The year in review...

It is amazing that 2005 will be over in a few hours. By the time most of you read this, it will be long over. I am challenged to write my Finished in 2005 list by all the other lists I see on Stitching Bloggers...so here is what I accomplished this year:

Heirloom Homecoming Sampler by Victoria Sampler
Stitched for Thea, dark colors, appears in her leaflet.
All Hearts Come Home for Christmas, by Victoria Sampler
Stitched for Thea, choose thread colors for kits
For Always Wedding Sampler, by Victoria Sampler
Stitched for Thea, choose thread colors for kits
Christmas Treasures by Victoria Sampler
Stitched the ornaments for Thea for her class
Two Christmas Stocking tops for new son-in-law and granddaughter
pattern from CS&CC, 1985
Ring Bearers Pillow, my own unpublished design
for Alli and Chris' wedding in September
My Heart's Garden, my own unpublished design
Hardanger, pulled thread, silk ribbon
Sunglow Frame, (working name) my own unpublished design
Hardanger, pulled thread

I don't even want to think about my WIP sitting in my basket. Too many, too little time! My current piece in my rotation is My Child's Garden, my own unpublished design, meant to be a birth sampler for Alana.

Considering the huge changes in my life this year, I am amazed I accomplished as much as I did. Granted, 95% of my finished pieces happened BEFORE I started working full time in August. Then there was the wedding in September, our trip to Hawaii in October, Alana's birth in November and of course, Christmas in December.

Then there is my wish list. Currently, in my "I want to start ASAP" are the Christmas ornaments in the Just Cross Stitch ornaments issues by Shepherd's Bush....the series about the Christmas story. Also, I received G is for Grandma by Victoria Sampler for Christmas from a special friend, and I am longing to get it started too, since I am a Grandma now!!!

Happy New Year everyone!

Holiday Week musings....

We had a lovely Christmas. We are blessed with an ever enlarging family, and now our first Christmas with a grandchild. It was truly good. I decided to cut back on the actual number of gifts given this year, and concentrated on one "expensive" item (in other words, worth more than $50) per person. It was fun, as we had fewer gifts to open, so we took our time, and one person opened one gift and every one ooohh and ahhhed, then the next person, etc. I video taped the whole morning with my new DVD camera, and only realized later that I had no still photos of the morning, only movies!! I may have to try to capture a few frames on the computer for the memory books. Just need to figure out how!!! Then we joined the extended family at my parents house for dinner and more presents.

So I am taking this week off work. It is so nice to sleep late, and stay in my PJ's as long as I desire. My Christmas cards are churning off the printer as I type, and will be in the mail by this afternoon. So, actually, maybe they are New Years cards...but I am getting them done!!!

My granddaughter is coming to visit this afternoon. YES!!

I am leaving in two weeks for a weeks training in San Deigo. Computer training in San Diego. A week by myself in San Diego. Paid for by the credit union, in San Diego. Did I mention I get to go to San Diego? Not that I am excited or anything! Sunshine, blue sky and three needlework shops all in the same city!!! Is that heaven or what??? I hope to have a stash list when I come back! (of course, and know alot more about the computer stuff too!!)

I did find a couple of the Name Christmas trees by M designs in the Just Cross stitch ornaments magazine. Then there was a freebie on the website too, so I have three to choose from. I just need to get to a shop and find some good darker colored overdyes...everything in my stash is too light and spring like for a Christmas design.

Merry Christmas!!!

May you all have a blessed Christmas!

I can't believe how quickly the last two weeks have gone. I had such good intentions of keeping up with this blog, and baking cookies, and watching Christmas movies and here it is, Christmas Eve, and I am just now getting around to it. There's a batch of shortbread cookies in the oven, the pies are ready to be made, and I am finally sitting down to this.

In reflecting on the last 5 months since I started this blog, I am amazed at how dependent I have become on reading the blogs of friends and fellow stitchers. I check in at least once day for a few minutes to catch up on my reading, and miss it dreadfully if I don't. To think that 6 months ago I had no idea that a "regular" person like myself could even HAVE a blog!!!

