Ornaments...

Well my dears...
there goes the weekend. Another one for the books. Blink and its over...does it seem that way to you too?

I started...
my weekend off with a BANG! when I opened up a package that landed in my mailbox to discover this little treat from Teresa. She stitched me this beautiful ornament for our personal Christmas Ornament Exchange:

"Faith, Hope and Peace" Ornament stitched by Teresa S.

Thank you...

sweet Teresa for stitching and finishing this lovely, lovely ornament for me :) It is hanging on our tree at this very moment!

And here...

is what I stitched for Teresa:

"Manger Scene"

Designed by: The Prairie Schooler

taken from the "Starry Night" leaflet

I heard...

that Danica received my ornament too, so here's what I stitched for her:

"French Country Angel"

Designed by Judy Whitman ~ JBW Designs

stitched 1 over 1 on 32 ct. white linen

using Crescent Colours Belle Soie "Sister Scarlett"

I...

cleaned our house, top to bottom and side to side, on Thursday and Friday. I stooped, bent, climbed and reached so much that by Friday evening...my tail was dragging. But the Hubs brought some pizza to nourish us and then the fun began as we put up all our Christmas decorations. Saturday dawned and I could hardly move I ached all over...but I have a clean house and its all decorated for Christmas and after popping a couple of Advil, I was good to go! We decorated early because my husband is leaving on work travel to Seattle, WA after Thanksgiving and my three big kids have their birthdays the first two weeks in December. So ...game on.

I'll leave you with a little peek of my front door:

Until next time...
I'll be keeping my hands to work and heart to God!
Hugs and love,

Blackwork Angel...

Thursday Greetings!
I just heard that one of my exchange partners, Catherine - who agreed to do a Christmas Ornament personal exchange with me, received her ornament I made for her. This is an oldie but a goodie and I came up with a new way to finish it. Please let me introduce to you Catherine's Ornament:

"Peace Blackwork Angel"

Designed by: The Prairie Schooler

design taken from the 2003 Complimentary Card

Copyright 2003

For the finishing...

I wanted something beautiful, something new and different that I hadn't seen before, and I think that I achieved it. I laid in bed (yep, I fall to sleep at night dreaming up ideas of how to finish stuff - demented, I know) and figured it out in my head - the next morning after I got the kids to school I was putting my ideas to work. And what I dreamed and planned in my head, worked out perfectly on the finish! That isn't a "pre-fabricated" shaped board. Nope, it is mat board that I drew the scallops on, cut it out and then painted it black, sanded it, punched some holes into it, painted it a couple of more times, varnished it and then strung it with cording and mounted my stitched piece on it. Then I jazzed it up with tiny ball fringe around the piece and a gold bow to set it off. I hated to say goodbye to my little angel., but I hope that Catherine loved her as much as I did. Sometimes, I don't know if what I think is pretty, others think is pretty. But I do know that my little Angel will bring "Peace" to the home she graces. I'll whip one up for myself another time :)

Ellie...

is back to her normal self! Thank you for all your well wishes and inquiries. She was back to bossing us all around yesterday. After seven days of malaise I was sorta glad that she was back to her bossy self...well, for the first few hours of the day anyway... :)

Until next time my friends...

I'll be keeping my "hands to work and heart to God"!

Thank you for visiting with me!

Hugs and love,

One busy morning...

Good Morning...
my dear friends and fellow stitchers! Today, on this Tuesday, I found myself with a second "totally free" day in a row! If you knew how my schedule has been over the last year, you'd understand my enthusiasm and the feeling that I may have hit the lotto  :)  In fact, my new found ability to say "no" has been quite rewarding. I'm trying to practice the word now without feeling that twinge of guilt when I say it.

So what to do...
well I decided that I might as well get ahead of the Christmas rush and finish a few ornaments and gifts that I've been squirrelling away. Here's the first:

"Frosty Flakes"

Designed by: Little House Needleworks - Diane Williams

Copyright 2010

Then I pulled out this one...

"Peppermint Twist"

Designed by: Little House Needleworks - Diane Williams

copyright 2010

And the good Lord...

blessed my extended family with two new additions, so like every other baby that is related to me, I stitched my old standard "Baby's First Christmas" ornament. I've stitched a lot of these (including some for my own children) and they always turn out so cute. I've finished them in a variety of ways over the years, but these turned out the best ever, in my opinion. This one is for my brother Adam's new son (and my Godson) - Benjamin:

Then my other brother...

