Black Friday/White Friday

I had hoped to post a Happy Thanksgiving message on Wednesday but for some reason did not have an internet connection.  I hope you each had a Happy Thanksgiving and safe travels.

We went to my mother-n-law's for the day.  We had a nice dinner.  The company was wonderful as always.  And were home in time for bed last night.

I wanted to show you pictures of my Thanksgiving decorating before I start to do the Christmas decorating.

This guy is propped against a lamp on a table in my living room.  I can't remember the name of this piece or the designer.  I really am going to start labeling my things.

This piece hangs in my dining room. Thanksgiving by Hinzeit.  I like the coordinating frames that they choose for their pieces and usually follow their suggestions.

Another piece in my dining room.  Again I'm not sure of the name or designer.

And one last piece displayed in the dining room.

Some progress pictures.  Slow but steady - An Open Heart by The Drawn Thread.

And more slow but steady progress on Count Your Blessings by Shakespeare's Peddler.

I have three days without work stretching before me.  What to do?  What to do?

I know I won't be going to any of the Black Friday sales.  I'm observing White Friday avoiding the whole early Christmas shopping thing.  I will go buy groceries today - I've found that no one is in the store on Black Friday  since they have leftovers from the day before.

I'm going to try to get to the gym.  At least to get in some treadmill time.

And I think I'm going to go to the library.  I can get there without getting involved in any type of mall traffic.

And I'm going to wash my car - myself.  We are having a beautiful sunny day here with highs in the 60's expected.  I don't know how many more of those we'll have before the snow sets in again and will try to take advantage of that today - and I think the same is forecast for tomorrow.

Maybe a little Christmas decorating.

I'd love to finish Count Your Blessings today and get that ready for my trip to the framer in December.

I've been a little remiss in my blogging the past couple of  weeks.  I was spending a lot of my free time car shopping two weeks ago and resolved that last week.  And I have been trying to go to the gym on a daily basis to move a little.  Like so many other habits this one is hard to establish.  For a little while my stitching will have to take a backseat until I figure out how to fit it in - especially on weeknights.

I do hope to finish Count Your Blessings today among the other things I have planned.

Enjoy the weekend.

Keep on Stitching!

Monday, Monday

Back to work today.

A thank you to those of you who have visited for the first time today after a mention on Lake Stitcher's blog today.    Thank you to Lee for mentioning my blog.  And thank you as well for the nice comments.  I do read and appreciate every one.  I feel like I am making new friends.

Stitching updates

My latest progress on An Open Heart by The Drawn Thread.  

My newest lunchtime stitch - Count Your Blessings by Shakespeare's Peddler.  Seems appropriate for this month.

 November Decorating:

Monthly Mania - November by Heart in Hand  -this guy hangs in my kitchen.

Heart of the Month for November by Leisure Arts on the knob of  the corner cupboard in my dining room.

Santa of the Month by Curtis Boehringer on an end table in my living room.

And Sheepy with his November blankie by Homespun Elegance in my stitching room.

What a difference a week makes.  Last week we were without electricity, phone, cable, and internet.  This week things are back to normal for most of us.  There are still some that do not have power.  The number of power companies and trucks on the road has been amazing.   Those men and women deserve every penny that they earn.  I have noticed there are still some branches dangling over the roads and I'm not sure who is responsible for those.  I just hold my breath and hope they don't land on me.

Have a great evening.

Keep On Stitching!

Stitching Updates

Here are pictures of what me and my needle have been up to - not as much as I had hoped.  Progress is progress.

Progress on An Open Heart by The Drawn Thread.  I'm not sure if the first heart in the next section is right and I'll have to figure that out before I move forward.  I was working on this at Stitch n Gab on Wednesday and was having a hard time concentrating.

A start on Autumn by Blackbird Designs.  I had hoped to work on this on Wednesday but failed to make sure that I had all the necessary floss in my bag.  So hit a bit of snag on that one.  Fortunately, I almost always have more than one project in my bag.

A little more to show on The Red Thread by Bent Creek.  

And a start on A Stitcher's Purse by With They Needle and Thread.

I'm hoping to log lots more stitching time in the coming week.  I think that things are starting to settle down with the restoration of our power and getting caught up on my homekeeping tasks.

Keep On Stitching!

Did you ever notice?

Did you ever notice how hard it is to establish a new routine and how easy it is to abandon the same routine? That's how it goes for me and blogging. I am going to try to do better.