Which leads me to the conclusion that perhaps I need a companion blog to this one just for talking about my new granddaughter! I sit down to write and she seems to be at the forefront of what I want to talk about!!!

On to stitching news, I actually was able to get Alana's stocking sewed together, but as you might guess, there is presently no name on it! I have plans to sit down in a few minutes and at least get her name stitched on, even if I don't have time for any further pretty things. Two new family members this year (Christopher in September and Alana in November) to stitch stockings for!!!

I have decided this week that I REALLY like the M Designs Name Trees. I need to put them on my list this year and get some done before next Christmas. http://www.m--designs.com/personaltrees.html. I think that somewhere I have one of the little freebies that she has done, I haven't had time to go searching yet. Perhaps one of the JCS ornaments issues? I can't remember. It would be fun to be able to done one for each family name, but I don't think that will happen in one year!!! LOL!

Well, it's time to prepare for my day. My big girls and their hubbys will be with their hubby's families this evening. John, Lizzie and I will have dinner with my parents and then go look at Christmas lights. Tomorrow morning all my kids will be here for presents, then we will all join the rest of the extended family (22 of us this year) for dinner and presents at my parents home. My niece also had a baby this year, and my unmarried sister has a new beau, who is bringing his 12 year daughter, so the table is full. We are thankful. Lizzie is quite delighted of perhaps soon having a cousin just her age. She was the one and only in her age group for the last 10 years!

Merry Christmas to all. And in the words of Tiny Tim, God Bless Us, every one.

Saturday Musings..

John and I slept in late this morning, it was close to 10 before we got up...very unusual for us. But such a nice treat. I cleaned and organized our bedroom and bath, and John did the dishes and vacuumed the house. Then I took Amy, without the baby, and we had our nails done and stopped for a latte at our coffee place. It's been a good day. John and I leave soon for my office Christmas Dinner...mmmh, prime rib I think. Of course any food is good when someone else does the cooking!!!

I've been busy this week trying to get into the Christmas mode. I actually got all the stocking stuffers purchased this week. I normally don't get that done until the 23rd, so I am feeling on top of things. Just wish the big presents were taken care of now. With working full time, I just don't have time to run all over town comparing prices and making decisions. I need one store, a good list, and even better prices. I have a place in mind. Hope I can take care of everyone there.

In the background I can hear the television...Dorothy is singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow. They must have the Wizard of Oz on tonight. We bought a great Christmas DVD this week, the Polar Express. Amy and Max watched it a couple weeks ago and said we MUST see it. It is very good. We are also looking forward to going to the theatre and seeing Chronicles of Narnia. Alli and Chris saw it last night and said it is fantastic. Lizzie and I have tickets to see The Nutcraker Ballet next Saturday afternoon. It has been about 11 years since I have been to the Nutcracker, so I am looking forward to it.

Well, as Thea said in the comments of my last post, we no longer have snow, but it has been very cold. If there were any moisture to come down, it would be snow. I am longing for the warmth of Hawaii!!!

Here is a picture of John and I with Alana this week! LOL. I am a besotted grandmother! until next time....

We have Snow!

I woke up this morning to three inches of beautiful snow! It is a perfect day for staying inside, drinking cocoa and stitching.

Too bad I have to leave for work in an hour!

This is really an unusual occurrance for Western Washington. Last year we did not receive any snow at all. I hope it stays until tomorrow!

A change of scene

I got bored with my old template for this blog, so I decided to change it. But I did something pretty stupid, and forgot to back up my old changes, and I had to redo them all again. Grrrrr. Darn it anyway! And I thought I was being so efficient!

On a brighter note, Alana is home from the hospital and doing very well. Her bilirubin count had dropped 4 points in one day (which is amazing I am told), so Amy and Max were able to leave the hospital this morning. I rushed home at lunch long enough to kiss her and change her diaper. Life is good!

Snow has been predicted for Western Washington tonight. A rare happening for us, especially in November. I sort of hope that we get some, I love the beauty, but I hate to have to drive to work in it.

