Happy New Year!!!!

As I write this post, I am acutely aware that those of you in Australia/New Zealand have already celebrated and are probably fast asleep in bed. We still have 8 hours of the old year here in the Pacific Northwest. Amazingly, we have had sunshine today, which has been a very welcome break from all the nasty winter weather we have been having!!

So, to those of us yet to do the countdown, Happy New Year!

We had a very nice Christmas. It seemed like a long holiday with the three day weekend, but it was a very enjoyable time. Here is a picture of John and I opening gifts Christmas afternoon at my parent's house. (That is a movie camera in my hand!) This week I had to work, so I tried in the evenings to clean up the mess around here and put all the Christmas decor away. Yesterday I boiled up the turkey carcass for soup and ended up with two large pots of turkey vegetable soup. We ate one for dinner and then I put the other one in the freezer for another day.

I also spent quite a bit of time catching up on everyone's blog posts this week. Ann had some wonderful links to blogs with finishing techniques...wow, thanks Ann for these links! I have enjoyed them so much. In fact, I found one project that I absolutely love (see picture) on a blog from France....isn't this fantastic? Please check out the website here for more pictures. I wish I could have one of these...but I am not sure when I would find the time to do it. I hope this dear person doesn't mind that I "borrowed" her picture to post here. I give all credit to this stitcher for a beautiful project.

I have been jotting down a few goals for myself...I decided just setting some goals for January was enough for now. I know I would be overwhelmed and never finish if I tried to do the whole year!!! My stitching goals are to finish two small stitching projects, and begin charting my newest design. If I can get going on that I will be so happy with myself!!! The charting program I have is fairly unstable, and so I may be forced to invest in an upgrade before I can get very far with this one!

I am very impressed with Von's 21 finishes for 2006. I didn't think I can count that many at all, but when I went back and looked, I think I have 19. Granted, most of them are VERY small, but finishes none the less! If I can manage two smalls a month for 2007 I should be able to surpass that number easily. I do have another dress I need to get smocked for my granddaughter before she outgrows it.....maybe I better revise that goals list a little bit, LOL!!!

For some reason I am having troubles getting this post to double space the paragraphs...does anyone have the blogger fix for this?

Happy New Year all my friends and family.

Twas the Night before Christmas...

and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. (well, thankfully, no mice, but the cats are bouncing around, Lizzie is taking a shower, John is cleaning the turkey, and I have been baking all day!) The stockings were hung by the chimney with care (well, actually, this year, they are laying on the dining room table, I am too tired to put nails in the wall to hold them as we have no chimney in this house!!), with the hopes that Saint Nicolas soon would be there (well, by the looks of the pile of presents under our tree, he has been here twice over!!!). The children were nestled all snug in their beds (are you kidding me? Not in this house!) while visions of sugar plums danced in their heads....

Well, so much for the story book Christmas here in the Dunton Household. Actually, it is quite a lovely Christmas Eve. The rain is pouring down in true Northwest Christmas tradition (having only seen 2 white Christmases in all my years, this rain is the norm). The pies are baked and ready for tomorrow. John and I will bake the turkey and do the potatoes and dressing, and take them over to Mom and Dad's for dinner. This is our gift to them this year, doing the dinner for the 20 of us. Our house is not big enough for all of us, hence the turkey will go with us. Our married daughters are with their in-laws this evening, and tomorrow morning bright and early we will gather here for the immediate family Christmas...presents!!!!! It promises to be a lovely day with our loved ones.

So to all of you, my blogging friends, I hope your Christmas is full of blessings, family and love! Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!!!!

Enough with the weather already!!

