Shiver Me Timbers....

Crikey!.....

What is happening outside my window (and blowing through it) today is enough for a girl to get up and grab a sweater! Brrr....what a thin skin I've gotten over the summer. And ME I *like* the winter time.....I always tell my husband it's easier (and better for most people's sanity) for me to put on clothes rather than take them off ;) Its been a busy week so I'll get down to the tellin' of the tale....

It was a right good day....

it was when I went to Michael's and found an open back frame to showcase my inlaw's anniversary sampler: A close up of the frame detail....

Then on Saturday on a wee bit o' a break from stitchin' my fingers off.....
I fixed my most favorite fob (the brown bunny one). Why? His fob cording was frayed and actually worn through and fell off my scissors :(

My friend Cathy B made this for me a long time ago, but I love it and so I clipped off the worn cord and made a new one...shebang! Good as new ;)

The other three fobs I made up from Fair and Square exchanges from this past year. Now I only have a few undressed scissors on my board...

notice the breast cancer awareness pair of scissors and the fob I matched with it...just a bit of earthy humor on my part :)

What else is going on?.....

I ran out of two colors of overdyes on Ann Pennsylvania Peacock *grumble, grumble*....so, well I started something I've long wanted to stitch for myself and it is Prairie Schooler's "When Witches go Riding..." There! I did and I'm not going to be ashamed...On Friday, I picked my fabric, picked a book on CD and got to work, here's where I landed at the end of Saturday evening before bed.....

So....
that'd be what is up in the stitchin' department....on the reading end of things I finished a FANTABULOUS book (the 4th in a series with only one remaining to make an appearance next summer) by Karen Marie Moning. Its a paranormal romance/intrigue story and HUBBA HUBBA....ahem! The titles are: Darkfever, Faefever, Bloodfever and Dreamfever...YOWSA, YOWSA...lets just say, the storyline is excellent, the characters are stunningly drawn to life and Barrons can be my Druid any time he'd like to hop out of the pages.... :)

On Friday.....

the the postman came a bearin' gifts, from dear kind Edgar. Seems he found some beanie babies during his whirlwind clean out and sell off, and offered them up to lil' Ellie since she's got a beanie baby fetish...here she is in beanie baby heaven....

she's saying, "ohhhhh so many babies!!!!"

And in the box...
was another treasure, but this time for Mama! Look what Edgar said he nearly knocked over a lady for in one of his treasure hunting excursions!

That's right a Jim Shore Angel! It's the Celtic Angel with an Irish Blessing on it....isn't it DARLING? I love it and it sets front and center on my mantel with my other two Jim Shore Angels:

I didn't work on Saturday....
and it was a brilliant day, so we played outside all day long with our friends....

Until next time....
love and best wishes, as you count your blessings and your stitches, from our house to yours!

XXxxxx

Victory!

We interrupt this regularly scheduled program to announce:

That this sweet girl, Katie Grace:

WON her quest for being elected to office and is now the presiding Student Council President for the 2009-2010 school year!

It was a long, gruelling, very public campaign that was fraught with anxiety and nail biting....but the young girl escaped victorious minus a few stress related blemishes. The new President started her office off with a bang and had a late luncheon with the Student Council advisor and newly elected Vice President. They dined on salisbury steak and mashed potatoes, courtesy of the school cafeteria. The press was notified that strategic plans have been put into place and the ball is now rolling onward....we will keep you updated of important decisions in upcoming weeks.

The parents of the newly elected official were quoted as saying, "We knew she could do it! We are so proud!" as her mother lowered her head into a handkerchief and wept, while her father gently patted her back. It was a victorious night at the President's home, where she and her family reportedly dined on chili.

We now continue with our regularly programming schedule.....

A win and a finish!

Hello my stitching buddies.....
How are you this fine day in September? I hope great! I'll cut the chase and get straight to the meat of the post ;) My mother and father-in-law are celebrating their 40th Wedding Anniversary on Oct. 25th. They are having a shindig and I'm in charge of the cake and the cake table. I felt like I needed to stitch something for them in celebration of 40 years of marriage so I turned to Blackbird Designs. I chose to stitch "New Love" which is sampler #2 of the Schoolgirl Sampler Series. I stitched it exactly as the sampler except I inserted my MIL and FIL's initials and the year of their marriage and the year of their 40th wedding anniversary. Here it is all finished up:

"New Love"

Designer: Blackbird Designs

Fabric: 32 ct. French Vanilla linen

Fibers: GAST Rhubarb and Raspberry Parfait

to be framed

Funny thing....

the 40th Wedding Anniversary is the "ruby" anniversary and look at that thread color...pretty cool, eh?