So, what do you think of this template? If I change it again, I have learned my lesson about saving my changes to another file!!! LOL!

Being a grandma is fun...but

it sure pulls at the heart when things don't go exactly right. Alana is back in the hospital dealing with lethargy/dehydration/jaundice, which is all a vicious catch-22 cycle. Her weight dropped to about 5.75 pounds. Its been rough on everyone having her back in the hospital, especially Amy. We did not think that she would tolerate laying in a bed all day long as she seemed to only sleep well when being held, but she has cooperated very well. Her bilirubin count is coming down and she is eating more each feeding. I hope that the count will be low enough today that she will be released tomorrow.

I know that it is probably grandma prejudice, but both Amy and I are marvelling how as she looses that newborn battered look she gets prettier every day.

On the stitching front, I am really excited about the baby sampler that Amy and I are working on. Amy finished all the kloster blocks and smyrna stitches I had given her to do and did a marvelous job for a first timer. I am really proud of her. I started doing some pulled thread stitches inside the kloster hearts, and then haven't been able to pick it up since Monday. Seems like holding my granddaughter is more fun right now. Who woulda thought?

She's arrived!

Announcing the birth of Alana Jo Rheinhardt, November 21st, 8:40 pm, 6 pounds, 7.5 ounces, 19 inches long. Lots and and lots of LONG black hair. Mom and Baby are doing great. She is a beauty!!! More soon!

Teaching Hardanger

Amy was here spending the night with us Friday night and I showed her a small piece that I had designed last summer called My Heart's Garden with hardanger, pulled thread and ribbon flowers. She absolutely loved it and asked if we could take the same idea and design and stitch a birth sampler for Alana (due to be born November 21st). I said sure, so we sat down with the sketch book and drew up some things she wanted in the sampler. Amy said she would like to help stitch, so I pulled out some hardanger instructions and began to teach her how to do kloster blocks. She caught on very well, and after charting the first couple rows of the new baby sampler on the computer, I gave her the fabric and thread and got her started stitching the hardanger hearts...this will be a special sampler with both Mom and Grandma stitching and designing! I think the name should be something along the lines of My Child's Garden. Wish I had thought to take a picture of Amy stitching away on it!!!

They are going to induce Amy tomorrow, Monday the 21st. We are all so excited to finally see Alana!

Quiet Rainy weekend

A friend gently reminded me that I had not updated my blog this weekend. So I am here to update. Thank you Von.

This has been a very quiet weekend. No baby has been born yet, so we are still hoping it will be very soon. I actually pulled out a WIP yesterday, and got a little done on it...A is for Angel now has a couple more rows done. I had stitched the little A's over one in the armadillo row, and took them out again. The thread Thea used did not show up on my darker fabric, I could hardly see the little stitches to make sure they were crossed! I need something darker that will show up well on the dark fabric, but haven't made a final decision what to use. Dark green maybe.

I've spent a lot of time in front of the TV this weekend stitching and watching DVD's. I feel rested and ready for work this week. My direct supervisor has quit and moved to San Diego, (to be nearer his family) so I am going to apply for his job. I hope that I get this promotion, I am ready for more responsibility. I was asked to function as "lead" while they are going through the decision process. I hope that is a good sign!!!

We have had rainy cold weather here in the Pacific Northwest all weekend. I am wishing I could just bop over to Maui for a few hours to get warmed up again. John and I both realized how much less our bodies hurt while we were there...I think that we may end up being snow birds in about 14 years from now. If we can feel it at our ages now, I can only imagine how it will affect us in the future!!!

A quiet weekend

This was a nice quiet weekend which I enjoyed very much. I purposely tried to do as little as possible. I even got some stitching done. I EVEN finished the piece I was stitching on!!! Not that it was anything huge or involved but just the fact that I finished a piece was extremely gratifying! I had been promising my new son-in-law that I would finally put his name on his Christmas stocking, so that has been done! Yippee!! As I was stitching tho, I realized that my soon to be born granddaughter will be here for Christmas too. I guess I better keep going! Next Friday is Veteran's Day, and the office is closed, so I hope to relax and stitch that day also, if we aren't in the midst of seeing Alana being born!

