Thoughts on July 4th

I have always been very interested in the Revolutionary War. Two of my  favorite characters of that time are John and Abigail Adams.  When I saw that the Ladies Prim Society had for their summer project a chart by BBD called "A Salute to Abigail", I immediately joined. On the chart was printed a portion of a letter from John to Abigail.  I think that it is almost poetic.  I hope you enjoy reading it.

I wish you all a very Happy July 4th and to my friends who do not live in this country, have a great week-end!

Patriotic Cross Stitch and a Bit More Decorating

Thank you so much for the nice things many of you said about my foyer decorating.  You just made my day!  Today it will be mostly cross stitch and the bit of decorating I do in the kitchen.

 A newly finished and framed Liberty Lane.  The blue on the frame is exactly the same blue on the houses.

 I leave this up all year.  It is in the upstairs hallway.

This is an old BBD.  You can see I did it in 2007. It is done in a dark blue.

Another BBD.  It is much prettier than it showed in this photo. 

 Penny America

Americana.  I think this is a Carriage House Samplings chart.  The frame is Valley House Primitives.

We are now in the kitchen.  I remember changing the colors a lot in this one.  It is over the door to the laundry room.  It, too, stays up most of the year.

 Of course, the PS July! This one has all you could want, a lighthouse, sail boats, and lots of red,white,and blue!

The top of my dry sink.  We have a collection of old lighting. Many of them took whale oil.

 Over the door to the deck.  I love Bethany Lowe decorating items.  They look vintage! They are a bit on the pricy side.  I have gotten many of them after the 4th when they are 50% off!

I will end this little tour with of course, one of the best things, my Woolpets patriotic  sheep done by my DD, Laurie!

Thanks so much for joining me.  If you have any questions about a specific design, just let me know and I will try to get you that information.

July 4th Decorating

I love to decorate for the 4th of July.  I think the main reason is that the colors of red, white , and blue are perfect in my house.  My main house colors are barn red, cobalt blue and gold.  So decorating for the 4th is a snap.  Easter always gives me trouble because it is so pastel. Today we will start with the entry.

 If you have followed my blog, you know that I LOVE this cherry desk.  I do a lot of decorating around it.    It dates from 1830-1850 probably  from  New York state .

Of course, there has to be some cross stitch! I love those frames.  I got them many years ago when I lived in Louisville, KY.  There was a great craft show in Cincinnati.  My sister and I went every year.

"A Birds of a Feather" design framed in a Valley House Primitives frame.

I purchased all the things on top of the desk at antique shops or shows over the years.

This little book is dated 1904.  It has lots of advertising for Revere Coffee!

This picture shows my arrangement on top of an old red blanket chest we got at an auction in Louisville.  It was  huge bargain. The DH had gone out to get a hot dog.  He came back in and I said bid!! He didn't even know what he was bidding on!  When we had a repair made, the man told us it was very early 1800's or late 1700's due to the mix of nails he found.

I hope you are having a great week and will join me tomorrow to see my wall of patriotic cross stitch projects!

A Winner

Thanks to all of you who entered my give-way for the chart:

The winner is RANAE!

A Give-Away and the Solstice Celebration!

I am really glad that good old blogger is behaving today.  I appreciate all the suggestions and I think I will look at other options for reading my blogs.
I was going through my charts the other day and guess what?  I had two of the same design so that means a give away.  If you would like Little House Needleworks, "Patriot Inn"  just leave a comment on this post.  I will draw a winner on Sat.  It is a great little chart to be stitching over the 4th of July.
Each year on the Sat. closest to the Summer Solstice, Poulsbo has a celebration.  It is based on the   Norwegian St. Hans Festival. Last Sat. was the actual solstice and a picture perfect day.  My DH, DD and I went to the festival.  I will let the photos speak for themselves.

 Preparing the Mai Pole.  Many homes have their own smaller poles decorated with greens and flowers. This is not the traditional May Pole.

Every thing Norwegian!

 They are supposedly very sweet dogs!

 The arrival of the dancers and musicians.

Many wore the traditional costumes.

 We all had to sit behind the green garland for the rising of the pole just to be safe.

 It is up! It took several men with poles and probably 10 minutes to get the pole up.

 There was lots of Norwegian dancing.

 We missed the lighting of the bon fire, we got too hungry!

 The perfect ending to a lovely day! I hope your solstice was memorable!

Problems

Blogger is driving me crazy!! I can't get any posts  from the blogs I'm following except one at a time.  The minute someone else that I follow posts, the previous post disappears. The only way I could read posts is to sit by the computer all day and catch each one as it appears.  VERY FRUSTRATING!  That is why there have been no comments from me on any blogs. Any suggestions?  We sent a note to google but no help so far,  The view more button does no good. I would really appreciate any advise. Is anyone else having this problem?

Cross Stitch and Flowers

Thanks so much for all the kind wishes you sent to sweet Hannah on her first birthday. I appreciated them so much.  Her parents don't read my blog so I sent them an email suggesting they take a look.  Both of them did and thank you also  for your wonderful comments!
I think  I'll just comment on the pictures instead of writing a lot here.

 Here is Liberty Lane with the alphabet started and no words" Liberty Lane."  I do love it with the alphabet.  This part will be finished tonight.  The second row completes the alphabet and has the numbers 1-10. 

 This year I made a new goal for myself.  I decided to bring in my garden flowers so we would  enjoy them in the house. Here you see 3 types of peonies in the powder room.  They smell wonderful!

More peonies in the family room.

Roses on the island!

I planted a mock orange just for the smell of the flowers.  This afternoon I'm going out to cut a nice big branch.  It had just started blooming when I took this picture.

 When I travel, I always enjoy seeing what kind of wild flowers grow along the roadside.  Each year I look forward to seeing the wonderful display of foxglove that we have here in the NW. They bloom along our roads where ever there is a sunny spot.

I hope you all have a wonderful week-end and celebrate Father's Day in great style!!  The DH and I are going to one of our favorite little towns and doing some antiquing!!

One Year Ago

Just one year ago this beautiful little girl was born!  My only regret is that we live so very far away form our grand daughter and her sweet brother!

Happy Birthday Hannah!!!!!

 

Catch Up!

Thanks so much to all of you who said such nice things about the antique sampler and its frame.  If I did not respond, I'm sorry.  I expect your comment to show up on my email but many of them did not show up this time.  I have no idea why.  Blogger can be a pain at times!!
I'm still busy with PT.  It is really taking a long time to get this knee back in good working order.  I can walk just fine but definitely slower than the pre-knee .  They( the PT folks) want it to bend  to 120 degrees with ease.  I don't know if it will ever do that.  On the days I don't go to PT I work at home for at least 40 minutes on bending exercises! Well enough of that!!
I finished Betsy and have gone back to Liberty Lane.  My DH helped me to work out an alphabet instead of the words Liberty lane. I'm anxious to see how it will look.
The garden continues to look wonderful so I included a few photos!

I wish the white sheep stood out more, I used the suggested DMC floss except for the reds.  There I used 355 and 356.  This turned out ok but I'm not crazy about it.

 I finished the big white house last night.  Two more houses to go.

 The Black Lace Elderberry is almost covered with flowers.

The Ghost Weigelea  has pretty colored leaves in the fall.

 I love growing delphinium.

and Calla Lillies!

Thanks for joining me!