A Wonderful Christmas Surprise

Hi there cloud friends!  It's been awhile I know.  I read  blogs everyday but just get lazy about posting.  Today, though , I have something special to share with you.  As you know, I love ,love the frames by Valley House Primitives.  They go perfectly with my style of decorating.  So whenever I stitch a special piece, I order a frame from them.  I stitched Prairie Schooler Christmas Village.  Now that was a big job.  I wanted a special frame for it so I contacted Janet.  She asked if I needed it before Christmas. I said it would be nice but I didn't know their schedule and I was late in requesting the frame.  She said they would do their best and that was all  I expected.  You can imagine how surprised and pleased I was in a week or ten days to hear the frame was ready .   Janet always sends me an invoice and I pay using paypal.  Well instead of the invoice, I got an email from Janet saying the frame was to be a gift from her and Mike.  It made my day , no month , no year! How very generous they are.  The frame is beautiful and will always be so special to me because of their generosity.  What a way to get cheered up  after carpel tunnel surgery and to feel the real Christmas spirit!

 The way I stitched this was to do one house after each project I stitched during the year.  I started it last January and after stitching three houses I knew I had to space them out.

 This shows how beautifully the frame looks with the design.  All the golds and browns are really enhanced by the frame.

 I love the school.  Every village needs a school house with an American flag!!

 See those 53 trees at the top.  They became my Sunday evening stitch. Again I couldn't do them all at once!

I chose this for my last picture for two reasons.  The first because it shows off the beautiful frame very well.  The second because going to Church and celebrating the birth of Jesus is the most important part of Christmas to me.

Thank you for joining me today and a very special thank you again to Janet and Mike of Valley House Primitives!!

Advent Blog Hop

Today I am Joining Jo's Advent Blog Hop. Thanks to Jo of Serendipitous Stitching for organizing this fun holiday hop. I was happy to get December 2 as my day.  This is the first Sunday in Advent.  Some recognize this as the Sunday of Hope.  So I have chosen a fairly old design to share with you today.  It is "A Weary World Rejoices" by Shakespeare"s Peddler. 

This was also the best choice because one of my favorite Christmas songs is" O Holy Night". I am sorry not to have a recording of that song for you, but not being very tech savvy, I was not sure how to load a song on my blog.   I'm sure you have heard the song many times during the Christmas Season.   Thanks again Jo and a very Merry Christmas to all of you!

Happy Halloween!!

A very Happy Halloween to all of you and welcome to Jo's Halloween Blog Hop! I chose a design that I stitched last year to share with you.

This is Halloween Hornbook Sampler by Plum Street Samplers.  My beautiful frame was made by Janet over at Valley house Primitives.   I believe it is the tombstone design. Now to play a bit. My letter is L.  If you collect all the letters hop on over to Jo at Serendipitous Stitching and give her the spooky phrase.  A special thanks to Jo for organizing this fun blog hop. 
Your next stop is http://alchymyst.blogspot.co.uk/ Thanks for visiting and again have a very

Happy Halloween

Cross stitch, Flowers, and my Pumpkin Moon!

Hi there cloud friends.  I thought I would get in one post before August is gone.  Here in the NW we have had the hottest, driest, smokiest summer ever!! That being said, I am ready for Fall !! At times our air was more polluted than China.  We have had forest fires to the north, east, and south so there was no avoiding the smoke. Our worst conditions came from the fires in British Columbia. There were several days when we were told to stay indoors as much as possible.  Thank goodness we put in AC three years ago.  However, my garden has done well and I have spent many hours watering!!  If you just like to see stitching then just look at my first few photos.  After that, I will take you on a tour of my dahlias!

 This is called First Winds of Autumn.  It is a Blackbird design.  It was part of the Ladies Prim Society.  The colors on my photo are drab.  The real piece is full of lovely vibrant Fall colors.  It was designed to be a strawberry.  As you all know, finishing is not really my thing so a strawberry was out of the question.  I had to add to the bottom border so that it will fit into an antique frame that I have. It was a wonderful piece to stitch!

 This is my current project.  I was not able to get a good picture.  All I have left is the house.  I am changing the color of the house as a white one will not show up very well on my linen.  I am thinking of a sage green. That will look good with the pretty Autumn colors.

  Here are the dahlias!

 This lily just had to be here.  The flowers were larger than my DH's hands!  And it smelled heavenly!. 