Back to Reality...

Ahh, Maui was magical, marvelous, mountainous, and any other descriptive word you can think of beginning with "M". After our initial shock at how different it was than Oahu, we quickly settled in to falling in love with the place. I never experienced that feeling on Oahu, tho I think the beaches and turquoise water at Oahu are much prettier. But Maui has captured me. We even bought a time share condo, fee simple, so we own it forever. Now we will always have an excuse to go back. As if I need an excuse!!! Pictures are posted on my picture page, see the link in the left column. I spent many hours on this beach in this picture. I hated to leave. I will go back!

I did not do any stitching at all. I never even felt the hankering to take it out of the bag. Pretty unusual for me. I found a small stitching shop in Lahaina, but they had mainly Hawaiian quilting and needlepoint supplies. I bought a small kit for a Hawaiian quilting design (potholder size) that will be pretty when done.

Hawaii here we come!

We are packing madly...and plan on leaving the house at 6:00 AM for our week on Maui. Boy, am I ever ready to have a vacation! It is really nice to have Chris and Alli staying here taking care of the cats and the house. We won't have to worry about anything. It didn't really hit me that we were leaving until this morning at work. I had a very hard time focusing on things I needed to do.
We had a baby shower for Amy last night. She received so many nice things. Here is a pic of my girls, my mom and my sister Nancy. With baby Alana, it is 4 generations pictured. My grandmothers both passed away before I had children, so these 4 generations are very special to me. We will have to have a very nice one done when the baby is born. Alana is the first daughter, of a first daughter (Amy), of a first daughter (Connie), of a first daughter (my mom, Marge). So this baby really is special. (Too bad my maternal grandmother was a second child!!)

I have been trying to decide for two weeks what stitching project to take with me to Hawaii. I didn't want anything big and bulky, so that ruled out my projects on stretcher bars. I had a hankering to some hardanger with variegated thread, probably my very favorite thing to stitch, so I pulled out an old pattern from Emie Bishop of one of her small Christmas hardanger angels. EXCEPT I am going to stitch her in Waterlilies "Parfait". Pink and lavendar and all sorts of lucious color. This will be a fun experiment to see how my parfait angel turns out! Last time we went to Hawaii I took along an angel pattern from Thea, so I am into angels when I travel I guess!!

Aloha, and talk to you in a week.

I wish I could think of a catchy title...

but my brain just won't come up with anything wonderful. It's been two weeks since my last post, but I feel like I really don't have much to talk about. Life has been very busy, but nothing very extraordinary has been going on. The ladies group at our church had a baby shower for Amy last Saturday, and she received some very sweet things. I am having a shower here for her at my house on Thursday...not very sure when I will have the time to get ready for it!!! Then Friday night I will be packing like mad as we are leaving very early Saturday morning for Maui. I can hardly wait to hit the beach with my sunscreen and book.

I haven't done any stitching in two weeks. I haven't felt like doing any stitching in two weeks!! I have been printing pictures off and on for the wedding scrapbook, and last Saturday I made a "Tag book" with an autumn theme. It turned out really cute, I'd like to make some more with other themes. I downloaded some pictures from the internet of fall leaves and trees and pumpkins, etc. and used those with lots of autumn stickers, sayings and papers. It was gratifying to get a whole project done in less than two hours! I need to decide on a project to take with me to Hawaii, but nothing seems to fit my fancy right now.

I have cross stitched Christmas stockings with names for my three girls in years past, and when Max joined the family I stitched one for him too. The last two years Christopher (Alli's new hubby) has had to make do with a blank stocking...I had told him I would stitch his name when they actually got married! So he is not letting me forget that this year he gets his name on his stocking!!! I guess I had better get busy if I am to be true to my word!!!! I wonder how many strange looks I would get if I did Christmas stitching on a hot day in Maui!! LOL!

