Advent Blog Hop December 14

Hi all you cloud friends! I have joined Jo again this year for her Advent Blog Hop.  Thanks so much to Jo at Serendipitous Stitching for organizing this fun blog event.  I am sharing a Christmas sampler this year.

This sampler was offered last year by Melinda at Merry Wind Farm.  She offers many beautiful samplers on her blog, Merry Wind Farm.  Melinda called her sampler Emmaline Cole 1835.  She suggested you could replace the name Emmaline with one of your ancestors.  My DH is known as the family genealogist.  So I turned to him for help.  I wanted the name of a young girl who would have been a good age for stitching a sampler in the year 1835.  We found several names on both sides of our family.  I also considered the space I had to work with.  In honor of his research, I chose his great great grandmother, Rebecca Morris.  Rebecca would have been 10 years old in 1835.  She is the perfect young lady for my sampler.  Thanks to Melinda for designing this pretty little sampler and thanks to my DH for helping me find the right name for my sampler.
I hope you will find this interesting.  Jo wanted us to talk about what we do on Boxing Day.  Years ago when I lived in Louisville and my sister lived in Cincinatti, we went to a store known as the Santa Shop.  Everything was 50% off.  I still have lots of wonderful things I bought at that store. Plus I have great memories of the time spent with my sister.

A very Merry Christmas to all of you!!!

Good-by Autumn

Hi there cloud friends!  As my title says, this is a long overdue post about Fall and a good-by to my favorite season. My DH and I lived in Schenectady NY many years ago.  We decided this would be a good time to go back for a trip down memory lane.  So in early October we spent a week near Albany and visited some of our favorite places.  After we got home, we took a short day trip down to Tacoma.  They have a  wonderful waterfront where you can walk for a few miles right along the water.  There are lovely views.  Last but not least, I will share my Fall stitching.

 The round barn at Handcock Shaker Village.  This has always been one of our favorite places in the NE.

 Now I am not a thief, but if I were one, this is the place for me!!! So many wonderful antiques.  I could do an entire post just showing you the treasures this place has!!

This is the Stockade area of Schenectady.  We spent the morning just soaking up it's wonderful history and magnificent houses!!

 Another favorite place on this trip was the Indian Ladder Orchard.  We went up each evening for a glass of cider.  This was our first evening where we chose our favorite cider.

  They had great cider donuts too!!

 We took a walk each morning at Thatcher Park, another favorite place from our time in NY.

 Traveling is fun but when you live near this, views are hard to beat.  Tacoma in the shadow of Mt. Rainier.

 Trees along the Tacoma waterfront.

 On to the stitching.  This is  Halloween Hornbook by Plum Street  and the frame by wonderful Valley House Primitives!! It now hangs in my craft room with all my other Halloween designs I just can't put away when Oct. is over.

 Grim Gourds is now framed in another beautiful frame by Valley house Primitives.  The light was terrible and you really can't see how pretty the frame is.  However, a Christmas design I did last year fits it perfectly so I will try to get a better photo when I show my Christmas stitching.

My sweet DH carved this great owl Jack-O-Lantern for me and a wonderful Halloween was had by all!!!!

Thanks so much for joining me today!! I hope to post on Thurs. morning because I did stitch a Thanksgiving piece by LHN! To all my friends in the US, have a great Thanksgiving and to my friends in other places, have a wonderful week!

Happy Halloween Blog Hop!

A very Happy Halloween to all of you.  If you are just starting and would like to collect the Halloween message, you need to go to Jo's blog first to get the first letter.  Her blog is serendipitousstitching.blogspot.co.uk.  Jo is the organizer of this fun event. Thanks Jo. I love to stitch for Halloween so it was difficult to choose a piece to share.  I finally picked, " For Thine is the Trick or Treat" . I love Quaker designs and this one really was just perfect.  The lovely frame was done by Valley House Primitives. 

My letter is K.  The next blog to visit is http://alchymyst.blogspot.co.uk/
  Again a very Happy Halloween to all of you and have fun doing the blog hop!!

Fall is Finally Here!

Yes, and I am very happy about that!! Hi there cloud friends.  I imagine some of you have given me up for lost.  Well, I just don't know where time goes!! I have not been good with posting but I have been stitching so I will show you what I have been up to.  This has been the nastiest summer I remember since we have moved to the NW several years ago.  It was the hottest, driest summer on record.  That plus all the fires in BC,Oregon, and here in WA have made it very smoky at times.  We got AC a few years ago and this summer has made it so worthwhile. I am looking forward to a nice Fall even with the usual rain.  I have kept my garden watered but our yard looks more like hay than grass.  Well, on to some stitching.

