Saying Goodbye to Another January!

It continues to amaze me how quickly the days are flying by! I can sense Spring coming, just around the corner, not that it means our lousy weather is over yet though! We planted two whole flats of primroses and narcissus yesterday out front by the street, and I was encouraged to see that last years daffodils and irises are about an inch tall already. I love spring flowers and I know I've said it before, spring is my favorite season. It offers hope that the world will go on when the winters in my life are about to become overwhelming.

My legs are very sore today from bending over and pulling weeds and planting...a casualty of winter inactivity. But I am really pleased how pretty and "springful" it looks now in the front flower bed!

For those who don't remember, we have our house up for sale. November and December were pretty dismal, we only showed the house a couple of times...we worked hard at not becoming discouraged over it. But two weeks ago we had an open house, then showed the house 4 times. This last week we have had 2 people come and look. We are hopeful that it won't be much longer now! Yesterday while we were waiting for an agent to show the house, we wandered around a local furniture store to look at new living room furniture...we kind of liked this set, it's very comfy. We haven't made a final decision...

But while we wandering around we found a back room with clearance items and found this treasure...


What a surprise to find a gorgeous old stained glass window in amongst the sale items! (Note the lamp with a sale sign on it in front of the window!!! LOL!

It was so wonderful to be able to get up close enough to touch and get a good look at the construction. I only had the camera from my cell phone so the pictures aren't the greatest...I may go back with my good camera to get some good close ups. This window was constructed in about 1904 with many others and came from a church in Boston that was torn down 30 years ago. The pictures depict the Nativity. I thought it was so gorgeous!

I am almost finished stitching my newest design model...about 2 more hours to go! Stay tuned later this week for some teaser pictures!

Stitch Needlebook Free Design from Lacey Thread Designs

Stitch Needlebook Free Design

It is my pleasure to bring to you a free design from Lacey Thread Designs. I hope you enjoy stitching it as much as I did! It is for a needle book to be folded in thirds and tied with ribbon. I stitched it with Caron Waterlilies #124 Sunglow, but it will be lovely in any variegated thread you choose.

Clicking on the picture above will take you to my Flickr page where you can download and save the file. Happy stitching!

A couple more pictures from Victoria

Here are a couple more pictures that Thea took while I was at her house this weekend. I love the one of the two of us stitching together...


Happy stitches everyone!

Weekend Getaway in Victoria, BC

I had a great weekend in Victoria. The sun broke through just for a few hours, and Thea (of The Victoria Sampler) and I enjoyed a great stroll through downtown, even stopping to enjoy Darth Vader playing the violin! Quite exciting, LOL! We did a lot of walking, visiting, stitching, a bit of shopping at Murchie's and The Button Boutique, more visiting and eating and stitching to our hearts content. What a wonderful way to spend the weekend! Here's an aerial view of Seattle as I was flying over to Victoria...it was a lovely morning! I hope to have more pictures to share in the next couple of days!

It's been a very busy two months here at our house. Rather than explain too much in detail, here is a quick pictorial history of our lives in the past couple of months:

In October, Lizzie attended her first formal homecoming dance with Josiah Tognazzini. They made quite the gorgeous couple.

On Halloween my granddaughters dressed as a duck and a dinosaur! (Gracie on left, Alana on right.November found John still working on getting the house ready to sell. Here he is drying paint with a hair dryer on a cold day.In November Amy and I took the girls to Disney on Ice. We had a spectacular time!

November was also Gracie and Alana's birthdays, so we celebrated with a joint party this year.


December was Silas' first birthday.

He REALLY liked his birthday cake!
Silas and his mommy Alli. I love this picture!

We took the kids to my office Christmas party, and they got to visit with Santa. Silas seems quite comfortable with him!
We celebrated an early Christmas as a family because the granddaughters were going to be with their daddy on Christmas. Here we are after cracking open the poppers and ready to have dinner. From left to right, Allison, me, Lizzie, Josiah (Lizzie's friend), John, Chad (Amy's friend), Gracie, Alana and Amy. Christopher took the picture.
On Christmas Day my whole family gathered at my parents house for dinner (except for Amy's girls). We make quite a group now.

With all the activity around here, the holidays, and getting ready to sell the house, I haven't gotten as much stitching done as I would have liked, but I am almost finished with stitching of another design and then I can get a couple more leaflets ready for publication.

John is doing much better these days, and seems to be back to being himself except for some intermittent memory problems, such as remembering a name or a word he wants to use. I am thankful that his personality has returned to the "old John" and we are hopeful that the memory problems will heal themselves with time also. We are so pleased with his recovery from the stroke and thankful that he has made the progress that he has.

I am studying for the final portion of my General Insurance Designation exam this winter, it will be so good to have it all finished. This is something I am doing for my personal development at work, and not a work requirement. I have a great employer who puts a high value on personal development!

I hope everyone has a blessed New Year.

*****I spend so much time on Facebook now that I often forget to update this blog. I must get better at that! If anyone is interested and would like to friend me on Facebook, my user name is Connie Kirkman Dunton.*****