We thought November was bad weather wise. But this takes the cake!! I don't suppose that the international news has picked it up and probably was just a tiny blurb on the national news, but we were hit very hard Thursday night with the wind storm of the decade. No, the wind storm of the century would be more like it. We had winds of 70 miles per hour for several hours. Trees and limbs are down everywhere in Western Washington, and here are pictures of a couple of them very close to my house. Our kids heard the crack and crash of the tree in the top picture, and were quite freaked out by the noise...this was only 1 block away. It thankfully missed the house where a large family lives, but it took down all the power lines for the neighborhood. We were without power for over 24 hours, and thankfully it has been restored now, but the news reports say there are still over a million people without power just in Washington alone, not counting Oregon. Of course, the fact that this happened a week before Christmas has put a huge damper on celebrations. Stores are closed all over town, traffic lights are on only here and there, causing major traffic jams as people venture out trying to find a place to get warm and eat some hot food. We have had two Christmas parties cancelled. Shopping for presents will not happen this weekend as I had planned. We are still alive with no damage to our house and cars, so we are blessed!!! Suddenly shopping doesn't seem very important anymore! I didn't have to go to work Friday, as the whole town where my job is at is in the dark, and it is still uncertain if the power will be restored before Monday. I am thankful for a warm house now and a full tank of gas in the car, and plenty of food to eat. Life is good, and not to be taken for granted!!!

I managed to finish Snow Faces by Just Nan this week before the storm hit, and I am pleased with the way it turned out. I need to work on my granddaughter's Christmas stocking, since I only managed to get her name on it last year, and nothing else...and I will hopefully find some time to work on the newest Shepherd's Bush ornament from 2006 JCS.

Another week closer to Christmas!

It's been a busy week at our house. I have started a little Christmas shopping and decorating, but just haven't felt like putting much time into it yet. I did have two quick finishes this week...the Santa design I showed partially finished two weeks ago, and another sweet design. I found it in the online magazine, the December issue of The Gift of Stitching had some free ornaments, and this one called Catch a Falling Flake caught my eye. I put a silver snowflake charm on it instead of stitching the big snowflakes. I am really pleased with the way it turned out. We are having a cubicle decorating contest at work, so I have decorated my cubicle in snowflakes and snowbabies, and this ornament fit perfectly with my theme. It now graces my

computer monitor! I need to remember to take a picture!

I am working on a small ornament for a Christmas gift called Snow Faces by Just Nan...I'll post a picture next time..I don't have enough finished yet to look at!!!

Another busy week awaits...tomorrow all the ladies from church are meeting at Olive Garden for a Christmas celebration. Tuesday Lizzie has piano lessons, and my holiday party at work. Thursday is my hubby's company party, and Friday I will babysit Alana while Amy and Max are at Max's company party. Then Saturday is a party at church...and on it goes. And sometime in there I need to finish my shopping!!! Thank goodness the weather has mellowed out, and is not being an obstacle like last month!!

A gift to the community

Every year the church we attend lovingly maintains and presents to the community a life size nativity scene that is called Christmas Island. This beautiful creation was the handwork of a man in Olympia who created and maintained these figures. Each year they were floated on an island (actually a barge) in the middle of Capital Lake near the Washington State Capitol Bldg. People came from miles around to view this marvelous display.

Several years ago, the family of the man who created this masterpiece were unable to continue with the cost and time of maintaining this display, and so offered it to our church. We now set it up outside our building the first weekend of December and it is lit every night until the weekend after Christmas. People still come from miles around to enjoy the scene, and lovingly reminisce with their children.."I remember when Christmas Island was really an island..."

Last night we had the official lighting of Christmas Island, and while it is not nearly so wonderful as in person, I hope you enjoy the glimpse of our gift to the community, preserving the past, and presenting the good news of the Nativity.

Later Note: As Amy Sue reminded me, Christmas Island was on display for many years in the corner of the parking lot at a local mall. I believe the owners of the mall helped pay the expenses of maintainence and the electricity. Then the mall was closed, and it was after that the family of the man who created it offered it to our church.

Oh the weather outside is frightful....

I guess I can't escape the fact any longer that it is almost winter. We were greeted with a smattering of snow this morning when we got out of bed. There is still some kind of moisture coming down from the sky, but I can't really tell if it is tiny rain or snow. My thermometer says it is 34 degrees F (I think about 1 degree C) so it still could be a frozen rain. Good day to stay inside and stitch. Of course, we have church, then lunch, and I get the privilege of seeing my DD#1 and Granddaughter this afternoon too.