Admittedly I have not been doing a lot of stitching. Other things have been happening.

On Friday I left home on a road trip to see my dad in Bath, NY. My first stop was at The Village Stitchery Shop in Lewisburg, PA. What a great shop. It's in what was once a one room schoolhouse outside Lewisburg in the hills. Beautiful views no matter where I turned and I was still in the parking lot! The inside of the shop is my kind of place. Lisa has used antiques and vintage pieces including picnic baskets as displays. So charming. I did buy a few things there. The best thing I saw there was a Mirabilia (I think) reindeer finished as a standup rather than framed. What a wonderful idea - so cute to have them all lined up along a shelf or mantel rather than framed individually. I am thinking this would be a great way to finish the reindeer I have in my stash (once I stitch them.) You can see their website at http://www.villagestitcheryshop.com/. Such a nice place to visit - unfortunately I didn't think to take any pictures.

My next stop was at The Village Sampler in Big Flats, NY quite a bit north of Lewisburg. What a pretty ride up there. Unfortunately, I arrived there a bit late in the day so didn't have time to really look through their quilts and fabric, but I was able to do the front room with cross stitch and some quilt kits. I did a little stash enhancement there as well.

On Saturday I met up with my sisters and brother and two of my nephews. We went to visit dad and get him out in the fresh air and sunshine. It was a beautiful day. We ventured up to the Glenn Curtiss Museum later in the afternoon to see their quilt show and tour the museum. The quilts done by the ladies were lovely. My favorites were the redwork quilts. I don't think I have any pictures. Mind you I had my camera but didn't use it.

Here are two of the flowers for my Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt.  I have a few others done and will add these to the pile.

This is my progress on A Red Thread by Bent Creek.  I have made this my travel project since I don't have to concentrate on it too hard.  So this one goes to my groups and to lunch with me.

And some more progress on An Open Heart.  I haven't worked on this in over a week.  I hope to do more with weekend.   

I'm sorry about the picture quality but I can't do much about it right now since my camera needs to recharge.  Better pictures in the next post.

Keep on stitching! 

Monday Update

I've made some progress on An Open Heart by The Drawn Thread.  This is fun to stitch, although I find I'm making stupid mistakes that lead to some serious frogging. 

So good progress for the weekend. 

I also made a little bag over the weekend but need to find a great button to truly finish it up.  I'll post a picture of that once I find just the right thing.

Have a great week.

Keep Stitching!

Wednesday Update

 I've been busy the past few days and haven't had much stitching to post. But today is the day.

I had a three day weekend last weekend.  I had planned to get lots of stitching done.  Friday I was off so that my dishwasher could be delivered. I was getting things done around the house and the dishwasher was delivered without incident. 

I went outside to empty the garbage and found that I had locked myself out of the house.  Forutnately, it was a beautiful day and I was able to enjoy sitting in the sun until someone came home.  I kept thinking while I was sitting there that that would have been a great time to be stitching.  In fact, that was the first question someone asked me about the incident - did I have my stitching. Somehow, I managed to fritter away the rest of Friday without any stitching.

And more of the same on Saturday, without the getting locked out part.  I did do my Fall decorating.  It's too dark today to take pictures to show that.  Hopefully, it will be lighter tomorrow and I can do that then.

I did read How to Knit a Love Song by Rachel Herron over the weekend.  Each time I read a book about knitting I want to be a knitter.  Only thing is that the gauge thing trips me up every time.  Unless it's a project where gauge doesn't matter a lot, like a scarf, I'm out of luck.  I am going to go and watch someone else knit one of these days to see if I can see where my problem is.  I may even have to take a lesson.

I did get some stitching done on Sunday and finished stitching A Very Merry Autumn.  I hope to get this put together this coming weekend.  Actually, I had hoped to do that last weekend, but I would have had to finish the stitching before Sunday night.  

I decided over the weekend that I would like to choose one of my projects to focus on - meaning that's the one I work on exclusivelly while at home.  I chose An Open Heart by The Drawn Thread.  Here is my progress so far.  I am finding this piece to be a lot of fun and a tad addictive.  Each little motif is a different stitch and last night I found myself wanting to do just "one more" before I went to bed. 

Tonight is stitching at a friend's house.  I made brownies last night to take there tonight.  Not sure which project I'll take, but I have all day to figure that out.

Keep Stitching!