Friday check-in

I finished a cute model for Country Cottage Needleworks.  Of course I can't show it but you CCN fans will love it.  Next I'll start a model for Little House Needleworks and it looks to be another "winner".   I really enjoy stitching for both these ladies;  I'm a big fan of their designs.

I finished a little freebie from, I believe tantes zolder.  I saw it stitched up and made into a little pillow finish on someone's blog.  I really wish I'd written down the blog addy to link you to it.  If anyone knows, feel free to send me the url.

I acquired the last of the needed Belle Soie for LHN's Elizabeth Hancock.  I'm hoping to start it soon.  What a beautiful design and beautiful silks!

There are some other wips that deserve some attention;  hopefully I'll get to them soon.

I took in one of my samplers to the framer this morning.  (LHN Virtue Sampler)  I even have a place picked out where it will hang.

This was my first week without my walking buddy...although she was in town Wednesday so we "did" lunch.  As much as I enjoy walking and how it makes me feel, I have an inner battle with myself just getting started every morning.  I managed to walk 4 days (3 -4 1/2 milers and 1- 3 miler).  I have to get accustomed to my "new normal".  Finding another walking buddy would be nice too;  I have my feelers out.  In addition to the motivation, my buddy and I joke that we manage to talk out and solve the world's problems while walking together.  If ONLY someone would take our advice! ;-)

Happy stitching!

First Friday of Spring

Hi, fellow bloggers!

Yesterday was DH's birthday so I asked him what he'd like to have for dinner...thinking it would be the typical grilled steak, baked potato, etc.  Instead he went through our collection of Cooking Light magazines and came up with 5 possibilities.  I ended up choosing Risotto Primavera.  Aside from deciding and finding which veggies I wanted to use and all the peeling and dicing, it was a pretty easy recipe.  I'm not a big goat cheese fan but used it anyway (it called for goat and Parm cheese) and it had just a hint of that flavor...I really liked it in this recipe.  The guys really liked this too so I'll be sure to make it again.

He prefers pies over cakes so I made him an apple pie.  Instead of rolling the crust, I make a crumb crust that you press into the pie plate...you use the same mixture to crumble over the top.  Yum!

When we visited a LNS last month while visiting DS at college, he picked out a design with TX wildflowers that he'd like me to stitch for him.  I kitted it up in time for his birthday but it might not be finished until next birthday.  lol!

I'm a little sad this am.  My walking buddy is moving far enough away that we can't do our daily weekday walks anymore.  Today's my first day without her and I just couldn't bring myself to do the walk.  Instead I'm reflecting over how blessed I've been to have enjoyed walking with her for so long.  In addition to "keeping me honest" we talked about many various topics during all those miles.  I'll get going again...with my ipod....Monday. 

On the stitching front, I recently won 2 drawings which arrived this week.  It felt like Christmas again!  The first is a Primitive Needle design called "Follow Me".  Every time I think of these designs, I'm reminded of Lisa Roswell's tragic death.  We certainly lost a talented designer.  Thanks, Mamacat!

The other prize blew me away!  It was a bloggoverary drawing from http://morethanjustcrossstitchin.blogspot.com/ .  All I can say is Wow!! And thank you, of course.

I've been diligently stitching a  cute model from Country Cottage Needleworks and am on the home stretch.  It's a good thing b/c another model arrived from Little House Needleworks.  The LHN looks to be another "winner" too.  :-)  I love that I stitch for them since I love their designs.

I also finished a little Santa from Redbird Designs called "Joy Y'all".  He's for a block exchane in one of my groups but I love him so much, I'll stitch another one for us.  I may stitch him for my kids too.  We'll see.

I see I failed miserably at keeping this post brief.  Thanks for reading and have a wonderful week.

Ahhhh! Spring Break

I love our life with all our kids' activities and doing a little traveling but once in a while it's nice to just hang out at home with nothing special to do.  Our 2 younger kids are both on spring break this week and it's been a "hang out" week.  I've gotten into a little reorganizing, cleaning but also enjoyed a having a little more time to stitch.

Our college DS mentioned that they may be doing an Italian food cook-off for his Italian class so he and DH experimented in the kitchen making struffoli.  (I'm sure I butchered the spelling.  Ha!)  I teased them about how nice it was for father to be passing along his cooking skills to his son.

Here's the tasty result:

I've made a lot of progress on a new CCN model but can't show it here.  However, I can show you a few wips.

