While the Tom Cat is away....

....the mice will play!
And that is exactly what Ellie, Chatty, Red and I have been doing today. Here's a little pictorial trip around Pfeiffer Haus today :)

First off....
it's laundry day (my favorite day of the week...yeah right!) and while Mama was sorting laundry Ellie got down to some serious painting. Now I don't know about you, but don't you think this is exceptional considering she's only 4 years old? I know she's mine, but the girl's got talent, look at that flower:


Then...
I've been letting my clicky finger get me in trouble again. I was looking at the cute stuff on Jeremiah Junction's website and I just *had* to have these sweet magnetic deals that come with peel and stick numbers for your address. Isn't that just darling?:



Then....
I made a quick trip to Joann's and I found these sweet little garden statuary things on sale and well, I wanted it, so guess what? I got it. And when I planted my red salvia, put fresh mulch down and nestled my newly purchased pretty down...well it just fits, don't you think?

Then....
while I was continuing to browsing at Jeremiah Junction's website, I saw these sweet Garden Flag holder things and *gee whiz* I really did need to replace the one that I broke two summers ago and never replaced. And you know what else? They had such sweet flags, and they really hit my fancy so...oops!....one came to live with me. Isn't it darling?! And since I've been on a spray painting kick, I went ahead and spray painted the urns (it has a twin on the other side of the garage door) and planted them with flowers for the season. These are going to look spectacular when they get all fully grown - black urns, crisp white flowers with a little bit of wispy green stuff out the top. Beautiful!

Then....

we (the kids and I) went on a rock adventure. See we live in the hills of southern Indiana and the area is known for its limestone (think Empire State Building). Just down the road from us is a quarry and I went digging around in the woods behind it and found these discarded quarried stones. Had to dig them out, then I had to load them up...but don't they look nice among my Stella D'Oro Lillies? (they aren't blooming yet, of course, but they will) And my bird houses...with the daisies and black-eyed Susan's that fill in around their bases (you can see they are starting to grow) And just on the corner there on the side of my house is my lavender fields, smells so good! How about that old water pump? It was my Grand Pap's:

And....

because I've had some requests here's Mama's Pretty Boys, Chatty and Red. Chatty's been on a diet...doesn't he look all spiffy, with his pretty green eyes, and Red, his fur color is so handsome:

Here the kitties are saying....

"Oh CRAP! Here comes Ellie...." she bothers them incessantly, but they hardly ever get upset or nasty with her. They just look *harassed* by the end of the day.

Here Red is saying...

"SHHHH!! There went a bird out of Mama's bird houses. My Mama is so nice to put our kitty sill right by the bird feeder and bird houses....if only I could break through the screen and get those guys! Here Birdy Birdy!"

We hope....

you enjoyed your visit with us at the Pfeiffer Haus today. Our Daddy has been gone all week on business, but he'll be back on Friday and since we've done a bit of playing now we've got to get back to business and clean up!

Until next time....

Keep your "hands at work and hearts to God!"

Love and hugs,

EDITED for Jeremiah Junction link: http://crosscountrystitching.com

Ornament Frenzy!

Hello my dear friends and readers!
I've had a bit of an ornament stitching and finishing frenzy and I thought I'd swing in to show them to you. I really do love how they turned out and I would highly recommend you stitching these up for yourself! You'll get hooked and if you do don't forget to join our Little House Ornaments Stitch Along, I host (link in the sidebar).

"Snowy Pines"

Designed by: Little House Needleworks

stitched 4/23/10

"Winter Sheep"

designed by: Little House Needleworks

stitched: 4/24/10

"Red House in Winter"
designed by: Little House Needleworks
stitched: 4/26/10

All are stitched on 40 ct. unknown linen that I got in a grab bag. I wish I knew where it came from and what color it is because I love it! Too bad, that it is gone now :o( I have 6 ornaments stitched and finished in the Monthly Ornament Series, and I'm all caught up on the released ornaments to date. 6 more ornaments will be released...so that will equal one thing = a beautiful tree in my home next year..."All Dolled Up!" with Diane's pretty ornaments!

That's all I have for you today....
There is lots going on, just can't get into all of it at the moment....so in the meantime, keep your "hands to work and hearts to God"!
Love and Hugs,
Vonna

Welcome....

....to the world my newest nephew born today 4-16-10 at 12:20 p.m., weighing 8 lbs. 2 oz. and 20 inches long.

Little Prince

by: Erica Michael's

fabric: 28 ct. hand-dyed sky blue

fibers: WDW and Krenik Braid

Aunt Vonnie can't wait to see him, of course he already knows who the BEST Aunt is :o)

Congratulations to my brother Adam, sister-in-law Melissa and the new big brother Bradyn!