 All of my finishes are from Plum Street Samplers.  I have loved this one for a long time.  It is called "Grim Gourds". I did use WDW Onyx for all the black in all three designs.  I had lots left from last year's Ghoultide.

 Plus I also used lots of GA Gingersnap.  That has become my go to orange.

This is PSS's Halloween Hornbook.  This was so much fun to stitch.  Valley House Primitives is making frames for both of these.

 

 Here we have A Bowl Full of Scaries, Scary One. This is a large pin keep that sits on a shelf in my powder room.  I got that beautiful shelf many years ago at a yard sale at the Workshops of David T. Smith.  I absolutely love his work.  When I win the lottery, I am going to fly him out here and have him redo my kitchen! That is one of those battery operated timer candles.  It looks so great in there after dark. The next pictures are of the dahlias in my garden.  They are so beautiful right now.

 

 I have never had such big hydrangeas.  That is my DH's hand!!

Well, thank you so much for not giving up on me.  I hope Fall will be very good to all of you.  I think our world has seen enough misery for a while! Thanks so much for joining me today!

A Catch Up!

Hi there cloud friends.  Isn't summer flashing by? I have heard many of you say that.  We had a very busy beginning to summer that included a trip to Alabama, a visit from family, and the new floors.  Things are finally settling down. The weather is Washington wonderful.  Most days are in the low 80's or upper 70's.  That is one of the main reasons we moved here, great summer weather. My garden is a bit slower due to a cool and rainy Spring but it is really lovely now. I do have some stitching to share with you.

 If you remember, I was stitching these houses late winter.  We got another beautiful frame from Valley House Primitives.  We scheduled it to come right after our trip to Alabama in June. Unfortunately we came home to the sandy mess of having our hardwood floors put in.  Our family was due in 2 weeks so no time for framing my stitching.  We finally got it done and as usual, Janet did a magnificent job!!!!!

 I just want to show you how the frame looks with the different houses.

I could not be happier.  I was a bit concerned because the design was busy.  I now plan to stitch LHN's  Early Americans.  I know Janet will do a beautiful frame for that design too.  I want to have it done for next summer so I have time for some Halloween things right now. I just started Plum Street's Grim Gourds, I'm loving it!!

 This is BBD's Light Upon the Lawn.  It uses many of the same threads as Winter is Past.  I plan to use some frames I have and hang them together in my upstairs hallway.The colors are way off in this photo. The linen is Lakeside Linen's Vintage Sand Dune, nothing like the photo! The blues look bright but in fact are very pretty! I'm not sure how many of this series I will do. I love the colors.

 The was my only patriotic stitch.  It is from BBD's book called," Sweet Land of Liberty".  That book has several wonderful designs.  This design is also called Sweet land of Liberty.  I'm not sure just how I will finish it but I want to get it done before I get busy on Fall things.

 Just a quick look at the views from the Sequim Lavender Festival.  The smells were amazing!!

My Endless Summer hydrangeas are putting on a lovely show this summer.

I hope this finds all of you doing well and thanks so much for joining me today.

Stash!!

Good morning cloud friends!! It is such a beautiful day here in the Pacific NW, plenty of blue sky and moderate temps.  The high on the 4th is predicted to be a nice cool 72, I call that just about perfect. I know many of you like it a bit warmer but that's just not me. Anyway, I want to share my stash from our recent trip to Alabama.  I went to two shops and they are both just wonderful.  First, I went to  Cross Stitch Peddler in Decatur, AL.  The second shop is in Huntsville  and is called Patches and Stitches.  Cross Stitch Peddler is all stitching and Patches and Stitches has a great collection of fabric as well as cross stitch supplies.  I can't say enough about how helpful the ladies were in both shops.  On one visit, the lady in Decatur even invited me to stitch with a group of ladies that stitch in her shop on a particular morning.  If you are ever near either of these shops they are well worth a visit.  If you are like me you will want to give them both lots of time!!!!!!!

 One thing I found very exciting was that you could find charts that are very hard to get.  Notice the Halloween Game Board and the Prairie Moon charts.  The shop owner( Cross Stitch Peddler) said that Prairie Moon is no longer in business. ( For anyone interested she had the chart for "Thine is the Trick or Treat"). All the charts were appropriately priced not as though they were hard to get.

 I have always felt so sad about what happened to the designer, Lisa, at the Primitive Needle.  I love her charts and felt so lucky to get this one.  That country sampler design was copyrighted in the 80's.  I will be choosing my own color threads for that one but the design is delightful! 

