A Good Monday!

Again, Thanks to all of you who take time to read my blog.  I love to read your comments!! They make me smile!  Well, today was a good day.  First, I got the house all cleaned that is with the SBA's help.(Yes, he loads pictures on my blog and helps me clean!!) We are having a few friends over for the 4th , so I have started planning.  The next good thing was getting my first package for the Lizzie Kate Halloween Mystery Sampler.  I love the fabric and the threads.  I think this is going to be a fun stitch.  Plus, I think I can easily get part one done before part two arrives! The final good thing involves a plant.  At the store yesterday, I saw a plant called "Bombshell."  It is a hydrangea paniculata.  I came home and looked it up as it is suppose to be a dwarf with tons of flowers. It looked like something I would really like so I went back today and bought one.  So you see, it doesn't take too much to make it a good day!!

 Here is the package with the Halloween Mystery Sampler.

 "Bombshell"

 I finally got the tuberous begonias in the window box.  These flowers always make me think of my Dad.  They were his favorite flower.

I hope your Mon. is going well!

A Small Finish

I have been thinking about many of you and this horrible heat !! I was shocked to hear that the races at Churchill downs were cancelled due to heat!  We lived in Louisville for 17 years and that never happened.  One of the main reasons that we moved to the Pacific NW was to avoid a hot summer.  When it came time to retire that was an important factor.  We have family out here and had visited often in the summer.  It became an obvious choice for us.  I might add, one that we have never regretted!!! My thoughts have been with many of you.  Plus the poor folks in Colorado(another place we considered)! 
Well, after finishing John, I needed a small project to get me through until the Lizzie-Kate Mystery Halloween Sampler arrives. I liked LHN's , "Summer Splendor".  I had to eliminate the side border because I had a frame I wanted to use.  I got this frame years ago at a craft fair in Ohio. It has a faux wood finish.  You can use it as a free standing frame so I can put it anywhere.  I also started "Salem Village" by The Primitive Needle.  I  felt awful when the stitching community lost this artist.  I love her Halloween designs.
I hope it has been a good week-end for you and we can all look forward to a happy 4th!

The colors are much truer in this photo.  It's a bit crooked as it's not in there permanently. The SBA will stretch it tonight.

Thanks so much for taking a look!

At Pike Place Market

Thank you so much to all of you who read my blog.  I do appreciate it very much.  Well, as promised, I took pictures of the market on our trip to Seattle yesterday.  This is a very busy crowded place but we did have fun.   However, I'm afraid the SBA and I are becoming country people(or just OLD) as we got very tired after a few hours.  Hope you enjoy the photos.

These beautiful bouquets can be had for as low as $10.

It's cherry season!!!!

It's not quite the season for these , but it is coming.  I have a wonderful raspberry U Pick less than 5 minutes from home.  I freeze enough for the whole year.

Fourth of July potato salad ??

Here is the new waterfront attraction.  Can you believe that I heard that opening day is today??(We were there yesterday)

I think the SBA(Super Blog Assistant-he loads my pictures) took a great picture.  I hope you all have a wonderful week-end.  For many of you-stay cool!!! We are cool and rainy-but I'm not complaining!!!!

The Garden and "From Every Mountainside" framed!

Thanks so much to all of you who said such nice things about John Foster and my post at the beach!! We are having a perfect weather day today, 71 and sunny with a bright blue sky.  No beach today though, I have invited our daughter and SIL for dinner on the deck.
 Just in time for the 4th of July, we received our frame from Valley House Primitives.  I love the way they finish a frame. The SBA put "From Every Mountainside" in the frame. I think the colors go very well with the design. We have it hanging in the family room.
 I hope all of you are having a great week! Tomorrow, it's shopping in the city.  I'll try to get some good pics of Seattle!

I have showed pictures of the vine over the garage before.  It's filling in so pretty this year.

My garden is beginning to show nice color. The mock orange is in full bloom so I sat out there and read the other day. The smell was just wonderful!!

Here's the top of "From Every Mountainside.  I put in 1776 instead of 2012. I wanted this piece to honor the revolution.

This shows the frame pretty well.

Thanks again for taking a look!!

The Garden and a finish!