Amy was back in the hospital today with contractions. She is at 33 1/2 weeks now, so they gave her 2 shots of terbutiline (Spelling?) to stop the contractions and ordered her to bed for the next two weeks. After that, they are going to let nature run it's course. The poor girl is getting quite uncomfortable now, so she is feeling ready to have the baby anytime. I hope that she waits until we get back from Hawaii!!

Sunday Evening

It is now Sunday evening, and I find myself feeling a bit better tonight. I have spent the last 3 hours going through wedding pictures, editing some of them, and started printing some for scrapbook pages. It still seems to be an overwhelming task with so many photos to go through. So I picked a few themes tonight to work on, i.e. their first dance, cutting the cake, formal pictures of the cake, working on wedding invitations, at the tux shop, etc. It's starting to come together.

I worked on Toccata for a few minutes Friday nite, but didn't get very far. One more square is all. I am also crocheting a sweater for the baby, so I have been concentrating on it. Our ladies group at church is having shower for Amy on the 15th, and then we are having one for her here at the house on the 19th. It won't be long now until I can kiss my granddaughter hello! I can hardly wait!

I have been enjoying going through the Just Cross Stitch ornament issue this week. There are a couple that I will do. I think, but I can't remember for sure, that I stitched the model for the Humour ornament by Victoria Sampler....it's been awhile. I know I stitched the large piece with three of the ornaments on it...maybe Thea can refresh my memory!!! LOL!

Well, it's back to the office tomorrow morning. The house is in fairly good order, lesson plans have been done, and the spiced cider on the stove is smelling very inviting! I think I'll go have some!!

Post-event let down

Weird sounding title for a post, but it seems to be what I am feeling this week. I have finally gotten the wedding done, all the organizing and busy work done (Except for the scrapbooking!!); and gotten Lizzie ready pretty much for homeschool this year, and now with nothing pressing on me to get done yesterday, I am starting to realize that I have the "blues". At least I have been through this often enough to know that if I give myself some time, I will eventually feel better and regain my enthusiasm for life. But today, I am just plain tired and irritable. Nothing that normally brings me joy even appeals to me. So I hunker down and ride it out, and my friends wonder why I have been so quiet. Be patient, for this too shall pass. In three weeks we leave for a week on Maui, and my usual mindset for vacation is seeing everybit of everything there is to see. This time, I just want to find a chair on the beach and stare at the ocean. Considering I do alot of emotional healing at the beach, maybe this is just what I need!

My biggest question this week, how does one whittle down 600 wedding pictures into just one album??

Geocaching

Here is a link to our friend Gary's blog...he took the girls geo-caching while they were here for the wedding...Lizzie had a great time, and was quite proud of the fact that she found one of the cache's.....check it out for a fun story: http://www.garypaulson.net/archives/olympia-geocaching-afternoon-geocaches/

Week of Vacation

Well, the kids came home from their honeymoon at 4 AM Sunday morning, after being unable to find a hotel in Wenatchee Saturday night. They will be staying here with us until they can find a place to rent. We had Chris' family over last night for opening presents and coffee, and we had a wonderful time. They were so pleased with all their gifts... some dear friends (you know who you are) gave them the sheets and comforter that they really wanted, so they immediately headed upstairs to make their bed. It looks so cute!

This week I am on vacation from work. I was so sick all last week, and having to deal with issues with Lizzie's schooling, (as well as recovering from the wedding) that I really need this to recover and try and get my house back in some semblance of order. Today I have some errands to run. The kids have promised to clear out Alli's old room so that I can have my computer room back. I let alot of organizing/dejunking slide this summer because of the wedding, so now all this clutter and mess is bugging me big time.

Saturday night I sat down to watch TV for the first time in ages, and watched three cute TV movies on ABC family. I pulled out a baby sweater pattern for my soon to be born granddaughter, and crocheted about two inches of it. The baby weight yarn looks so nice and delicate, but boy, does it ever take a long time to feel like I am making progress. I love baby sweaters...I always have for some reason. Even with my babies, the little sweaters were my favorite item of clothing. I have already bought two sweaters for this baby, but couldn't resist making one myself. I have some cross stitch items I want to do for her too...so I really need to get busy.

