My purchase & Salem Village

I am so happy that many of you enjoyed seeing the Halloween  eye candy.  Thanks for taking a look and thanks to those who made a comment.  That place is just amazing at Christmas as well as Halloween.  This will be a short post but I will show you what I bought-you didn't think I could go there without buying something did you? As I have shown on the blog, I did a cross stitch called "Salem Village"  by The Primitive Needle.  I hope to do something with these two things together.

 Here is the back of the fake book.

 This is what you see when it is on the book stand.

 Here are the two together.  I'm not quite sure how I'll arrange this , but it will be fun working it out!

 I hope you all have a great week!

Eye Candy for Halloween Lovers!!!

Thank you all for your wonderful comments.  We all lead very busy lives and I so appreciate the time you take to read and comment on my blog!!  Yesterday we went across the water to visit the SBA's great family that lives north of Seattle.  My wonderful SIL told me about this awesome shop called Wieghts (pronounced Whites. ) They have a great plant nursery and super gift shop that they decorate for every holiday.  We went early enough for a stop at Wieghts on the way.  All the decorations were up for Halloween.  I hope you will enjoy seeing the amazing decorations as much as I enjoyed visiting the shop!!

Thanks again for visiting!!!

A little peak and more flowers!

I see that I finally have over 100 followers.  Thank you so very much.  I really appreciate the time you take to read my blog!! This has been a less than great week in Washington.  First those awful fires.  As of today, the paper says they are 50% contained.  So much has been destroyed.  I am grateful to those of you who made such kind comments about the fires.  Now here in the Puget Sound area we are having some of the hottest weather of the summer.  Yesterday was 94 and today more of the same.  The problem here is that temps like this are rare so very few things are air conditioned.  That even includes things like restaurants.  The SBA(Super Blog Assistant-he loads the pictures for me) and I are lucky because we have a basement where we are hibernating! Yesterday we took in a movie.  I hope to do a lot of stitching this afternoon as we watch a movie in the basement!  I decided to give you a little look at the Lizzie Kate Mystery Sampler Part 2 .  I hope to be done with part 2 within a week or so. I do like it so far! Last but not least, a look at my wonderful dahlias!

Does this make you want to stitch this sampler?

 Notice the color of this flower.

As you can see, it is on this plant,perhaps a rebel flower!

 I love the dark color of this plant.

Thank you so much for taking a look and have a wonderful week-end.  We deliver some of the contorted filbert branches to our dear SIL tomorrow!

Great ideas!

I want to thank all of you who offered such good ideas for the contorted filbert branches. Also thanks to those who just took a look!  We finished taking the leaves off this afternoon.  We now have a big pile of sticks . Some of course, are going to our dear SIL.  It is funny because many of you said I should make  a Halloween tree out of the branches.  When we were taking the leaves off I said what a good Halloween tree they would make.  The situation is this, I  already decorate 2 Halloween trees.  Now I know many folks have a Christmas tree in almost every room.  Maybe that is what I'll do-have several Halloween trees!!!
On a more serious note,  we here in Washington are dealing with a horrible fire.  Over 60 homes have been lost and 500 people have been evacuated. It is ranch land so many animals have also been put at extreme risk. We are in no danger as the fires are all on the Eastern side of the Cascades.  We are still feeling much pain for the people enduring this awful fire.  Plus it looks like it started due to the careless behavior of people who were repairing a bridge. This reaffirms my thought that an ordinary day is a wonderful blessing!!

Here are the two trees.  I think I can still use another one!!
Thank you so much for taking a look at my blog! Have a wonderful day!

A Slightly Strange Blog Post

Hope all of you had a great week-end.  Thanks to all of you who looked at my pictures at the lighthouse.  Late yesterday afternoon  one of my gardening buddies stopped by.  She told me that she had chopped down a contorted filbert tree.  The branches of this tree are totally awesome so I asked her if I could have the branches.  She had no use for them and was glad to get rid of some.  The SBA and I went over there this PM and chopped that little tree to pieces.  Our dear SIL wants some of them so we'll take a little road trip a few hours north of Seattle this week-end and deliver her share of the goodies.  Here is my question!  What would you do with these branches???? I would love to hear suggestions from my wonderful creative blog friends!!

 Here is the pile as we got them full of leaves.

 

These branches are much like those of the curly willow.

 Here is what they look like with the leaves off. This is just a start.

The pile of leaves!!!

Have a wonderful week!

A Beautiful Saturday!

We are having a beautiful Sunday!  The sun is shining, the winds are blowing gently , and it's not too hot probably in the upper 70's.  I hope all of you are having the same kind of day.  I so appreciated your comments about the garden and John Foster.  He is happily hanging in my family/living room. If he is in your stash, I would highly recommend stitching him especially if you like large red houses! I am now deep into Part 2 of the Halloween mystery sampler.  The only clue I'll give is-this part has mostly words but thankfully no over one!  Yesterday we worked out at the lighthouse.  I have shown so many lighthouse photos in the past, I'm just showing a few shots.  We had over 80 visitors.  I think you will agree, it was the perfect way to spend a Sat.  I'm just going to let the pictures speak for themselves.  Have a wonderful Sunday!

All these photos were taken from the window or door of the lighthouse. Thanks so much for taking a look!

John Foster and the Garden

I really appreciated all your concern for the baby birds.  The good news is, they have all left the nest.  We have found no little bodies so I am thinking they are all safe and doing great.  The nasty basket(their former home) is now in the garbage.  Beth at" Garden Grumbles and Cross Stitch Fumbles " blog gave me lots of good advice! Thanks Beth!
On Thursday I picked up John Foster from the framer.  I am happy with the frame.  I changed the color of the border and the gold in the frame matches the gold in the border.  In my cross stitch world, I finally got Part 2 of the mystery sampler.  That means that" Halloween Town" gets put on hold while I stitch part 2.  I'm determined to keep up with the mystery sampler.
My final pictures show the garden.  It is bursting with color right now. I hope you enjoy the flowers. 

 I like the subtle design on the frame.

Stargazer Lilly

 The hardy fuchsia is full of flowers.

This lily is called Tiger Woods.  I planted it before we all knew what a dork Tiger is.  The SBA still likes him and is very protective of the lily!

 This flower is a sure sign fall is not too far away. This anemone blooms all fall.

My pink version!

I wish you all a great week-end.  We work out at the lighthouse tomorrow.  I will try to get some good photos.

Seattle and New Start!

Thank you to all of you who looked at my cute little owl.  I do appreciate the time you take to look at the blog and I love the comments! I got a message that my Part 2 of the Halloween Mystery Sampler was shipped on Sat.  That's good news! Meanwhile , I needed something to stitch between the parts of the Mystery sampler.  Every year I do a Halloween cross stitch  for my Grandson.  This year I'm doing one from the new Just Cross Stitch Halloween Magazine, Halloween Town.  I found great fabric.

I love the smoky look of this fabric and think it will do very well for a Halloween Town!

Last evening the SBA and I went over to Seattle .  I called it playing tourist.  We just went to the waterfront.  We had dinner and rode the new big ferris wheel.  It was lots of fun.  I'll just be quiet and let you see the pictures we took from the wheel.

Thank goodness these little things were air conditioned!!

Mt. Rainier  and the stadiums where the Mariners and the Seahawks play.

We are headed home on the ferry at sunset.

I will leave off with a view of the beautiful mountain. Hope you all have had a good week-end.