Birds and Turkeys...

Howdy friends...
I've been busy crafting away today, preparing for the big feast on Thusday, which I am hosting this year. In all my 41 years, I've never hosted Thanksgiving or roasted a turkey, but I will be doing it up this year for both sides of our family, which will translate into 16 hungry mouths.  I have my menu planned, my course plotted, and today I made some hostess gifts and some pretties for our table.

Birds in a nest....
have you heard the Old German Legend of the birds nest in a Christmas tree?  Well here are some specimens that will soon be gracing the trees of each family that will attend our Thanksgiving day festivities. I made them with my own paws this afternoon and I must say between the sweet little eggs and those lovely birds of paradise, they turned out pretty doggone good! The only difficult thing was "making the nests". The nest is made of spanish moss, the eggs lay on a bed of reindeer moss, I put some twigs that I clipped off our trees in the front yard and its all mounted onto a clothes pin so that they can be put inside my guests Christmas tree. These will be presented to my guests as they leave for home, as I'm sure they will be putting up trees in the near future. Just a little "thank you" for coming to spend their holiday with us :)

Each little handmade nest....

is all bagged up with this story tucked accompanying it:

An Old German Legend tells of the magic of all the world's birds bursting into song, as if with one voice, the night the Christ child was born. If a family's Christmas tree contained a birds nest, they would be granted the gift of health, wealth and happiness throughout the year. It is our hope that this little nest adorns your tree and the legend may come true for you!

~With Love,

The Pfeiffer's

Then...
I needed some festive table runners to display some pinecone turkeys that Miss Ellie graciously made for our tablescape. So I rummaged through my fabric and made these for both of my tables:

Not too bad for a rookie, huh?! :)

So until next time...
I'll be keeping my hands to work and hearts to God inbetween bites of turkey, dressing, taters, and.....

May your harvest be bountiful for all my US readers!

Love and hugs,

Monthly Cottages...

have you seen this?

Let me tell you when I read over at Country Cottage Needleworks , that Nikki was designing a monthly Cottage starting December 2011, and then I saw how cute the first installment was...well, sign me up buster!

I love, love, love houses. I don't know why, maybe its because I'm built like one, but enjoy them I sure do. Throw in key phrases like *seasons* and *series*....well that pushes some mental buttons for me. I automatically start thinking....thinking....thinking.... then I start, well obsessing. I. have. to. do. it.

So...here's the deal. I'm going to start a Stitch-A-Long Blog. These will all be 75 x 75 inches and I've got dimensions all figured out for if you stitch them as singles or as one big piece. Care to think what I'm doing? Ha. Ha. Ha.

Anyway, if you'd like to sign yourself up for a pressure free, no holds barred Stitch-A-Long of these cutie patootie monthly cottages, send me an e-mail (located by the mailbox in the sidebar) with your name and e-mail that you wish to join the blog with so that you can become an author to share your Monthly Cottage Finishes. You can see what I have set up so far, over here at: The Cottages Stitch~A~Long Place. Don't delay only 100 authors allowed and I'm already down to just 99 spots left!  :)

Go crazy right along with me and join today!

The Amber Linen...

Have had lots of posts about what is the true linen I've used for Lizzie Kate's "6 Fat Men". I am using the linen that was called for in the pattern. I mislabelled the color in my first post, so here is all the information about the linen for all the inquiring minds:

The linen color is: Amber (not Mocha like I had written in the "snow friends" post- SORRY!)
It comes in 28 ct. and 32 ct. (mine is 28 ct.)
It is by Wichelt

The linen is very stiff...but that is why the stitching looks 3-Dimensional as it is fabulous as far as holding the stitches and maintaining and even tension with the stitches. (Which I got smacked on the hand about by the Fair Judge this summer - that I had areas of "uneven tension" in my stitching....which I think was due to the fabric but...I'm trying to become a better stitcher so am paying extra close attention to my stitches and their tension - this fabric makes it very easy to have perfect stitches). And may I also say, the stiffness and almost like slippery surface making picking the stitches out (which I had a large experience with on Snow Friends) very easy too!

:) Happy Stitching!

Snowed In...

No...

I'm not snowed in,  but I did finish stitching this Fat Guy that is snowed in  :) 

"Snowed In"

part of the 6 Fat Men Series

Designed by: Lizzie*Kate

Stitched on 28 ct. Wichelt Amber Linen

Stitched with Weeks Dye Works and Crescent Colors overdyes as charted

Copyright 2011

Here's where my entire project stands as of this moment. I am stitching all 6 Fat Men on one piece of linen and I've got lots of ideas about how to finish this seasonal cutie.

I love to decorate our home "with the seasons" so this one won't be framed as it will only be out for one part of the year. But like I've said, I'm spinning around different options in my brain each time I stitch on it. So have I sold you guys on these handsome fatties? :) If not, how can I get you to capitulate? These are so fun to stitch, sort of just easy, ya know?!  And after something as hard as the Quaker Virtues page I just got done stitching, easy peasy made for a nice change.

Can I also say...
I have really fallen for this Amber Linen, both in texture and color. So much so I bought some more of it (1 yard)  for another project that I am starting over. Here's a little secret.....I started BBD's Anniversaries of the Heart last year. I struggled with linen colors as you know we didn't see all of the designs and that first design was so muted in colors and tone. Well anyway...I did January's and February's designs and just didn't like the way they looked on the linen I chose.

As I have been stitching on the Fat Guys...
I kept on thinking how pretty the color of the linen is against the colors and I kept thinking about the projects that I want to work on in 2012 (I know....) and I just bit the bullet and bought a yard and am going to start January's design well....in January. But you know how I am with my big ideas that never come to fruition....so I'm just zipping my lip and we'll see what January brings.

That does it for me today folks...
so until next time I'll be keeping my hands to work and heart to God, just like always!
Hugs and love,