I hope that this evening I will get the balance of the wedding pictures from Chris' family, so that I can begin printing the best ones for Allison and Chris's wedding scrapbook. Alli looked at me kind of funny last night and said, "you ARE giving the book to us and not keeping it for yourself, aren't you!" I laughed and said "of course, but I reserve the right to photocopy the best pages!!"

I found a blog page Saturday that will redesign your blog page, actually make it very personalized, doing all the code writing, etc. I looked at some of their sample pages and was very impressed. The cost is very reasonable (about $40 for a complex page), so I am thinking about talking to them. Don't be surprized if you see some template changes one of these days!

directions to photos

I've been asked how to get to my photo page....look over on the left in the column and with the links there is a link called "my photos". That will take you directly there. I hope to get more photos posted when we received the pix from the photographers. Enjoy!!!

The day was perfect....

and the wedding could not have gone more beautifully! Our girls all were gorgeous, and the bride was absolutely radiant. You can go to my photo album page to see all the pictures, but here are a couple to whet your appetite!

Autumn surprize

It is absolutely gorgeous day here...no breeze, brilliant blue sky, perfect temperature. The days of September are my favorite for the weather here in the Pacific Northwest. I was taking a little tour of my yard this morning, and glanced at my apple tree. I could hardly believe it! It was blooming! In my seven years of growing this tree, I have never seen this happen before! what a nice surprise.....

The wedding is upon us. The rehearsal is this evening. I have taken the next days off work so that I can finish the last minute preparations!

Toccata, 9/1/05

Finishing Touches

Well, tonight we put the finishing touches on Alli's wedding dress...I stitched a little loop to pull up her train for the reception and snipped all the extra threads, tightened a few beads. I think that she is ready to go...even after the dress came back from the professional pressing, it still had a few wrinkles in it, and they hadn't tightened any of the beads. They had the dress for 4 weeks, and did not even begin the pressing until late afternoon of the day it was to be picked up. Alli was quite disgusted with the bridal shop and wanted to go wring some necks. I even had to wash a spot out of the front of the dress. Even with all that, she is going to be a gorgeous bride. I went to the store and bought a steamer so that we can do the last minute wrinkles. It's all happening so quickly now.

Saturday Afternoon Bridal Shower

We had a wonderful time this afternoon at Allison's Bridal Shower. It started out as a cool cloudy day, with rain in the forecast, but by noon the sun was shining and it became quite warm. There were about 20 people that attended, and Alli received so many nice things, including about 7 nighties...enough for a different one each day of the week!!! Only two more weeks until the wedding! Here is a picture of Alli, her new mother in law to be, Pattie, sitting next to her, Pattie's mom (Grandma Judy) next to Lizzie, (in the middle) and my Mom (Grandma Marge) and myself in the back. Amy had not arrived yet when we took the picture, so here is one of the three girls together. It was a very fun day!

adjusting

What I miss most about not working part time any longer is that I no longer have the space or time to be reflective, to pray, to study and learn, to process, and come to terms with what is going on in my life. I am finding Monday through Friday is a constant whirl of activity, with hardly a chance to breath. I hope that after the wedding that things will quiet down enough to connect with the inner me again. I am so much happier and at peace when I can take the time for "me". So it is off to work.

Sunday afternoon

I am feeling quite proud of myself today. I signed up for and was approved to be part of the Stitching Bloggers ring. That fact authorizes a person to put a little link on your blog page, linking to the ring. Well, that "little link" is about 7 full lines of code that needs to be inserted in to the template page with all the other code! After much trial and error, I figured out how to insert this code. Wow, it worked, except there were alot of extra characters on either side of the words, and it wasn't exactly where I wanted it on the page. Much more trial and error, with absolutely no instructions, and I figured out where in the template to put it to have it show up on my blog in the correct position, AND how to get rid of the extra characters!!! Major accomplishment as I have NEVER done this before. So I got really brave and decided to modify the code I had and insert a link to my pictures web page. It took a lot of fiddling, but I did it!!!! And then I found a book on the web on how to do a blog page on blogger.com. Of course I had to order it, this is getting to be lots of fun!!!