 I think that is a fairly old BBD chart too.

I plan to stitch this one soon.  As I have 2 Revolutionary War Patriots, I am thinking of substituting  one of the names on the chart for my own ancestors. I bought all the floss and linen to do this one too.  I am using the called for floss and a light tan linen by Lakeside Linen.

Sorry for the blue cast to the photos.  I'm not sure why it is there.  Well, I hope you all have a wonderful week-end and thanks so much for joining me today!!!!

A Finish and A Party!!

Hi there cloud friends.  I have been really busy.  Much busier than usual.  First of all, we spent a week in Alabama celebrating Hannah's 4th birthday.  Grandpa and I kept her home all week with us plus Caleb was out of school , so it was a busy week of fun filled days.  We live so far from them ,that when we visit we make every minute count.  Needless to say my DH and I came home very tired.  While we were gone, we had some hardwood floors put in our home.  We came home to the great dust bowl.  The floors look great but we have spent every waking minute since we got home getting the house back in shape.  We knew there would be some dust but really had no idea just how much.  I think it was partly because we had them do a stairway that is open to the whole house.
I will do another post to show you my stash.  I was able to get to two shops and added a bit to my stash.  I also got the beautiful frame for my LHN Sampler Houses from Valley House Primitives.  The frame is beautiful.  Now I just have to get my framer (better known as my DH) to spend some time putting it all together.  So I'll start with  some photos of the big party then show you my finish.

 A cake just right for a princess party!!

  Patiently waiting.

 Yum!!

 Now for the presents!!

 I loved this design!! It is a BBD chart, Winter is Past. All the blues are so pretty and look really good in my house.  I did use the charted floss but the linen was Lakeside Linen's Vintage Sand Dune.

These two are well worth 10 hours(total) on an airplane!!!!

Thanks so much for joining me today. Have a wonderful week!

My thoughts on Memorial Day

Hi there cloud friends!  I have a new finish to share but today my post is about Memorial Day.  Last night my DH and I watched the Memorial Day Concert from Washington DC.  We watch it every year.  For us, it is very important to not get so caught up in the fun holiday activities that we forget what this day is really about.  Before the concert there was a very moving program about the invasion of Normandy.  Seeing the American cemetery there, with all the crosses and stars of David ,was very moving.
We can't let this day go by without a tribute to our very special veteran.  Not a day goes by , that we are not thankful that he came home from two tours in Iraq.   While in Iraq, he flew Blackhawk helicopters. 

A Happy Memorial Day to all of you in the U.S. And for my friends in the rest of the world, have a wonderful week!

Three Special Ladies

Hi there cloud friends! On this Mother's Day, I would like to pay tribute to three very special ladies who have been huge influences in my life.

 Here is my mother.  She was everything one could hope for in a mom.  She was also a great grandma.  Here she is with my daughter in 1974.  When she passed away, I not only lost a mother but a best friend!

 After mom passed, my lucky father found this wonderful lady.  She came into my life at a very important time and was always there for me.  This great lady is also the grandma that my children  most remember.  I just lost her last May.  She will always have a special place in my heart.

This is my mother in law in 1967.  She welcomed me into her family with open arms.  It's just been in the past few years that I realize what an important lesson I learned from her.  My children were 4 and 7 when I married my DH.  She treated my children with the same love and affection that she did her biological grand children.  I now have a step grandson, sweet Ian. I will never forget the way this wonderful lady treated my children so I try  to treat Ian with the same love that I give to Caleb and Hannah. 

Happy Mother's Day to you all, mother's or not!

Spring/Easter Decorating

Hi there cloud friends.  Before Easter gets too far in our rear view mirrors, I thought I would share a bit of the decorating I do.  I think rabbits and eggs work for Spring as well as Easter so I leave mine up until I get a bit tired of dusting around them. If you have any questions about any of the stitching, feel free to email me and I will do my best to dig out the information.  I will start by showing you some of the stitching.

 I love this little oval frame! 

 Any rabbit in Seattle has to deal with rain!!

 I have a collection of white rabbits.

 This was a new addition this year.  He will be out for awhile.  I love the butterfly on his nose. I put dried daffodil blooms in the little bowl.  No jelly beans for someone on Weight Watchers!!

This photo was taken a year ago.  This is sweet Hannah enjoying a cupcake at her pre-school party.  She was not quite 3 when this was taken.

Thanks so much for joining me today.  I hope you are all having a wonderful week!