I want to start by  thanking all of you who take time to read my blog!  I appreciate all of you very much!! Thanks for the wonderful comments about the beach.  It was truly an amazing place. We still are very cool and mostly cloudy.  Our highs are primarily in the 60's.  In spite of that our yard is starting to look great.  We have two Sambucus nigra "Eva" bushes planted in the front yard.  They are just beautiful right now, full of pink flowers! I finished John Foster on Friday!  I'm doing a quick little project, LHN's "Summer Splendor." I decided to make the plunge and order the Lizzie Kate Halloween Mystery Sampler.  I have never done a mystery sampler, but I do love anything to do with Halloween so I decided I couldn't go wrong! The first chart should be out the beginning of July so I won't start anything too big. I hope this is proving to be a good week-end for all of you!!

 The dark foliage and pink flowers look great with the light green tree in the background. this bush is about 5 feet tall.

 This one is more like a tree.  It's about 12 feet.

 A close up of the flowers.

Here we have the finished John Foster.  I made lots of changes in the thread.  If you are interested, I can let you know about the changes.  This was a great stitch!! I love the way it turned out! Now for a frame!!!

A Field Trip!

First, I would like to thank you for all the very kind comments on John Foster.  I will have him finished tomorrow. I'm thinking of a small to make into a little summer pillow for my next project.Our summer has been very cool and cloudy.  I think we have had  only 3 days in June in the 70's. They are calling it Junuary or the June Gloom.  We were beginning to complain.  So yesterday the weather lady showed a map of the temps in the country!  Wow. it's HOT!  So no more complaining from me!! Yesterday it was 76  so we went to a new beach.  The last time we worked at the lighthouse, a lady told us about this beach.  It's only about 45 minutes from our house.  It's called Kopachuck State Park. The beach was full of amazing things.

 Here is a view from the shore. This park is located near a town called Gig Harbor.

 This is a live sand dollar.  All those sparkling things you see are little moving feet.

We saw lots of these little crabs, all different colors!

 Have you ever seen so many star fish??!! It  was almost creepy.  It reminded me of snakes.

 Such amazing colors!

 This poor guy is missing  a few arms.

He was watching over the beach.

I hope this field trip has cooled you off a bit.  Thanks so much for taking a look!

John Foster ,Almost Done!!

I am finally able to get back to my stitching!! Yea!! John Foster will be done in just a short time.  I totally changed the border color.  I'm using the soft gold.  The color that was called for was a very light sort of lavender.  It would not have gone well with the changes I made along the way.  The pattern called for a pinkish red house.  I changed it to a barn red .  That required a few more changes.  I do love the way it has turned out.  The SBA says it might become his favorite!! Tonight I will finish the bee hive and the bees and the red flower on the far right.  That leaves half of the border,  the first half took 3 nights of stitching.  I guess that means it should be done in 4 stitching nights!! Thank you so much for taking a look!!!!! Hope the week is going well!!

 Wrinkles have caused that line in the bottom part.  It's really all the same.  I iron after I'm all done.

 I love that garden maze.

That border takes a bit of time to stitch!

Friday and the Edmonds Art Fair

This has been a very busy week-end!  On Thurs. I did my volunteer job at the school.  Then on Saturday, we worked out at the lighthouse.  It was fairly quiet because the weather was not the best.  The best day of the week-end (weather wise) was Friday.  The SBA, our daughter, and I went to the Edmonds Art Festival.  Laurie used to sell her Woolpets at this fair but she no longer does the festivals.  It was a beautiful day and we had lots of fun! Edmonds is a ferry ride away but we just walked on-that means you don't take a car.  It is a much cheaper way to travel on the ferry plus we got a nice walk up to the art fair.  I have mentioned Edmonds before.  It is probably my favorite town across the water.

 Almost each corner has a small garden.

 This is a view of the festival.

Edmonds is right on the water and you can see the Olympic Mountains in the background.

 All along our walk were pretty houses .  Almost all of them had pretty gardens.

 The SBA took this picture of Mt.  Baker from the ferry ride home.

Last year I bought a bird house(the one on the far right) at this fair.  I wanted to add a few more this year.

 I loved the shape of this one.

I couldn't resist this little patriotic one.

Thanks so much for taking a look! I hope this has been a good week-end for you.  I took the SBA out for a Father's Day Brunch!! Now it is time to go for a walk!!!!!