Gifts Received

 Today I am baking with mixed success. Things are not coming out quite right.  One cookie tastes nothing like I remembered although I haven't made them in years.  However, I did make them this year since Baby Girl put in a special request.

I'm writing this blog post while I have cookies in the oven and nothing else that is calling for my attention.

I want to share pictures of the gifts I received.  This may seem like a lot, but remember this was my birthday and our Christmas celebration.

My birthday gifts are first,

Santa and a kit from The Purple Thread called Back to Spool,

a close-up of the kit.  Sherry was uncertain as to whether this was something I had.  And the answer was no.  The funny part is that when I saw this kit on Salty Yarns website I wondered if they had three, one for each of the girls.  I changed my mind and never did ask because I decided to go with the gift cards instead.

the rest of my gift from Debbie, the pin that goes with kit she gifted me in October shown  here, a pair of acorn scissors which were on my wish list, and one of the lockets for finishing,

and from friend Phyllis this beautiful sunflower box, a set of Disney teas, and a gift certificate to our local-not-so-local stitching shop.  A good excuse for a road trip.

For Christmas I received the following gifts,

from Phyllis a Downton Abbey lamp made using a wineglass for the base and a battery operated tea light inside, a set of two project bags, and a folding tray and ort container,

a close-up of the Downton lampshade.  Phyllis made these.  I am in awe.  They fit perfectly and are just the cutest.  Now I have to wait until Downton comes on in January.

from Debbie, a Flying Pig solar mobile, pincushion, emery boards, notepad, and spool of  ribbon,

a close-up of the top of the pincushion,

and a side view of the salt cellar the pincushion is finished in.

Debbie thought these spools were interesting and that we could do something really neat with them.

and from Sherry a tea maker from Teavana, loose tea, and a tin of Whitman's candy.  The tin is interesting.  I can't wait to see what the girls do with those.

Here is a picture of my table decorations. The strawberries in the bowl were designed by The Prairie Schooler.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.  I'll be back tomorrow with pictures of my baking adventures and hopefully, a little bit of stitching.

Keep on Stitching!

Gifts Given

Here are the gifts I gave the other members of the Fab Four these boxes:

which when open looked like this,

and contained a package from the Victorian Motto Shoppe of rick-rack, chenille, buttons, and twill tape.  Everything a girl needs to finish pinkeeps and other smalls.

I also included a gift card for Salty Yarns.

Keep on Stitching!

Grace

Along with my list of 57 Things Bbefore 57 I have chosen a statement for myself for the coming year.  Usually I choose a word and try to go by that.  However, this statement resonated with me

"I will hold myself to a standard of grace - not perfection."

I had to do a little research on the meaning of grace.

As a Christian I have a very basic understanding of the grace that comes from God.   And am thankful for His grace and the comfort it provides me.

But the grace referred to in the quote is more like an "ease and suppleness of movement or bearing"(thank you Merriam-Webster.)  Or maybe as Webster says "elegance and beauty of movement or expression."   However, I think the best definition for me is "elegance or beauty of form, manner, motion, or action" per Random House Webster's College Dictionary.

I know that perfection or striving for perfection can be paralyzing for me.  I get defeated by thinking that if I can't do it perfectly it's best not to even start.  Striving for elegance or beauty of form, manner, motion, or action - I think I can do that.  It provides a new way for me to think about what I'm doing.

Tonight is our Fab Four party.  The Fab Four, previously the Fab Five, are four stitchers that get together for stitching, food, road trips, and most importantly to laugh.  I value these ladies more than words can say. I have known these ladies longer then I have know my Baby Girl who is 21.  We have been friends for many, many years.   I am looking forward to our time together tonight.  

Tomorrow I will post a picture of my gift to the ladies.

Keep on Stitching!

  

57 Before 57

Today is my 56th birthday.

In anticipation of this day I have been composing a list of 57 things I want to accomplish before I turn 57.  I got this idea from various posts I've seen around the blogosphere.  The difference is that these ladies are doing 30 before 30 lists.  Anyway, I thought I would share that list with you and check in with my progress throughout the year.  Some are stitching related, some are gardening related, and a few are health related.  Some are a continuation of things I've done in the past.

Are you ready for the list?