And you all are going to be jealous....

but look what arrived in the mail today! A lovely parcel from Paula in Lisbon, Portugal - I won her Blog Anniversary PRIZE! Isn't it pretty? I have admired this pattern from The Sampler Girl and now it is mine all finished up beautifully in a standing frame ;) and look at that bounty of rainbow DMC! Thank you Paula! Not only has Paula befriended me, but she sends me beautiful postcards on all her travels. She's a lovely woman and I am lucky that she has taken a liking to me :)

Paula's Blog Anniversary Prize Winner! (me!)

Well now....

that does it for me for today. Tomorrow is the dreaded laundry day (UGH!). What shall I pull out of my treasure chest to stitch next? Hmmmm....I think it is back to Ann (Vonna).....I think I can knock that out in a week or so....maybe....if....I'm....prove tenacious!

So until next time.....

Love and best wishes, as you count your blessings and your stitches, from our house to yours!

XXxxxx

Love...puts up with anything,

trusts God always, always looks for the best,

never looks back, but keep going to the end.

Love never dies.

~1 Corinthians 13:4, 7-8~

How to finish the Blackbird Stockings...

I e-mailed Alma Allen to ask if I could have permission to make a pictoral compliment to BBD's insturctions for finishing their stockings, because many folks have asked if I could help them as they were visual lerners. Alma gave me the green light....so, I stitched this Candy Corn Stocking up today and finished it so that I could make up a tutorial to help some of you out. Here's the two I've made.....

the tutorial with pictures is available HERE.

Now get to finishing those little cuties ;)

Have a great weekend!

Soup..

Hello Readers...
Just a quick post, to say, do you like Olive Garden? What about soup? Ya like soup? Have you ever had OG's unlimted soup, salad and breadsticks and have tried their Chicken Gnocchi Soup? Did you love it? Do you like all my questions?

Well....
after a little sleuthing and some detailing of my own...I came up with a recipe and it is wonderful! The next good thing is...my kids like it! You ought to try it and the recipe is over at my recipe blog - HERE. It's Mmmmm-mmmm good and really pretty easy :)

Go on now...
what are you waitin' for...go get the recipe!

Update for thee on me...

Hello my wonderful stitching buddies....
So how are you all? I hope doing fine and fit as a fiddle! We're wallowing along here. Sort of in a routine, I guess. The mad rush of the beginning of the school year is behind us, for that I am glad. I guess the next "big" thing I have to worry about is the Staff Appreciation Luncheon that I organize for the school staff, but heck that isn't until Oct. 28...so I think I'm good to go for awhile. Whew! :)

So, I know you're all wondering....
did I contract a debilitating case of numb butt this weekend? Well, I'm happy to report, I sure did...at least on Saturday. And for my effort this is what I get to show you:

Design: Ann Pennsylvania Peacock (changed to Vonna Marie Epperson)

Designer: Little by Little

Stitched with recommended fibers: GAST and DMC

on 28 ct. Autumn Fields Linen

I was hoping.....
for more progress, but although I tried, this is all I got done. I guess its not bad, I would have been happy if all I had left was the tree, grass and house though....but soon, yes?

My work schedule....
has recently changed. I now work every Sunday and every other Friday and Saturday. I did a bit of bargaining and now I'm worried that I was stupid. See, I had to work most Friday nights. I hate working Friday nights, especially when I don't have to work the next day. That just totally STINKS to have to work late on a Friday night and then you don't work the next day - totally ruins your weekend in my opinion. So I bargained and got my Fridays off on the weeks where I don't work the entire weekend and changed my Fridays for Sundays. So in a two week time period I work: Sunday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and it repeats. Not bad I guess. We'll see how it works out.

Today is....
laundry day. And in true Vonna fashion, I am thinking of anything and everything to do besides laundry. Hence, this post... :)

I really....
don't have much to even discuss or talk about except one thing....did you feel the earth shake yesterday? No? Well it did because I finally, whole-heartedly agreed with President Obama on a topic of much debate. Would you like to know what it is? I agree Mr. President.....Kanye West *is* a jackass.