The "Ole Pincushion"...

Happy Friday!!!
I'm so glad that it is here :o) I've done not much for myself lately....so Mama's gonna stitch to her little heart is content and her butt is numb this weekend because I don't have to go to work until Sunday! It's like winning the lotto....OK, well maybe not THAT good ;o)

Just A Little Finish....
I recently have fallen in love with all things Theresa Venette designs. And I snapped up this little project (and basically everything else she's put out) as soon as it came out after Nashville:

"Ole Pincushion"

Designed by: Theresa Venette of Shakespeare's Peddler

Fabric: 32 ct. Black Belfast

Fiber: Crescent Colours as charted *except* I used Sassy Brassy for the flower pot part

Finished in an antique zinc Ball canning jar lid as a pincushion as recommended in pattern

Would you.....
like to make one for yourself? Well have no fear a tutorial is HERE these are great for a quick stitch and an impressive finish! I've got loads of black squares all lined up in my travel stitching bag. I plan to make up as many as I can for gifts to special someones. Give it a try!

Until the next time....
"Hands to work and Hearts to God!"
Love and Hugs,
~Vonna

Good Times...

Good Day to all my good friends and readers!
How are you? Did you have a wonderful week/weekend past? We sure did at the Pfeiffer Haus, that is for sure! I don't think in my nearly 40 years worth of Holy Weeks and Easters have I experienced a more wonderful and faith filled liturgy than I did the past Good Friday and Easter Vigil Masses that we attended. I know this is due to the fact that we are blessed to attend a most wonderful traditional Catholic Church and our priest - Father Michael Fritsch is the best around. His homilies are wonderful and this past week was no exception. Thank you Father Mike!

Easter Pictures...
Katie was an alter girl at the Easter Vigil Mass Saturday Evening. Mass started at 8 p.m. but she had to be there at 7 p.m. to go over her parts of the Mass with her fellow servers. Here's the obligatory pictures prior to our going out to supper that evening before Mass:

"Boys, tuck in your shirts!"

(while they were tucking the girls were doing their "model posing")

Easter 2010

I worked....
at the hospital Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but luckily it wasn't busy so I was able to come home early and do a little work around the house - just little jobs that need doing. Sunday afternoon, I painted some milk cans to put at our front door. I intend them to hold seasonal flowers. These milk cans were from my paternal Grandfather's Dairy Farm, they were pretty nasty - all rusted up. But my sweetie sanded and sanded and sanded his little fingers to the bone and then primed them for me. All I had to do is paint them and take all the credit :) Here's the result of my efforts yesterday on the painting and the flower arranging today:

Welcome to our house!

Today....
I made a tree. Yep, you read that right! :) See you know how I am always trying to make everyone feel at home and taken care of, well see...my cats don't like regular scratching posts. Nope, they like to scratch my furniture. :( Mr. Twisted Stitcher was constantly getting mad at Chatty and Red until Christmas time. What happened at Christmas? Well.... no Mr. Twisted Stitcher didn't suddenly become less "scroogie".... nope, rather I have a tree that looks like real bark and they started to go to town scratching that tree trunk and stopped scratching the furniture. After Christmas....yep, you guessed it, they went back to scratching the furniture and Mr. Twisted Stitcher started getting really scroogie again. So I grabbed a hand saw and went into the woods by our house and cut down a small tree. Bad thing is...the top of it got caught in the tree next to it. But I did a little manipulating and got a fairly good chunk of tree trunk. No I won't be trying out for the "Ax Men" show anytime soon. I'm not a logger....that was speedily apparent. Mr. Twisted Stitcher mounted the fruit of my labors on some sort of "X" thing he made out of scrap lumber so that it would stand. But that thing was butt ugly and I've looked at it since January - just a big piece of cut off tree trunk, standing in my living room. So thanks to an A Primitive Place tutorial I got this idea to make a tree and look how GREAT it turned out! I even put some little LCD lights in there. It's gonna be a beauty tonight at dusk ;) and I even got to use some power tools to make it. Thank goodness Mr. Twisted Stitcher was at work, cause he gets twitchy when I use his power tools!

Scratchin' in Style now!

Stitching...
yep, I've done some in between work, church and fun! And here's what I finished:

Hawk Run School House

Soon...
I plan on making some curtains for my living room. I chose this print for the top and the homespun to peek out underneath. I think it will be cute :)

So....
that catches you all up with my life and I'm desperately trying to get caught up on your lives. My reader is full, but have no fear - I'll be by your blog soon!

Until next time...
"Hands to work and hearts to God!"
Love and Hugs,
~Vonna