1.  Take a family photo.

2.  Release 57 pounds.

3.  Grow pumpkins.

4.  Grow sunflowers.

5.  Force bulbs for winter.

6.  Empty the 'box of shame.'

7.  Walk 10,000 steps daily.

8.  Use the one-in-one-out rule for new purchases and gifts.

9.  Reduce stitching stash.

10.  Use my planner daily.

11.  Plan tomorrow tonight.

12.  Daily blog post.

13.  Take a knitting class.

14.  Get bloodwork done.

15.  Start playing my flute.

16.  Deal with the mail daily.

17.  Develop a cleaning routine.

18.  Drink 8 cups of water daily.

19.  Develop an after work routine.

20.  Sleep 8 hours a night.

21,  Read Simple Abundance daily.

22.  Do 6 No Spend months.

23.  Take a trip with the Captain.

24.  Continue my gratitude practice.

25.  Try 57 new recipes.

26.  Take one stitching class.

27.  Finish 57 stitching projects.

28.  Throw out 3 things every day.

29.  Take off 10 Fridays in the summer.

30.  Read/listen to 57 books.

31.  Take a dance class.

32.  Take a yoga class.

33.  Stitch every day.

34.  Journal daily.

35.  Get my mammogram.

36.  Make my love list.

37.  Make my success notebook.

38.  Make my inspiration book.

39.  Finish decorating the stitching room.

40.  Do garden and plants in the front of the house.

41.  Do bank garden in front of the house.

42.  Eat when hungry 90% of the time.

43.  Stop eating when satisfied 90% of the time.

44.  Find and use a blog planner.

45.  Do a 5 year journal.

46.  Visit Florida.

47.  Visit Neverending Farm.

48.  Daily bible study.

49. Go to Moravian Book Shop.

50.  Attend 1 stitching retreat.

51.  Save $1,000.

52.  Finish hexagon quilt.

53.  Finish flag quilt.

54.  Organize recipes.

55.  Develop a menu plan.

56.  Track personal expenses.

57.  Attend Cuzfest.

Are you tired yet?  Some of these may not make sense to you but will when I discuss them as the year progresses.

Do you wonder what I look like?  I often wonder that about bloggers and designers.  Here is a picture of me taken today.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Keep on Stitching!

How is your weekend?

Did you have a good Thanksgiving?

This is the view from our deck on Thanksgiving morning.

Wasn't that pretty?  Fortunately the roads were clear and we were able to travel over the river (the Delaware) and through the woods (the Pinelands) to the Captain's mother's house.  We took all the fixings for our dinner with us as well as the desserts I had prepared on Tuesday.

This is a little picture of our feast.  Not a lot of food, but way too much for four people.  We brought a lot of the food home with us.  We did leave my mother-in-law a plate of food (her request) and some of the desserts.

I spent yesterday relaxing.  

Dorothea Benton Frank (the author) posted this on her Facebook page yesterday:

Forget Black Friday. This ought to be a national holiday for women. Women Don't Have to Raise a Finger Day. Or Women Take a Break Day. What do y'all think?

I went and got a pedicure and manicure.  And I ran into the grocery store for a few things.  Other than that I didn't do any shopping.   After my taxing morning I returned home, made a cup of Decaf Lady Grey and settled in to read the last 200 pages of The Pioneer Woman Black Heels to Tractor Wheels. What a nice love story.  I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to spend the afternoon and part of the evening reading.  

Today I made a batch of turkey soup and some 9 grain bread in the bread maker.  Such a wonderful dinner.  I have been puttering in the stitching room but don't have anything finished that I can show you.

Have a wonderful evening.

Keep  on Stitching!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope that you are having a wonderful day filled with good food, family, and fun.

If you were to visit my house for dinner today you would see these pieces in my dining room.

I've shown these other times but like to bring them out and display them every year.

Keep on Stitching!

The Final Finishes from the Weekend

Here are the rest of my finishes from last weekend:

Little Sheep Virtue #7 Patience by Little House Needleworks.  I stitched this over one.  This is my interpretation of their finish.

Love Is by Summer House Stitchworkes using the finishing fabric and key provided in the kit.

And finally Bountiful Blessings by Threadwork Primitives.  The finishing fabric, wool, jute, and acorn were provided in the kit I purchased.  I love the detail of the wool leaf on the back of the pillow.  

Keep on Stitching!

More Finishes and Holiday Preparations

Here are two more finishes from the weekend

Salute to Abigail by Blackbird Designs.  This was  a special piece designed for the Prim Stitcher's Society sponsored by Dyeing to Stitch.