Jeremy, had his first son this year too. His name is Weber and he's a chip off the old block (if I do say so myself):

Sweet Benjamin and darling Weber...

won't get to know each other very well because Benjamin lives here in Indiana and Weber (and his Daddy and Mommy) live way out in California, but they will share ornaments on their tree made by their Aunt Vonnie who loves them both dearly!

"Bunny in a Stocking"

Designed by: Lorri Birmingham

copyright 1997

So no idle hands...

were to be found here this morning! And I don't think all of this:

is too bad for a morning's work! Even when you throw in that I also made homemade biscuits and gravy (my kiddo's favorite breakfast), getting three kids off to school and straightening the house. And it's only 11:30 a.m. Now on to the afternoon's project! I pulled something today that I'm going to *hopefully* feature in December. It's an oldie, but a goodie!

Until next time...
I'll be keeping my "hands to work and heart to God"!
Hugs and love,

Monday round up....

It's Monday....
not that I'm totally thrilled about it ;) But I'll get along OK . How was your weekend, dear friend? Mine, you ask? Well so-so, I had to work but that wasn't so bad, but poor Ellie is dreadfully ill. I thought she was coming out of it yesterday afternoon, but last night she took a turn and is back to the same old symptoms. (103 temp, sleeping, grouchy...) Today, luckily we have a "down" day, so she's staying in her PJ's and I'm sticking to my chair *fingers crossed*.

I've got....
lots to share so I'll get on with it. First up, was a surprise that landed in my mailbox last week. It sure was a sweet surprise when I opened up a box and found this sweet face peering back at me:

Punchneedle Snowman Pincushion

punched and finished by my dear friend Brenda

Hop on over...
to Brenda's blog and check out all her lovely stitching and finishes. GORGEOUS stuff abounds in her stitching corner  :) Thank you Brenda for your sweet surprise. He sits on the arm of my chair grinning up at me.

Next....
I had this wild hair in late September to get myself a partner to exchange a Christmas Ornament with me. Seems I can't be satisfied just stitching one myself and hanging it on my tree... So I put up a "would you like to exchange with me..." on my blog and in 15 minutes I had five exchange partners and were turning people away. The next day I thought..."how in the world did it come about I was stitching 5 different ornaments for 5 different people"...I'm sure you know the feeling! LOL! But the stitching was pleasurable and the exchanges are beginning to be exchanged and that always gets my juices flowing! Here is the first little beauty that landed in my mailbox. This one is from Danica

A Christmas Cross

stitched and finished by Danica

design taken from Just Cross Stitch Magazine Oranment Issue 2004

Thank you....
Danica for exchanging with me! I will treasure this beauty each Christmas season, as I hang it on our tree. And mine is in the mail on the way to Dani, so I'll be able to show YOU what I stitched for HER soon!

Finally....
for the past 5 years, I've had this lovely gold and silver ornament ball wreath that I made hanging on our door. Last year, when I was taking down the Christmas decorations, I fumbled the delicate wreath -which resulted in mass hysteria. This year...I have no wreath to put on our door. The Hubs and I were talking yesterday about outside decorations for this year and I said, I'd rather go big on the inside and go light on the outside. So we settled on flickering candles in all the windows (that'd be 15 - you should have seen the guy's face at Lowe's when we checked out), trees with white lights in the milk cans at the front door and wreaths around the carriage lights on either side of the garage door....but what for the door? I looked at wreaths and nothing suited me (or my pocket book) so I had an idea about a large stocking for the front door. I got out some newspaper, taped it together and started drawing. Then I revved up my Janome and got going and here's what I produced:

A Pointy Toe Christmas Stocking

for our front door, made out of wool felt

with jingle bells and wool felt embellishments

by me :)

Not to shabby....
for an hours work, eh? And you should see how it looks on our Burgundy colored front door....!!!!! The neighbors will be jealous :)

I guess that does it for me.....
for today. Hopefully there will be something else to jump out of the pot to bedazzle you later on this week. Until then, I'll be keeping my "hands to work and heart to God"!
Hugs and love,

Tool: Smile. Smiling sure doesn't take much effort on your part, but the result it brings is worth more than a vault filled with gold.  Put a smile on your face and see the rewards that will be reaped....not only will you see smiles in return, but you'll see even the hardest heart melted, moods altered, the down trodden uplifted and your own heart filled with warmth and happiness. So SMILE :) it's a gift. It's a tool. Put it in your toolbox and take it out, examine and share it!

