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!

Big Update

I think this will be a long one.  I've got lots of pictures to share. 

First up are some more storm pictures.  We wound up with 9 inches of snow when it was all over.  We lost power on Saturday afternoon and had it restored on Wednesday afternoon.  Thankfully we have a generator so we were able to keep our food cold, our house warm, and the well pump running.  Many people weren't as lucky.  As far as I know there are still many people who are still waiting to have their power restored.

This was the first casualty early in the storm  - a branch from our neighbor's walnut tree.

This is another neighbor's tree that kind of split in half and took our power lines with it.    You can see them dangling from the pole on his side of the road.

These are pictures from the day after the storm.  It was a beautiful sunny day with great blue skies.  Hard to believe after the day before. The second picture shows just how heavy the snow was, bending a branch on our Japanese Maple down to the ground.  Normally a person can walk under that branch without having to bend over.  I am amazed at how resilient some of the trees are.  Once the snow fell off the branches many of them bounced right back.  The other pictures from around our house and neighboring properties.

Ok, so I never showed the pictures for the monthly decorations for October.  Without further ado they are ..

October Santa of the Month by Curtis Boehringer.

Monthly Mania - October by Heart in Hand.

Sheepy with his October blanket designed by Homespun Elegance.

And my October heart of the month from a Leisure Arts book.

A little fall decorating is shown in the following pictures.

Moonlit Garden by Blackbird Designs, part of the Loose Feather series.

Awesome Autumn by M Designs.

An Autumn piece by Lizzie Kate.

A couple of Bent Creek or Heart in Hand pieces that I put out for Autumn.  The piece in on the top in the center was a Twisted Threads piece that was published in one of the magazines years ago. That was my first over one piece.  I'm not sure who designed the Sunflower Sampler on the second shelf, perhaps Sunflower Samplings.  And I think the heart and sunflower was from a Leisure Arts book.

The shelf in my dining room with Autumn Silhouette by Blackbird Designs and I think a piece called Autumn House by Bent Creek or Heart in Hand.  I'm not sure which.  But if you know, I'd be happy to correct my entry.

Then a few Halloween things.

I'm pretty sure that the pillow on the left is from The Cricket Collection and the one on the right is by Trail Creek Farms.

A little door knob pillow by either Heart in Hand or Bent Creek.

And a framed piece by Carriage House Samplings called Ravens and Pumpkins and Cats, Oh My!
I stitched that last year.

And a view of our entertainment center done  for Autumn and Halloween.

I will post some stitching updates later tonight or tomorrow.  Enjoy your Saturday!

I have learned from this post that I need to keep better track of what I've stitched and the designer.  It's hard to remember all this stuff!

Keep On Stitching!

Where to Begin?

Lots to write about today especially since I have been absent for a while.  Sorry - that thing called life getting in the way again.

I'll guess I'll try to do this in a somewhat chronological order.  First up a picture of an early birthday gift received from my friends Claire-Ann, Debbie, Janice, Phyllis, and Sherry (in alphabetical order.)  I think this is the earliest I have ever received a birthday gift.  What a wonderful surprise and something I would not have bought this for myself contrary to popular opinion. :)  Thank you ladies.  I just love this piece from Liberty Hill.

Next are pictures of a gift given to Debbie for her birthday.  I made this bag following the pattern Zippy Strippy by Atkinson Designs.  What a wonderful pattern, easy to read and more importantly follow directions. The zipper was so easy to do following the directions.  I look forward to making some more of these in the future.

I made the little beaded zipper pull and added a flying pig charm to symbolize one of Debbie's favorite expressions.   Then as an extra I made this Thread Catcher (Ort Collector) from a pattern I found on this blog but am unable to locate there again.  I think that it was only up for a few days during the Moda Country Fair.  Again, easy to follow directions.

 

And finally a scissor fob with the signature flying pig charm. 



I wrapped this all in fat quarter of fabric from Moda by Blackbird Designs - you know the one that looks like a sampler. 

Next up are continued progress on Grandmother's Flower Garden.  For some reason, I've put a lot of purple and red in these flowers.  I was never a fan of purple, but have been coming around.

This came in the mail this week.  I hope to spend some time this weekend adding it to the Summer piece.

And now for some disturbing pictures of the weather here in Eastern Pennsylvania today.  I commented on someone's blog this week that we rarely get snow in October.   Do you think that jinxed us?  I took these pictures from the windows - I'm not ready to go out in this yet.  Thank goodness it's not a work day!

I was upstairs a few minutes ago and see that there is much more snow now.  I'll take pictures later today and post them.

I have lots more to share, but will save it for another post.

Thank you to those who have become followers and those who have left comments. 

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!