Lizzie just informed me it is rain. The snow is not melting though.


I spent most of our long holiday weekend in front of the television stitching. I had a hankering for good Christmas movies all weekend, but the television networks weren't cooperating until last night. I watched a couple of corny Santa family movies, but as I was stitching a Santa for a Christmas gift, it fit the bill just fine. Tomorrow is back to work.



Which reminds me, I still LOVE my new job. Did anyone see in the papers that a couple of airline attendants were fired for disclosing on their blogs which airline they worked for? Hmmm. I wonder if I should go back and delete some entries from last fall, just to be safe???


Santa is coming along nicely...hope to have him finished today.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The table is set, the turkey is roasting in the oven, the salad is chilling in the frig, and when the rest of the family arrives we will celebrate all we are thankful for...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Finished, this time with clean snow!!!

I finished up First Snow this evening, a couple days longer than I planned, but I am much more happy with the results. I picked out the yellow snow, and restitched it all in Anchor White #1. Much, much better!

We are in for another bad storm tonight, so they are telling us, with winds up to 60 mph. This has certainly been a November to remember weather wise! At least it is almost half over!

Amy has a new post on her blog...check it out!!! In the mean time here is a pix of Alana we took last week at one of her favorite activities, playing the piano!! I am having a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that she will be a year old next Tuesday!!

Well, I am off to pull the threads for a couple Christmas gifts, have a great week everyone!

Yellow Snow

Sounds awful, doesn't it!!!

I had gotten to the snow portion of my First Snow stitching, and used the thread called for by the pattern. Ugh. The pattern calls for Weeks thread "Whitewash". But as you can see (I hope), it looks like a puppy used the tree for doing his duty, and the falling snow looks horrid. I will ripping out these stitches tonight and redoing them in DMC white white!!! You can see the spaces in the branches where the bird buttons will go. Except for the snow, I am very pleased with this piece.

I realized last night that Christmas is about 45 days away, and I had planned on doing some stitching (small pieces) for Christmas presents...ooops, guess I better get busy!!! I have pulled the designs out to inspire me to get going. I am going to do a couple of small Just Nan designs for family members...(Jolly Old Elf and Snow Faces, if you are so inclined to go look them up). I probably won't post pix as I am not sure who will be reading this blog!!! LOL!

I upgraded my blog to the new version of Blogger a few minutes ago, and it only took about 2 seconds to upload this picture. I hope that this means it will be much easier to use than the old version!!!

Wet, wild and windy

Well, we sure didn't decide to ease into winter this year. It has hit us hard and fast, with bitter cold temperatures last week for Halloween, and now the Pineapple Express is bearing down on us, but first we had over 2 inches of rain yesterday!!! The pineapple Express is a weather trough from the Hawaii area that hits about once a year here in the Pacific Northwest, and brings torrents of warm rain (meaning floods) and lots of high winds. A saturated ground before the high winds means the trees are easily uprooted, causing damage to houses and disrupting power. Oh Joy! Well, maybe we will get all the nasty weather done this week, and we will be done for the year. At least I can hope, right?

So, because of the torrential rain yesterday it was a good day to sit under the comforter with a good movie and stitch the afternoon away. I finished Fall into Autumn (horray! I finally have a finish!) and scanned it this time instead of using the camera. The colors are much more true to real life, last weeks post was much too blue. I found the darling leaf bead at Shipwreck Beads last year and thought it was the perfect finishing touch. Which reminds me, it's been along time since I've been out to the store! I need to do that soon!

I think I will work on another small this afternoon, to see if I can make some progress. I have been stitching a freebie by The Drawn Thread called First Snow off and on for about 6 weeks. I found some darling bird buttons at the needlework shop in Victoria, B.C. last summer when I was up visiting Thea that are going to be very sweet.

Wow, lots of links this post to keep y'all busy!!!

Another week gone by...

