Owls and Stash

Thanks to all of you who looked at my trip photos!  This morning I had coffee with my DD and she presented me with two adorable owls that she made.  Her business, "Woolpets" has a kit for the owls but she made these especially for me.  I'm a very lucky Mom!  I have also added pictures of the things I bought to add to my stash when we were on the trip. The shop was called Country Cupboard. It is located in Orland Park , Il. The ladies who work there were very nice.  I couldn't resist buying some goodies!

 This is a snowy owl.

 I think they are both adorable! Plus they look great with my Halloween things!

 Here are three of the charts I bought.  First, Bell Flower Quaker Sampler by Little by Little, Quaker Pocket Needfuls by Primitive Traditions, and finally Three Pumpkins Chart #44 by Prairie Grove Peddler.  I thought the last one will be a challenge to me as I'm not the worlds best finisher. My motto has been stitch and frame!

 Here is the one I'm doing for Thanksgiving.  I love the rich fall colors used in the Word Play by With Thy Needle and Thread.

 Here's the current project, The Christmas Garden by BBD.  It doesn't look much like a Christmas Garden yet, but I usually do the border first.  Then I do a happy dance when it matches up correctly.I hope to get this done tonight. Sorry for the dark color of the linen.  I'm using 32ct. antique ivory linen.  It's not that dark at all.

 The floss is GA Endive. I have seen a few of these finished and I think they are lovely.  I'm not going to stitch the words Christmas Garden at the bottom.  I'm going to put in an alphabet.  I have seen that on other sites and then I'll be able to keep it out all year.  It's big and I don't want to do all that work for a short holiday season.

Thanks for joining me . The rotten cold is still plaguing me! I won't be at all sad when I loose that little souvenir of my trip! Have a great Friday!!!

Illinois Trip and Back Home!

We are back from the week trip and I'm back to the blogs.  I tried to keep up a bit but for the most part it was not very convenient. So if I have failed to comment on your great blogs, I'm sorry! The folks we visited were having problems with their computer and we were very busy! At the end we visited the SBA's Granddaughter at college and the hotel was also having problems with their system.  So I was only able to do a little blogging. The only bad part of the trip is I came home with the cold from h___ ! I thought I'd show just a few photos and tomorrow, I'll show you my purchases.  I found a great cross stitch shop in a community called Orland Park.  But for today, it's Chicago and university shots.

This is called "The Bean" because of it's shape.  The weather was fantastic so it was the perfect day for pictures. My friend Carlynn, gave me a wonderful tour of the city!This is located in a beautiful park along Michigan Avenue.

The reflection of the buildings was amazing!

Our good friends have a condo in the city and this was the view from the sun room at the top of their building!  Just beautiful!!!

I love the contrast between new and old buildings!

Another view of sculpture in the park.

We had a great visit with the SBA's family.  Here is his lovely Granddaughter.

She took us to a wonderful book store and this was a little black cat resting in a box with antique maps!

Thanks so much for joining me!