Until next time my dear friends....

Love and best wishes, as you count your blessings and your stitches, from our house to yours!

XXxxxx

People who deal with life generously

and large-heartedly go on multiplying

relationships to the end.

~Arthur Christopher Benson

Thursday Thunks...

Hello Again Friends!
Is this what you call sporadic blogging? I've sure been sporadic for certain :)
Well I had to work the long Labor Day weekend...nothing like laboring the whole weekend while everyone else is sleeping :(
But I know I made some good mou-la, so I won't complain :)
This weekend after I got home from work I started Ann Pennsylvania Peacock and I made a few changes....can you tell?
(picture is clickable)

Design: Ann Pennsylvania Peacock

Designer: Little by Little

I bet.....

you can see that Ann no longer resides in my sampler, but I do....I'm going to make this my very own school girl sampler....it'll all be the same as the design after this, I just changed the name and locations to my own ;) I really do like the colors in this sampler, it's sort of drabby, with shots of color to catch your eye, I likey!

I also have decided....

that I absolutely L-O-V-E this Zweigart Autumn Fields Linen...I mean L-O-V-E it...look at that blotchiness....perfect!

Watching....

some blogging ladies stitch up some of the different Carriage House Stockings has made me want to do them all too. Oh, I've wanted to do them all before, but I have this hankering in my gut to do it or maybe its my heart....anyway, I want to do one. I have one kitted and it is the "primitive stocking". I likey. I hope after Ann that it will be my other new starty. And I was looking today on Carriage House's website and I was thinking I think she ought to do a Adam and Eve Stocking...so who's friends with Kathy? (SIOBHAN) TELL HER! TELL HER to do a Adam and Eve Stocking :)

I got my JCS Ornament Issue....

Did you? What do you think? My opinion is: this year's is OK. I think some of the finishing of the ornaments in the magazine is a little off. Look closely, there are crooked mounts, threads hanging off the ornaments (which is more of the staging person's issue), sewing stitches showing, there's a couple where you can see the thread being carried all over the place. I'm one of those people when I see things like that (without looking for them) it bugs me to no end. Then I can't concentrate on what I truly do like. One ornament, however, that I think takes the prize on ingenuity is the one that is finished to act like a Snowglobe.....little crystal seed beads act as the snow. They have the finishing instructions as stacking a bunch of mat boards cut the same on top of one another. I think if they would have just done one cut of 1/4 inch foam core that would have negated the cutting of multiple mat boards. But that is my opinion only. The ingenuity of the finish is GENIOUS...I really like it. And I'm too much of a slacker to get my rump up and find my magazine to tell you who the designer was....Look for it. CUTE! One that gave me a huh? momement was Brightneedle's design this year. It says "Christmas in July". The story they give behind the ornament is cute, and a wonderful thing....but they should have put that in the ornament PREVIEW issue that comes in JULY......who wants to stitch a ornament for July in December? I just thought that was weird, personally - but it may make perfect sense to everyone else! :)

What'd up....

this weekend? I hope a severe, nearly debilitating case of numb butt syndrome. I've worked 3 weekends straight and I'm ready for a little uninhibited stitching. Really....I AM....and I'm on course for a guilt free stitching hey day!

So until next time.....

Love and best wishes, as you count your blessings and your stitches, from our house to yours!

XXxxxx

Peace is not a season - it is a way of life.

~Author Unknown~

A cluttered and chaotic mind...

Hello Friends!
I thought I better get on here and write something of substance and knowledge before all my followers decided to go follow someone else :)

The reason for the lack of blogging is.....
I have ~ now go grab a tissue ~ not stitched, not even ONE stitch, for about three weeks now. Why? Well school has started, that is one thing. The other thing is, with school starting so does PTO. I'm not an elected official in the PTO, I'm just a volunteer. But MAN do I volunteer. Because see I have a problem, when someone says they "need" something or "needs help"...my mind takes over and I think...

