Grandparents Wall

A bit ago I stitched a sampler to honor my husband's(the SBA) grandparents. This was to go along with the wedding pictures we had been given several years ago. While doing more research, the SBA found more pictures of them. One was a full length picture of his grandmother in the same dress. We think the one of his grandfather was not done with the wedding photos,however, I liked the picture of him. The whole arrangement needed balance so we took their marriage certificate and had it framed in the same frame as the sampler. I think the wall looks good and the SBA is very proud and happy to honor his grandparents. He was named after his grandfather, James.

Sorry for the reflections. If we wait till this room is full of sunlight it will probably be July! This is the darkest room in our house because of a porch overhang.

This is the original certificate. We could tell by the ink that was used.

The family gave these to the SBA when his Mother passed away. He is known as the family genealogist.

Here are the two additional pictures that we found.
Thanks so much for taking a look and I love to read your comments! Have a wonderful week-end!

Spring-It's Coming

The weather folks said this would be a horrible week! Lots of rain, flooding etc. Today started out fairly temperate and then was suppose to get very cold. The sun was shining but I was expecting to get cold! Well, we just got back from our 2 mile walk and I had on only a sweatshirt!!! You can't believe the weather people. In their defense, the mountains and water play a huge part in our weather. It can be sunny here and raining 15 miles away. We are also in what they call the rainshadow of the Olympic Mountains. That means that the rains come in off the Pacific and hit the western side of the mountains. We are on the eastern side so we get less rain. Before our long walk we went into the yard. I wanted to see what was growing. I could see the daffodils from the window. We never had them bloom this early. I sure hope this is not a prediction of a hot summer!!!!

The hellebores will be blooming soon.

This is Ivory Prince.

Small Iris I have in my garden.

I love St. Francis. He was the patron saint of birds. My Dad always had a St. Francis in his yard. It brings back happy memories of him.

Haven't taken down the Christmas wreath!

I enjoy taking pictures of bark. This is our paper bark Maple.

Just to show how mild the winter has been, these were planted last fall. I always plant these orange whisker pansies for Halloween. I like to pair them with black pansies but this year I couldn't find the black ones.

Love those black veins!!!
Thanks so much for looking and I do enjoy the comments so much!!!

An Easter finish and a bird

The suet is really bringing members of the woodpecker family to our feeder. Today we saw a female Downy woodpecker,not nearly as colorful as the flicker but still fun to watch. I am also trying something new with my cross stitch. While I have the long Rebecca Robinson going, I'm taking a break by stitching some seasonal stuff. Now here is the plan, try to stay a few months ahead of the season. I just decided to try this so I'm a bit rushed on the Easter /Spring stuff. After finishing these I'm going to start my patriotic projects. I got the Sheepish Designs "Betsy"(out of print) last year . I really love it. I also just got Sheepish designs, "From Every Mountain Side". These will make great Patriotic projects to have up from Memorial Day through July. Maybe I need to grow two more hands!! I hope you all are having a wonderful week!

The Downy Woodpecker!

First Easter finish! This is called "Bunny Egg Mini" by Waxing Moon Designs. I used 28ct. Cashel Dirty for the linen. The threads are GA Oatmeal. I have a small collection of white bunnies so I wanted to get this stitched to go with the collection when I put it up.

I bought a cheap frame at Michaels . It is plain and I think it will look good.
Thanks so much for taking a look!

An ornament and a Bird!

Well, my last post showed a Halloween finish. Today , I'm showing my first really finished ornament. I used the finishing tutorial on The Twisted Stitcher's blog. Vonna has done a great thing by sharing all her super ideas with all of us. This was a very old piece that my daughter did for me many years ago, probably 15 to 20 years ago. It was fun to finish. But did take quite a bit of time. I took her advice and didn't rush the job. I've also posted a few pictures of a flicker who has been a regular at our bird feeder.

I believe this was from a Prairie Schooler chart. The chenille trim is from the Victorian Motto sampler. The bow is ribbon the color of the green in the ship even though it looks darker. I bought the little antiqued bell at a local gift shop.