I struggled with dead batteries in my camera all week. I finally went and bought really good brand new ones Friday, and John accidently put them in the freezer with the frozen food from the store, so these new batteries are only giving me about 10 pictures before they fizzle out too. At least the first pictures I took this time were of the WIP's that I talked about last week. My "Fall into Autumn" is turning out well, I have two more leaves and three acorns to stitch when I finally get around to stitching again. Also here is a picture of my progress on the Lorri Birmingham piece. It's going to be long while I think before this one is ready to grace my dining room table!!!

I also found a very old piece that I stitched when I was pregnant with Amy 25 years ago...it is all done in pearl cotton 8, having to buy all those balls of thread made it a pricey project, even that long ago. When I pulled it out of the closet it had yellowed pretty badly, so I soaked it for about three days in Oxyclean, and as you can see, it looks new again. I am planning on getting it framed for my granddaughter when I can...it's a very large piece, 13 by 16 inches (about 33 by 43 cm).

Its been a busy week. We had Toby cat into the vet a couple times. He caught a bird on Monday and ate most of it, and tore himself up inside swallowing things he shouldn't have swallowed, so by Tuesday he was one sick kitty. I thought he had a bone caught in his throat, so I took him to the emergency vet...one thing led to another, the emergency vet took x-ray after x-ray and decided he needed surgery for bowel obstruction. Well, we love Toby but needed to think about spending big bucks, so we brought him home. The next day he seemed a little better, so we called the Kitty Klinic and they said bring him right in, and even if he needs surgery, it would be only 1/4 of the cost. Nah, he was fine, just had scraped up his insides real bad. We got some antibiotics for him and now he is acting perfectly normal. Sheesh. I will think twice about taking him back to the emergency vet again!!! I hope that he will think twice before he eats a bird again! Is it possible for cats to learn avoidance?

I can hardly believe how quickly time is going by. This month at my new job has just flown by and the weeks are over before I hardly know it. Its hard for me to comprehend that Halloween is this week and before I know it, Thanksgiving will be here. Granddaughter Alana will be one year old in three weeks! Doesn't seem possible!

Quick trip to the Islands

Yesterday my brother Steve, Lizzie and her friend Sabrina and I went up to San Juan Island for my cousin's 50th wedding anniversary party. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, and we had a very nice day. Getting to the islands requires a 2.5 hour drive up to Anacortes, WA, then getting on the ferry for almost a 2 hour ride to San Juan Island. We walked on without the car, since the party was only 4 blocks from the ferry dock in Friday Harbor. Here's a picture of the Harbor from the patio of the party place. We spent about an hour browsing in some shops and took the girls to the Whale Museum, which was right next door...I took their picture sitting inside the skeleton of one of the local orcas that they had on display. (Lizzie on the left, Sabrina on the right). They were quite grossed out by a human brain they had on display...it was shown in size comparison to the whale brain. They kept going back to it and saying ewwww!!

My cousin Dale used to be a teacher at the Junior High school my brother and I attended, way back 35+ years ago, and Virginia was the librarian at my high school. Several of our teachers they were friends with were at the party, so it was interested to become reacquainted with our old teachers on an adult level and reminisce about the way things used to be. One of my old school mates was there also. I remember him, but he didn't remember me. Not that I expected him to as he was 2 years older than I am, and we had 1200 kids in the school.

But it was a fun day. One more week until I start my new job. I still have quite a few loose ends to tie up and some job knowledge transfer to accomplish at my current job this week...so it should go by quickly.

Von wanted to know where I found the pattern for the hardanger ornament I stitched (see previous post). I found it in Miniature Masterpieces by Janice Love. It is called Joy d'Love, on page 26 of the book. She has a note on the pattern page that an experienced hardanger stitcher who stitches quickly should be able to complete this design in 4-6 hours. It took me about 5, but I left off all the picots, or it would have taken me 10!!! (probably not, but like I said, I don't like doing picots). It took longer to pull all the threads for the lacy edge than to stitch them!! So over an hour of my 5 hours was pulling threads!! They hadn't seen the card yet when we left the party, so I wish I could have seen their faces when they opened it. My cousin Dale is quite a cross stitcher, and likes to do large, intricate cross stitch pieces. He enters a lot of them in the fair, and usually wins a ribbon. He also enjoys Swedish Huck weaving! I knew they would appreciate the stitching!