• oh, that's not so very much to do...
• I'm really good at organizing...
• that wouldn't take long if I....
• time? I've got lots of time....
• to those that have been blessed much; much is expected

So then off I go raising my hand saying, "Oh, I can help..." or I open my mouth and say, "I can organize..." So my big fat mouth and my Catholic guilt get me in trouble every and I do mean every time. Here lately? Well I've done these things:

• created a spread sheet charting 150 volunteers by name, phone number and e-mail address, marking each one of the 15 activities that the PTO sponsors through the school year - that they are interested in helping with. This position, you ask? Why...I am the illustrious (please hold your applause) Summit Elementary Volunteer Coordinator
• I've also recruited, made the sign in sheets, sent reminders for the 12 volunteers needed at last night's Open House Celebration
• I've organized, chaired and worked the 2nd Annual Bake Sale benefiting our 5th grade class trip. The Bake Sale occurred last night at Open House - since I was the Chair Person for this event I also got to donate to the Bake Sale - which I did, making 180 peanut butter blossoms and 6 (9 x 13 inch pans) of iced fudge brownies....we made $378.50 for the cause (down $100 from last year...but still good)
• I've hosted 2 Monday Summit Star Parties ~ Oh did I mention I am the Star Party Hostess? which means I get to organize all the Monday parties through the year...and host at least 1 per month and fill in for those other hosts that cannot make their assigned times?
• What about Staff Appreciation Luncheon Chair...did I say anything about that?

Well I think that wraps it up....that's not too bad, right? Well maybe a booking with a Psychiatrist is in order....

Stitching....stitching you say?
Oh....I've not done any of that....but does that stop my reckless thoughts? OH NO!

A couple of years ago I saw Nancy's
and then I saw Siobhan's
and then I thought...I HAVE to get that...so I did and here it is:

Design: Ann Pennsylvania Peacock
Designer: Little By Little
laying on a cut of 28 ct. Zweigart Autumn Fields Hand-dye

Then ever since I've seen Deb's finish and frame, I've been OBSESSED with this lovely:

Design: Adam and Eve
Designer: The City Stitcher
(laying on a lovely cut of Sassy's Fabby's linen called Toffee)

And we all know my affinity for Little House Needleworks and here they all are along with a lovely cut of Blue Sky Hand-dyed linen (which you can't see, but is in there) - I think it will just be the cat's MEOW as the backdrop for this lovely series, that I have all kitted up and ready to go:

Sea to Shining Sea Thread Pack Series
collaboration between Little House Needleworks and Crescent Colours

And although I'm more of her mother's style in decorating, Country Cottage Needleworks just grabs me most times (ok, ok...ALL the time), and I have all of these (well the ones released to date) all ready to rip through:

Winter Wonderland Thread Packs

Collaboration between Country Cottage Needleworks and Crescent Colours

And hell...why stop now?

I've got ALL of the BBD stockings kitted up (yep, that's right January through October) in this ziploc bag, ready to go and I've stitched ONE. ONE stocking from the July pattern book....but I've got 'em all...right there at my finger tips:

Designs: Tis the Season Booklet

Designer: Blackbird Designs

And I've recently fallen in love with the Goode Huswife, so I have been collecting (for posterity) her patterns....here's Ida all dressed up and ready to go:

Design: Ida Mae Crow

Designer: The Goode Huswife

NOW....

Do I stop the Insanity?

Remember her? LOL!

Heck NO!
I've got 5 Plum Street Samplers kitted, 3 Hands to Work Samplers kitted, A Chill is in the Air by Homespun Elegance, 5 BBD Loose Feathers, 2 large Shepherd's Bush (Family Sampler and Finch's Song) and Jan's new sampler all at the ready for a moment's attention....

Not to mention...
that I have LOTS of WIPs including: the Village of Hawks Run Hallow that I want to complete. All the NPI's, fabric and pattern for Carriage House Samplings Adam and Eve...should I go on? I better not.... because I've already totally embarrassed myself...

I guess....
that I let my fingers do the clicking to "add to cart" like someone else I know. Well that makes me in good company! :)

So that does it for me my friends....
one of these days - which I think it is in the air with my volunteering slowing down a bit now...that I may have SOMETHING (ya think? with all the stuff I have ready....) to show you soon!

And....
I shouldn't even mention this (I really shouldn't) but you know that St. Charles market is coming up and the Good Huswife is supposed to release that Colonial Gardening Series book that is an absolute MUST have for me. Oh heck...I better just go schedule a confession now....

Until Next time.....
Love and best wishes, as you count your blessings and your stitches, from our house to yours! XXxxxx