Here is the flicker that has been visiting our feeder each day!

Now he's after some suet.
Thanks for taking a look. I'm really switching up my holidays! Tomorrow I'll have my first Easter finish to show.

A Halloween finish!

This is my second finish for 2012. I really enjoyed stitching this one. I started it back in the fall. I sort of used it as my back-up. When I was waiting for something new to stitch, I worked on this . I decided to finish it as a break from the border of Rebecca Robinson. The background color is much more of a burlap brown color, not the gray it looks like in the pictures. This design was by Jardin Prive. It is called "Quaker d Halloween." The directions are written in French. Thank goodness it was black and white so I managed , not speaking any French! I did not use the called for DMC 310, I used a Weeks Dye Works color Kohl. It had just s bit of purple. Just right for a Halloween design. I'm not sure of the fabric color as it just came out of a stash.

I'm not sure why linen shows up as wavy lines with my camera.

You can't have Halloween without a: Pumpkin

A Witch

Spiders

Ghosts

A Haunted House

Or Monsters!
Thanks for taking a look!

A Walk on the Beach!

Yesterday was cool but nice and sunny! The SBA and I decided it was just the day for a beach walk. When we first moved out here we spent many winter days walking this beach. But after awhile and a house, time gets tighter so we had not been out there much this winter. We decided that we really missed these walks and vowed to take time for the beach more often. This area is in a town called Hansville. It is at the tip of Kitsap County. The whole area is leased by the county and it is a county park. We live about 45 minutes from here. I hope you enjoy the walk!

We saw a lot of winter damage to the cliff area. I thought that the brown log looked like a Viking boat of logs!

New victims of the wind and surf!

I love the texture of these logs!

This poor tree thought it was going to make it to summer!

The gulls were enjoying the sunshine!

More cool texture!

All of my life I have been a rock hound. Even as an adult, I can't pass up pretty rocks. If I'm very lucky, I find agates on this beach.

This lovely stump was standing all alone with the beautiful Puget Sound behind .

We had the best day for sea glass that we have had in a long time.

And there's our beautiful lighthouse !
Thanks for taking the walk with me. Tomorrow I'll show my Halloween Quaker all finished!

A Valentine "Rainbow "Surprise

I had planned on only posting once today-just a Valentine greeting. I walked by a window and looked out and saw this beautiful rainbow(another benefit from living where it rains). My thought for the New Year was not to loose weight(maybe it should have been)but to live the title of a Hallmark movie,"The Magic of Ordinary Days." This was certainly a magical day! I hope this rainbow brings a bit of magic to your day!!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY

A Day Trip, Spring, and a cross stitch update.

On Sat. the SBA and I get a bit bored so we decided to take a short trip to a town called Edmonds. We had lunch, shopped at a garden center, shopped a bit in the little town and then headed home. It was fun to get away for just a little bit.

This is the ferry that we took. We ate lunch at a place new to us . It was right on the water. The great walking trail was below. We decided that this summer we will walk from the ferry and have lunch here. This time it was damp and cool so we drove.

After stopping at a great used book store(so the SBA could restock his reading materials)we went for coffee. This place has good coffee and to die for scones! I try to eat only worthwhile calories- these scones qualify!!

On to the decorating /garden store!

They were ready for Easter! The great NW Garden Show was going on this week-end. The store was kind of disorganized I think because of the show. We attend that show every other year. It's a great show but very crowded!!!

Here is the outside full of spring blooms! Primrose here. The variety and colors are amazing!

Weren't those pretty!

We took this guys photo from the ferry going home.

I'm almost finished with the Halloween cross stitch. I had a bit of stress on Thurs. The black is a variegated thread that I got last fall in Alabama. I thought I had plenty. Well, the best laid plans!! I was afraid I was going to run out. Then I remembered we had a wonderful quilt shop in Port Gamble that had started carrying some cross stitch supplies-thank goodness! They had my color and the dye lots even matched!! What luck!

This is the last big motif and then I put in 2 pumpkins and a spooky candlestick!
Thanks for taking a look and have a wonderful week!!!