A quick finish

I finished the little hardanger ornament I was working on last weekend in about 5 hours of stitching. A nice little quickie. I just hope now the intended recipients don't see this before Saturday!!!! I scanned this instead of using the camera, so it is hard to see that the hearts are done with opalescent thread and there are tiny white beads in the corners. I am very pleased with the way it turned out. The original pattern called for picots all over everything...I don't do picots...ugghh. But I think it looks good without them.

I received my Just Cross Stitch Ornaments Magazine for 2006 this afternoon. I am a bit disappointed in the quality of a lot of the designs. But now I can do the next Shepherd's Bush ornament...boy is the pattern ever tiny this year...I am going to have to enlarge it 300% to be able to read it!!! Thea's design (The Victoria Sampler) is very sweet this year, I will probably do one of those for myself also.

It's been a whole year!

In honor of daughter Alli and son-in-law Chris, Happy First Anniversary!!! May your lives be blessed with many, many more!

Allison and Christopher

September 10, 2005

Deja Vu!

Back in 1983 when Amy was about 12 months old, she climbed up into the bathroom sink (via the closed toilet) and picked up the toothpaste and a toothbrush and was sitting there grinning at me when I walked into the room. Voila, picture number one.

Back a couple weeks ago, when Alana was 9 months old, she too climbed into the bathroom sink (tho I think she was already on the counter) and picked up the toothpast and toothbrush and sat there and grinned at Amy. Voila, picture number two.

Like mother, like daughter.....

So, okay, now I am exhausted!

I spent 3 hours working my tail off outside...mowed the lawn, pulled weeds, cut back the overgrown grape vine and moved all the debris in front of the shed to the back of the shed. Pictures here to show what I have accomplished. The big pile of brush in the left of the picture is what came out of beside the shed!!! I took the picture of the shed from the upstairs window so that you can see the new roof that John just finished putting on!!!

So, now I will shower, if I can move...man I am tired! Then I need to run an errand, then back home to stitch! Emotionally I am feeling a little better. I should. After all that work!!! GRIN.

Stress reducers

When your emotions are in a turmoil, what do you do to find relief?

I have tried shopping. I have tried eating comfort foods. But time and time again I come back to two tried and true relievers....

Pulling weeds

and

Stitching.

I had a great disappointment happen last night that I cannot share publicly, tho those nearest and dearest are aware of it. And all I want to do today is pull weeds and stitch. I think I will do just that!!!

John has promised to put the metal roofing and maybe the door on the shed today. Here is the picture I promised from last time. This picture is a little old, as there is plywood and tar paper on top of the rafters now awaiting the metal roofing!!! Maybe the lawn mower will get to spend the winter in it's new home!!

Busy couple of weeks....

It's been busy around here, and I haven't even taken time to stitch much at all. The weekend of the 24th I spoke for one session at our church's women's retreat...what a great time with a wonderful group of ladies at a beautiful place. Here is a picture of the grounds from the bedroom I stayed in...and a shot of the front of the "house" we were in. It's such a gorgeous place, Falls Creek, about 1.5 hours southwest of my home. I was busy preparing my talk the days before, so didn't do any stitching.

This last weekend was Labor Day weekend here in the States and Canada....Monday was a day off from work. Saturday I spent deep cleaning my kitchen and doing errands. On Sunday, on a whim, we decided we wanted to go for a drive, so decided to head up toward Mt. Rainier to see if we could find Von and her family where they were camping! We managed to find them without any trouble, and enjoyed the next 6 hours catching up with old friends! It was great fun to see them, and the old growth forest was sooooo quiet!!! Absolutely gorgeous! We didn't even leave for home until 10:15 PM and arrived home just after midnight! It was a treat to see Von without having to drive for 5 hours, and such a fun surprise too!