OK, this is what smoke does to the moon!  I am calling it my pumpkin moon in honor of the coming of my favorite season, FALL!! I hope all of you have a great weekend and thanks so much for joining me today!

Happy Independence Day!

Hi there cloud friends!  A very Happy 4th to all my friends in the US.  In honor of the day, I am doing a post of my patriotic designs.  I did miss a few.  Next to Halloween, this is my favorite holiday to stitch for.  I hope you enjoy.

Sorry for the reflection on some and even the crooked shape.  I am having guests in about an hour but I did want to share this special day with you , my blog friends.  If you would like any information on any of the designs , I will be happy to share the info with you.  Thanks so much for joining me!

Cross Stitch and Birds!

Hi cloud friends,  Yes I know that is a strange title.  By the end of my post, you will understand it.  First, thank you Jo, of Serendipitous Stitching , for figuring out a way to get comments back on our emails.  I know several others have done the same work for us bloggers but I used Jo's plan so I am thanking her.  Now, it's time to share stitching.

 I really enjoyed stitching  the 1861 Antique Sampler by BBD in the book "In Friendship's Way."  I love the note that said when the ladies bought the old sampler they noted the date of 1861.  That was the year Abraham Lincoln was elected.  This young ladies world was about to change forever. I did make lots of color changes!!

 For now it is framed in a beautiful frame made by Janet at Valley House Primitives.  The frame is for my Grim Gourds so this sampler is just borrowing the frame for awhile till I decide exactly what to do with it.

 This is my current project " Basketful of Summer Time" by With Thy Needle and Thread. I am considering doing all 4 seasons in this group.  She has done Spring and Summer.  When I see the other two, I will decide. That dog is so cute!

Now for the birds! Every year we have a very low tide in the summer.  There is one particular beach that attracts the eagles.  We counted 25 of them all feasting on the beach goodies.  I like this photo because I caught two of them facing opposite directions.  I call it ,"Which way should we go now?"

 While we were standing on a dock, this juvenile bald eagle flew very close to us.  It just sat there for the longest time.  It is lacking the white head but look at those talons and the beak!

 The same dock area has tons of purple martin houses.  Here is a baby waiting for dinner.  That eagle made the parents very nervous!!!

A beautiful heron just patiently waiting for a fish.  I felt like this was bird paradise!

Thanks so much for joining me today.  I hope all your comments show up on my emails so I can respond.  That is the part of blogging that makes us friends! Have a wonderful week!

A Road Trip

Hi there cloud friends.  It's been a long time since I showed any photos of the beautiful NW.  Last week, my DH and I decided it was time for a road trip down to Oregon.  We had never been to the Columbia Gorge so that was our destination.  We did make a short stop in Portland but then headed to Hood River.  There are many waterfalls along the road.  The problem was that a fire last summer made most of them  not available.  The roads and trails to them were still closed.  We did manage to see two beautiful falls.  My new discovery however, was the Fruit Loop Road out of Hood River.  There were orchards of cherries, pears, and apples and a few wineries along the way.  All in the shadow of magnificent Mt. Hood.  The countryside was beautiful even on a cloudy rainy day! This area is also known for micro-breweries., so each day with supper I tried a new seasonal beer.

 The road along the Columbia was only open for a short distance due to the fires.

 We were able to get  close to the very pretty Lataurell Falls

 Here is the famous Multnomah Falls.  In the past there were trails up to that bridge but the trails were closed.

 Mt. Hood

 Just a small picture of the Fruit Loop Road.  I really want to go back here in the Fall when all the fruits are being harvested. It would be fun.  Apparently each little town has a harvest festival.

 Looked a bit like our Sequim with the lavender!

The sun came out and we had a delightful end to our trip! Thanks for joining me today.

I will be trying the technique to see if I will be able to read comments.  If I can't, I will thank you ahead for your kind words!!Blogger is driving me crazy!

Happy Memorial Day

Hi all you cloud friends!  Here in the US we are celebrating Memorial Day.  First, I think we need to remember all the brave men and women who have lost their lives in service to our country. A wonderful way to remember is to watch the Memorial Day program from the Capital.  We watch it every year.  It was on our local public tv station last night. I have been told that Veteran's Day is the day to celebrate those who are living vets or in the service at this time.  However, I can not help but say a prayer of thankfulness that our son made it home after two tours in Iraq.  So Happy Memorial Day to Jeff and his lovely wife Kacey and their wonderful children, Ian, Caleb, and Hannah.