Peyton's Square...

Happy Thursday....
stitching friends! With renewed vigor and purpose, I stitched right along on this quilt square for Peyton at Love Quilts . Peyton is a girl my boys' age, her favorite things are hearts, flowers and the color purple. So I stitched up this square, using a lot of purple and I think it just turned out darling.

Peyton's "Love Quilts" Square

Design: "Believe" part of the "Once Upon A Time" thread pack series

a collaboration of Little House Needleworks and Crescent Colours

Stitched on: 14 ct. White Aida

Stitched with: DMC in my own colorway for Peyton

copyright: 2009 Little House Needleworks and Crescent Colours

Ok...
one square down and many more to go for this worthwhile cause, its my goal. I don't know what will come out for air next in my stitching bag...but something worthy and worthwhile to tickle my fancy and yours hopefully. I don't have to work this weekend, and I got all the laundry done...the house is clean too, so I'm thinking a little numb butt is in order for the weekend. I hope my husband and kids play nice with my plans. Ellie's already told me she's going to Lunch Bunch tomorrow (that's "extended" day for Pre-school, where they take their lunch and eat with their classmates then have romper room afterwards)...that means Mama has 4 hours to herself! That's some prime numb butt time:)

Nostalgia...
last weekend we went home to visit our parents and life had me thinking about people that made large contributions to making me who I am. I had a teacher once that always had some quip or quote to tell us at the end of his classes - I was in High School at the time - and right before the bell would ring he would say something witty and then say, "Remember it, put it in your tool box , pull it out and use it in your life." So I thought it would be cathartic for me to remind myself of some tools in my tool box, take them out, examine them, remember them, use them and share them with you . So at the end of my posts, I'm going to have my tool of the "week". I know it will help me, maybe it will help you....

Until next time...
I'll be keeping my "hands to work and heart to God"!
Hugs and love,

Tool: Be a listener. Tamp down that feeling to best, beat and talk over someone. Bust up the ego. Close your mouth. Open your ears. Listen. You may be surprised what you might hear. It's an art. It's a gift. Use it. Put it in your toolbox.

Showing the Love....

Good Morning!

First off, I need to thank each and every one of you for your kind comments, thoughts and words on my poor disposition that I had last post. I know that we all get bogged down in life from time to time and I was mentally, emotionally and physically bogged down with a lot of stuff. But believe me your words and kindness improved my feelings right away! Thank YOU for being my friends and confidants!

Speaking of improving and good feelings....

I was contacted by a very nice lady about Love Quilts  . Love Quilts is a not for profit organization that recruits stitchers to stitch squares with a certain theme for a sick child. A child ravished emotionally and physically by illness or disease. Love Quilts is in need of stitchers so that they can prepare quilts for these ailing children. The website is excellent and the process needed to stitch and send a square for a quilt is all laid out step by step for the novice Love Quilts stitcher. You can see the directions for stitching squares here: Love Quilts Square Directions

You know...

I believe that God works in mysterious ways. Last post I was feeling sorry for myself and quite frankly throwing a big pity party complete with balloons and streamers. Then yesterday I receive an e-mail about these kids. That was God's way of giving me a kick in the seat - and telling me to wake up and shut up my belly aching! So after perusing the website and understanding the process I submitted my application to stitch for a new Love Quilt being made for Peyton M. (you can see the new quilts that need stitchers here: 2011 Love Quilts Kids)

This morning....

I happily received a YES! for my application. I've pulled a pattern, got my Aida square prepared and am ready to stitch! I'm going to try to do at least 6 squares a year. That's me doing what I love for those that need a little bright spot in a life made dreary by disease. That's me giving back for all the many blessings I've received and have in my life. That's me being thankful that I CAN while others may be UNABLE to do what they love.

Won't you consider....

looking over the Love Quilts Website and making application for stitching a square for a child in need? I think it would be a fabulous way to give  especially with the season of giving so close upon us, don't you?

In the meantime....
I'll be keeping my 'hands to work and heart to God', just like always! Why don't you join me?
Hugs and Love,