplace hearth), stop chewing this, stop chewing that, playing nurse to Astro, who has bleeding scabs from Muttley chewing on him all time, listening to music, watching videos on YouTube, figuring out my hubby has a problem that's going to require surgery, major ordeal for sure considering just dental work requires an act of congress for him, oh yeah, and insurance that hasn't kicked in yet so that just miiiiight be an issue.

But anyway, amongst all that, a happy new song I found and love and want to share with you...



life is still good, God is so good. All. of. the. time. I'm happy to be here, and I'm happy you're here :-)

framed "where my heart blooms"

My friend and I made the loooong trek over to the LNS Friday afternoon, it was time for me to pick up my recently framed BBD Loose Feathers piece, Where My Heart Blooms. It had been a shop model for a few months.



I really like how this one turned out...



now to find a space on the wall for it :)



Here are my boys in their usual state, Muttley trying to bite Astro in the rear or on his ankles...



poor Astro has many bite marks and scabs all over his body, but especially his ankles.



they do love each other a lot though :)



Have a great week!

ramblings...no pugs

Hubby and I drove down to Terrell on Sunday to visit Ham Orchards, which has been there for a long time, but was just recently featured on the news.



OMG, talk about packed. With people that is! That news feature had to be the best thing that ever happened to them! Which is a good thing(for them) but Jeff thought it was a little "not so much". We made it home with some fried pies and peaches and canned things...
I really don't like to say negative things about people or places,(publicly anyway) so the good thing I can and will say is that he loves their pickled okra and the spicy olives and we still have a few jars of stuff to get into. I have a coworker that lives down the road from them, so whenever this stuff runs out, I'll just get her to pick it up for me and save the gasoline :)
(ps. the peaches were effin' fantastic after they were allowed to ripen in a paper bag for a few days).


On the stitching front, not much to report, working on that "for hire" piece (it's coming right along!) and a gift for someone, so I can't show that here.
I do think ahead though. I saw this pattern on ebay last week:





This design is from The City Stitcher, and I don't recall the name of the pattern. Couldn't make up my mind about it and the auction ended without me bidding. Now, of course, I have to have it and can't find it.

Then this one popped up in my search for A&E samplers:



It's a La D Da design. Almost bid but then thought, hmm, that's awfully familiar...
checked the stash, yep, have it!

So much to stitch, so little time!

aww....sunday!

Our favorite day!


a lazy day for Astro...






and even Muttley...








well, kinda, he did do this first...







but when I asked him about it, he seemed pretty innocent




Hope you're all having a wonderful (and fun) Sunday too!

feelin' stitchy

After a week and a half of being miserable with a cold bug, I can tell things are starting to get better...I can take a breath now without a cough attached to the end of it. AND! I'm feeling all "stitchy"! Besides working on my "for hire" piece, there are a few other things in the works...several in fact, I'm bee-bop and scattin' all over the place! What FUN!

Since this is the only thing with much progress on it, it's all I took a picture of..



You know, I'd sworn I wasn't going to cave into this one, but geesh, it's too perfect for me, don't you think?



The buttons haven't been sewn on yet, they'll go on last...

Meanwhile, other goings on include this:



which is quite the handful, as you can imagine.
He's already wrapped himself snugly around our hearts though :)

fangs for the memories

What do you get when two pugs think it's great fun to wrestle on your lap?



even when you feel bad from a cold bug...it's their job to entertain you...



and help you eat your mashed potatoes...



and be calm in Dad's lap...



Pugs! They're just here to help you out :)

more pug news

It took me 27 tries to get this one shot of Muttley (aka: Devil Dog, Scrappy, You Little Sh*t)...he doesn't sit still for long...




most of his days are spent biting ankles, or Astro....



not much stitching to report...nights have been spent at work and days are spent trying to catch a nap. It took me four hours to get them to lie down for just under one hour...but how sweet it was...



we've had territorial wars, running, chasing, biting, house-training, growling, barking, happy Pugs, pissed off Pugs, licking, chewing, jumping, bringing in sticks and shredding them all over the house, piddles, poops, medicines, crunchy treats, chewy treats, socks everywhere, sweet puppy breath and ankle biting.

That's our house this week. Just call us the Muttley Crew.

I did mention the ankle biting, right? I have the fang marks to prove it.

Happy weekend, y'all!

how could we?

How could we forget? It's only been 17 months since we brought a baby Astro pug home and went through all the puppy stuff, which is a lot like having a human baby....
and I guess since he's such a good dog, and was so easy to train, we just plum forgot what work it can be.

Here's our Muttley Puggly, aka: Devil Dog, in a rare peaceful moment...



and suckling in his sleep....



All the Pugs are getting along well, although Astro is not real sure how to handle the constant ankle biting Muttley does. It took Devil Dog about 3.2 minutes to adjust to our family and he's been trying to dominate everything and everybody since that time. Interesting!

So we're adjusting....cupcakes help :)