I did a very primitive finish as suggested by the finishing instructions.  I will hang this in my kitchen with my other patriotic pieces.

I did finally finish the stitching on the fob for the Delaware House Stitch Book.

My attempt at the octagonal fob did not come out exactly as I had planned, but I think it's good enough.  You can see the inside piece glued in place.  The space under the tree was left blank so that needles and pins could be placed there.

And finally, the cover.  I am happy with this finish and feel confident that I can do this again with the other patterns I have chosen that have this finish.

Tonight I did some baking in preparation for Thanksgiving.

First, Peanut Butter Bars or Crack Brownies as my Baby Boy calls them.  They are highly addictive. The recipe calls for a yellow cake mix, peanut butter, eggs, butter, sweetened condensed milk, and chocolate chips.

And then a batch of mini pumpkin pies.  I found the inspiration for this thanks to  Mary from Home is Where the Boat Is.  Hers are truly mini works of art.  Mine, well, I think they look pretty good for my first attempt and for using a knife to free-hand cut out my leaves and pumpkins.  After looking at Mary's blog I realize I have a long way to go in the styling department.  Something for me to aspire to.

Snow is predicted for tomorrow which could impact travel plans.  I'm headed of to work in the morning regardless.

Keep on Stitching!

Finishes

Yesterday I had a productive day in the stitching room.   I managed to finish these projects.

A nice little bunch.  I had hoped to do more but greatly underestimated the amount of time some of the finishes would require.

Today, I'll show you close ups of just one of  the projects.

Chocolate Roses by Needlemade Designs shown in a Sudberry Vintage pincushion.  The ruching on this is one of the things I greatly undersestimated.  I remember doing ruching before and attaching it as I went along. That's not what the directions stated this time. And I followed the directions.  I stitched this in different colors than shown on chart below.  These were more my kind of colors than the raspberry fabric and white floss shown below.  The ruching looks a little wonky in the picture above.  I does push back into place.  I may need to use a few more stitches to secure it so that it doesn't move.

The pattern calls for ruching around the scissor fob, but I ran out of ribbon.  I think it looks ok without it.  

 No finishes for today.  I took a little break and hope to get more done after work this week and over the long weekend.

Keep on Stitching!

Preparation

Last night I prepared by my stitching room for some finishing time by setting up my stations.

A station for cutting,

one for ironing,

a place to sort through finishing supplies and trims,

and last but not least, my sewing machine.

The first project  finished today was Sweet Little Sewing Basket by Homespun Elegance. This has been lingering in the box of shame for quite some time.

Here's my finish.

A quick and easy finish to start.  I can use this little basket and pincushion alongside my stitching nest.

I'll be back tomorrow with more.

Keep on Stitching!

Weekend Plans

This weekend I hope to spend some quality time in my stitching room tackling this:

the 'box of shame.'   It is full of all my finished/unfinished projects.  Those projects that are stitched and need to be assembled or framed.  I have a few frames on the top for projects that are inside.

And, yes, before you ask, it is full.  Surely more than a weekend's work.  But I figure that a start is better than nothing.  Truth be told, I'm not even sure what all is in there.  And, I haven't decided how I'm going to tackle it all, yet.  Probably best to just dive in and do one thing at a time.  Although,  I am thinking about doing all of the sewing machine sewing first and then working on the stuffing and hand finishing.  I think.

Hopefully the next time I post I will have some finished items to show you.

Keep on Stitching!

Delaware House Stitch Book

Last Saturday I traveled to Delaware to attend a class taught by Linda Lautenschlager of Chessie & Me.  She designed this project for our guild.  This is the cover photo for the kit.  We received our kits in October.

I should have had plenty of time to accomplish the pre-stitching.  By Friday night I had completed this much:

and this much of the fob,

In class we painted our boxes and lined them with paper that Linda provided.  We also scuffed them up a bit to make them look aged.

We cut out our stitching and mounted it on wool.

In between the steps while waiting for the paint and glue to dry I was able to get a bit more stitching done on the fob.

In order to finish I need to give the box a quick spray with polyurethane, glue the pieces on the cover and inside.  And finish the fob.  Linda showed a square scissor fob.  I think I will finish mine as an octagon.  We also made cording in class for the scissor fob.  I hope to get to some of that this weekend.

A nice day spent with some very nice ladies.

Keep on Stitching!