Thursday, December 13, 2012

A Finished Santa and the Garden

Thanks so much to all of you that made such nice comments about my SIL's Christmas decorating.  I know that she looked at the blog and really appreciated your comments. There are a few give-aways I want to mention.  Both Barbara at "To Stitch or Not to Stitch" and Terri at "Dixie Sampler" have great give-aways going on.  Speaking of winning, I won a wonderful little kit from Mary Ann at "Just Stitching".  Thank you so much Mary Ann!   I finished the PS Santa last night.  He  turned out great.  I will be putting him in one of my frames as soon as we get him stretched.  I am now experimenting with 40 count.  What do think about that count?  For those of you who have stitched on it, is it hard on your eyes?  I usually stitch on 32 count.  Maybe 36 count would be a good compromise.  I'd love to hear your opinions.  I'm just doing a small design to see how it feels.  I want to stitch Mary Gibson  but she will be very big on the 32 count.  We had a break in our ever present rain so I shot a few photos in the yard.  I hope you enjoy them .  I know you are all busy, I hope you find time this week-end to relax and enjoy the beauty of the season!

 PS Santa from  The Santa Collection III 1996.

Here is the kit from Mary Ann.


I love that little tree.  I think this kit is going to make a small ornament.

A view of the decorated house.  You see very few wreaths on windows out here.


There are also very few candles in windows.  I love that look.  Guess it's my Mid-West roots!

Doesn't this rose know it is December??



I love the look of the contorted filbert.  Those little green things are its flowers.(I think)

The flowers of the Garrya, an evergreen shrub.

I love the bark on our paperbark maple.

Mid winter fire-this is especially beautiful in the snow!

Welcome to the garden. St. Francis is watching over everything.  My Dad always had a St. Francis in his yard.  This is in his honor.

Wishing you an early Merry Christmas with my red and green pyracantha.
Have a great week-end!


Sunday, December 9, 2012

A Headless Santa and A Beautiful Home

Thanks so much to those of you who took a walk with me around Poulsbo!  I so appreciated it.  Today I'm going to show you a beautiful home as well as my progress on the PS Santa.  Yesterday the SBA and I traveled north of Seattle to visit his Brother and SIL.  We always have such a great time with them.  Well, my SIL is a wonderful decorator and I have never made it up to their home at Christmas.  I knew it would be amazing and I was not disappointed!  I told her it could definitely be in a magazine!!
 As for the Santa, well I started in the middle and worked down so he is coming along nicely but is still with out his head! Maybe tonight Santa.  Hope the week end has been wonderful for all of you and you enjoy the photos! Christmas is coming so fast!

 I do love the birds and flowers!

 He has a sack full of sunflowers, my kind of Santa!

Here is the entrance to this beautiful home. 

 A dining room hutch

There were many of these deep red poinsettias around the house in various places.





Every nook had  the Christmas spirit!


This marked the entrance to a warm inviting living room.

Even the gifts matched a lovely color scheme.  Plus they were real gifts, not just decorated boxes!
Thanks guys for a wonderful day!!