First off:

Ride a Bike by LK.  DD is "into" bicycling lately sometimes going on group long distance rides on the weekends and sometimes biking to work so when I saw this one, I just had to stitch it up for her.  I'm waiting on a couple more overdyes and a button to arrive to get back to this one.

I'm working on this  Redbird Designs Santa for a Santa themed block exchange in one of my groups  I'm waiting on another overdyed floss to arrive before stitching his cowboy hat:

Finally, I saw this freebie (tantes zolder???) stitched up and made into one of those little pillows with Christmas fabric and lace, if I remember correctly.  As soon as I saw it finished up, I knew I had to stitch him:

I've been cooking more this week to "fatten up" our college DS.  We're doing our St. Pat's meal tonight since he's going back to his school apartment tomorrow.  I made sure to buy some "fixin's" for Reubens for Saturday.  I don't know what I like best, the St. Pat's meal or the Reubens the next day.  I just know I'll have to get back to our normal menus after all this food this past week!  (Or start running marathons.....every day!)

Another Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe drawing

Nancy at Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe posted another drawing for some of her beautiful floss today.  You can read about it here:

http://victorianmottosamplershoppe.blogspot.com/2012/03/new-give-away.html

Another giveaway at Victorian Motto Samplers

Nancy is at it again with another giveaway:

http://victorianmottosamplershoppe.blogspot.com/2012/03/easter-ornament-patterns-and-give-away.html

Finished!

My PS summer sampler is finally finished!  I'd like to stitch at least another from that leaflet but since I have other wips waiting for my attention (and another model on its way that will take priority), it will have to wait.

Speaking of wips, I went back to work a bit more on my LHN Family Sampler.  I decided to change the color of the house to look like the house we built in MI years ago.  Seemed like a simple enough idea, right?  lol!  You wouldn't believe how I've agonized over getting the colors just right....and that was just for the roof colors!  The chimney is a slightly different color from the house (unless I decide against that idea.  I decided to leave it bland and pull a "Scarlett O'Hara"---I'll think about it later.).

Anyway, here's how it looks so far:

I'm about halfway down the roof....and looking forward to stitching the actual house part.

DH and I found ourselves alone part of the weekend (DS was away overnight on a retreat with one of his school clubs) so we actually ate out followed by a movie (Act of Valor).

I hope everyone enjoys their week.  :-)

TGIF

WOW!  Where did this week go?!  Hard to believe that it's March already.

We went to DS's percussion concert last night.  This concert is always one of my favorites and last night did not disappoint.  The percussion director starts seeing these kids the end of their 5th grade year and is involved with them all through the end of high school.  As you might imagine, he's very close to them by their senior year.  I realize how blessed we are to have him work with our kids.  Not only is he a great teacher and percussionist who pushes them to acheive more than one would think HS kids can,  but he really cares about these kids and demonstrates such a good role model for them.    He's "family" by the time they are ready to graduate.  He choked up a bit introducing his seniors last night...as did they with their thank you's and tributes to him.  They won't see each other as often after they go their separate ways, but they'll always be in each others' lives.

It's been warm and humid here and my walking buddy and I have definitely NOT enjoyed all the mosquitos.  I keep thinking if someone would figure out a way to use them as fuel for our cars, we'd solve two problems at once.

On the stitching front, I completed a little PS deer (from the Fall Fields leaflet) for a deer-themed exchange block.  I stitched it on a piece of DMC marbled aida with the suggested DMC floss.  I just have to choose and stitch a Santa and then I'm done with the blocks for this year.

I'm SO almost finished with my PS summer sampler.  (It's a PS week, I guess.)  I just have some backstitching and "signing" to do and it will be complete.  I'd love to stitch at least another from the leaflet....someday.  I love the little "vignette" at the bottom, especially the little bunny.

DS will be away Sat and Sat night at a retreat for his school's service club so I'm thinking DH and I should at least go out to a movie...maybe even dinner out too. 

Everyone have a fantastic week! 

Blog challenged

Grrrrrr!!

OK.  I'll readliy admit that I'm not the best person at designing my blog but I thought at least I knew how to install backgrounds where I wanted them.

For some reason, even after following the directions, I can't seem to get the background to be where I want it...not just behind the header but behind the "body" of the posts.

Any suggestions, anyone?  (Maybe I should just get back to my stitching.)