We went to the ocean yesterday, and I spent a glorious 3 hours on the beach...what a beautiful day. Lizzie swam with a friend....but I didn't even wade this time, the water was hurtfully cold...usually in August I can at least wade. Still, it was a great afternoon, I was sorry to see it end.

Life changes

I had the oddest experience last night, my mother gave me a book on what it is to be a grandparent. Reading parenting books is something I have done before, but never this. I remember thinking, this is sooooo strange. Amy is at 25 weeks today, and my granddaughter seems to be quite healthy and active. I got to feel her kicking for the first time this week. We are all so excited for her to be born!!!

The countdown has begun!!!

The wedding is only three weeks away! AND I started working full time this week. I am feeling overwhelmed by the demands on my time....thank goodness I can unwind with some stitching! I even had a 15 minute chair massage at the office today...wish it had been longer!

I had picked up the pattern for Toccata by The Drawn Thread while on vacation last month, and so last weekend decided to get started on it. I did not care for the colors in the pattern, so I went through my stash and chose colors that suited me. It is working up nicely and is a nice feeling of accomplishment when I can get a section done in just the tiny bit of time I have to sit down these days. This is my first pattern (other than my own designs) that I have worked on lately that hasn't been from The Victoria Sampler...Sorry Thea, but I almost feel like a traitor!!!!

Garden Stitching

Some of my favorite designs by Victoria Sampler are the garden bellpulls. Here are just three of them that I have stitched. Of these three, Butterfly Garden is my favorite! I have been working on designing a garden design of my own...but it is different than these, it has lots of hardanger and is square...this design is coming together very easily, or as in the words of Sally Field, I think it likes me!!!

This week has been very busy with wedding preparations for Allison and Chris's wedding. I can see that this is going to be the pace around here for the next couple of months. I am trying to talk Alli into having a picture taken of her and Chris to use on the wedding programs, but she is resistant as she hates having her picture taken. I asked her what she was planning on doing to avoid pictures on her wedding day. She said "well, that will be different, I'll be beautiful that day!" Isn't that the truth, that for at least one day in her life, every woman thinks she is beautiful?

Victoria Sampler

I have the greatest privilege to be a small part of The Victoria Sampler. I have been working for Thea (pictured) for about 5 years now, as a stitcher, and over the course of that time we have become dear friends. Thea is one of the loveliest people I know, kind, sweet, generous and always encouraging. Thank you Thea for allowing me to be a part of your life and The Victoria Sampler! She has a great webpage that is updated bi-monthly with all her new designs and news. Check it out: www.victoriasampler.com . Thea has continually challenged me to improve and grow in my stitching abilities, and is even encouraging and "mentoring" me in beginning to design a few pieces of my own. And the other ladies that work in her office are equally as lovely, Lisa and Cathy are delightful to work with and a joy to know. What a wonderful group of people to work with. I am so blessed!!!

My daughter Allison's wedding is in less than two months, September 10th to be exact. I am having to face the challenge of getting myself into wedding mode...which has been hard for me to do for some reason...only because of life, NOT because I object to the wedding!!! GRIN. I have designed and stitched a ring pillow (even tho Alli and Chris are not having a ring bearer), but she doesn't know yet it is for her wedding. I hope that she will be agreeable to just having the pillow sit on the altar with the rings attached. Or perhaps Lizzie will carry it in as part of her junior bridesmaid duties. I think part of the reason I am having a hard time getting into the mode is that I am also facing three other huge changes in my life in the next months. I am going to work full time days in August after working part time evenings for the last 9 years. Lizzie will be starting in a regular school after having been homeschooled for her whole life. And our oldest daughter is expecting a baby in November!!! Huge changes! And so many of them all at the same time!