Whidbey Island

I hope the week is going well for everyone.  It looks like the heat in the East is much better.  Thanks to all of you who read my blog and I do love the comments!! We had two great days on Whidbey Island.  We took tons of photos.  Today I'm going to show mainly pictures of the Coupeville area.  Coupeville is a delightful little town right on the water.  The famous Penn Cove mussels come from this area.  Much of this land is the same as it has  been for years.  They have preserved it as a National Historic Area called  Ebey Historic Preserve.  It was named after one of the pioneer families. This is one of the few areas in Western Washington the had a wonderful prairie for farming.  Because the people in the area wanted to preserve it, many of the houses have been there for years and are still farm homes.  The prairie goes right down to the shore.  As usual we spent lots of time walking on the beautiful beach.  I hope you enjoy the pictures.  Tomorrow, I'm going to focus on the wonderful flowers!

 This is the prairie that ends in the above picture!

 There was a lot of kelp!

A great place to gather drift wood.

This is probably one of the original old farm houses.

 I think this is a new home but built like a very old one.

This house was next to our B&B.  It had a nice water view! It is for sale!!!!! Well,let's see...maybe if I win the lottery...

Thanks again for taking a look at my blog! The flowers on this island were wonderful . That's for tomorrow!

Welcome to my blog on a very nice warm Sun. afternoon.  Thank you so much for taking time to read and comment .  I love reading your comments!! I hope it has been a good week-end for all of you. 
 We finally have summer here in the Pacific NW.  Now not the kind of suffering heat many of you have been getting.  It's actually funny to listen to the weather people out here.  If it is going to be in the 80's they tell you to drink plenty of water and watch the children and animals!!  Last night our weather lady scared me! I thought we might be headed to the dreaded 90's. She said that today the heat was on!! This meant it was going to maybe get to 85. Now on the East side of the Cascades, that is another matter.  They are in the high 90's. Enough of the weather.  I started the Lizzie-Kate Halloween Mystery Sampler.  So far, I'm loving it.  I bought all the recommended threads and the colors are just lovely. I'm using Salem as a back up.  I expect to finish the first part before the second part gets here.  So I'll have Salem Village to fill in with.  I'm not using the threads that were recommended.  The best price I could find on line for the recommended floss was $7.20 a skein.  That is a bit over my price comfort level , especially for a seasonal piece.  I substituted with threads I had on hand.  So far, the words and the date are with GA Black Crow. The skeleton and the little trees are with GA Freedom,and the witch hats are with Weeks Dye Works Mascara.  I do think the recommended floss was prettier, just too expensive. Also,  the Freedom is quite a bit lighter, it does not look like that in the photo. I have added a few garden photos.  Hope you enjoy them.

 Lisa,who was the designer at the Primitive Needle before her horrid accident, did a great job with the skeleton type design.

 We went to Boston several years ago and took this photo of a very old grave.  You can see the similarities.I do think these old cemeteries are so sad as many of the graves belong to children.This little child was only six.

Now if you just like the cross stitch part you can skip the rest of the garden photos.

The mock orange is still wonderful.  I love the little bit of red near the center that is part of this variety.

I tried to show the blues, pinks and the white of the delphinium.  Notice that a peony is still in bloom!!

This plant is about 5 feet tall.

This is a hardy fuchsia.  The bush is covered with these pretty flowers.

Tomorrow I should have an interesting post.  The SBA and I are headed over to spend a night on Whidbey Island. Earlier this summer, we realized that we saw more of this magnificent place when we used to visit.  So we decided that one goal for this summer was to do more road trips to fairly nearby places. The island is very pretty so I hope you will take a look! Have a great week!!!

A Great Package and a Start!

I am feeling very lucky today!!! I was the winner of Anne's give-away over at her blog "Doll's Musings"( a great blog by the way).  She sent me a wonderful package of goodies.  I think I will let the photos speak for me!

 The pink and light green fabrics are just beautiful! I can always use pins and ribbon and these are so pretty.

 The scissors are wonderful, they just might get me started on a collection.  Isn't the fob cute?  I love the bees!

This photo is more true to the color.

 Anne even decorated the back.  Notice all those great floss colors!

 Great fabrics!!

This shows the cute pattern she included along with all the floss colors.

 The book will be a great place for me to keep track of the things I have stitched. Anne, thank you so much for your generous gift!!!!!!!

 

 Here is my start for Salem Village.  I hope to start the Mystery Sampler soon.  There was a problem with the linen and I want to say that Anita of Anita's Little Stitches took care of it at once.  She is a retailer that stands behind her sales! Thanks Anita for your prompt service!!

I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July.  I won't make those of you suffering with the heat envious by telling you about the perfect weather day we had here in the NW!  Thanks so much for reading my blog!

 

Happy 4th of July

Have a very Happy July 4th!!!!

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!!!