Monday my immediate family in town met at my brother's house on Lake St. Claire for a barbeque...the weather was perfect, and Alana had her first exposure to wading in the lake. We thought she would cry over the cold water, but she sat right down and started splashing her hands...she had a great time. Amy has some better pictures on her camera, hopefully she will get them posted soon.

John is still plugging away on the shed, and is putting on the roof now. Blogger has decided I have posted enough pictures today I guess, as it won't let me upload one of the shed. Oh well, you'll have to take my word for it!! GRIN>

Fall is definitely in the air here in the Pacific Northwest. Some of the trees have started to turn color and the asters are in bloom, the sun is lower in the sky casting longer shadows, and the air is getting a bit crisp in the mornings, and still very warm in the afternoons. But I know that fall means that soon it will start raining again...this has been the driest summer since the 1960's, so the lawns are very brown, and the forest and brush fires are everywhere. We need the rain badly, so I won't complain about it for at least the first week!! LOL! I do love to stitch on a cozy rainy day tho...won't that be nice?

Maybe next time I will have some stitching progress to share...

Blogger is nuts today!

I can post a picture. I can type text. But do you think Blogger will let me do both in the same post??? of course not!!! This post is the result of many many tries!!!

Anyway, here is the picture of my finished Summer Spot, which I finished up today. Happy dance for getting it done! What a struggle to get the picture posted!!!!

August days

It's been a busy three weeks since my last post, but nothing of the sort to get very excited about. Let's see, what have I been up to...three day long computer classes for work, Amy and Alana staying with us for several days while they moved, two retreat planning committee meetings, a church picnic at the ocean, keeping Alana overnight while Amy and Max celebrated their 6th anniversary, one whole day of yard maintenance and cleanup, work full time, three piano lessons with Lizzie, preparing a talk for the Women's Retreat next Friday, laundry and dishes, etc. Anyone notice what is NOT on my list? (hint: it starts with S and ends with G).

Not that I didn't get ANY stitching done, just for me it feels like nothing since there is so little to show for it. I needed a break from my new design after vacation, so picked up Summer Spot by The Drawn Thread, thinking it would be a very quick stitch, and then I could get back to my designing. Wrong. Three weeks, and I am still not done with it. Arggh. Of course, Blogger is not allowing me to upload a picture of it right now, so maybe I'll try again later.

These great kites were flying on the beach at Ocean Shores last Saturday. We spent only about half an hour on the beach. Even though it was an absolutely gorgeous day weather wise, the wind coming off the ocean was bitter cold, such as you might experience in November. It was too cold to even walk around, so we went back inland to the picnic site where the wind wasn't blowing. By 6:00 pm we were all huddled around the campfire keeping warm. Such an odd thing for August!!!

John has been plugging away once a week or so on the shed...here is how it looks today after another day's work. One of these days it will be beautiful and match the house, and have a roof! We are both looking foward to it.

We went and bought another car today. So now we have 5 in the driveway between the four of us. (Chris and Alli each have one). John's truck is leaking oil badly and needs the bottom of the engine replaced, so we bought an old Honda Accord for him to drive in the interim...only $450!!

Back to the Real World

I've been on vacation all week...it was lovely, but of course, not long enough. Tomorrow is back to work and the real world....

I took Lizzie and one of her friends camping (trailer) for 3 days, during the intense heat we were having! Miserable! Thank goodness for swimming pools! Of course I forgot my camera, so I can't even share a picture, but here is one from last year of the same place. The swimming pools are up the hill behind the big trees in the center of the picture. After a day at home, Lizzie and I took off for Everett to spend time with my sister...and I left Lizzie there while I went on up to Victoria to see Thea for the day. I had a lovely day visiting with Thea...and even was able to say hello to Lisa and Cathy and Richard. We had a great visit and lunch over looking the Sydney marina. Thea took me into downtown Victoria to visit The Button & Needlework Boutique, and I found several things I couldn't resist... four small patterns by The Drawn Thread, the Rejoice Tree ornament by M Designs, and A Rose for Every Season by Patricia Ann Designs, plus some buttons and charms. Lots of new things to encourage stitching!

The ferry ride back to the mainland was absolutely gorgeous...the sun was setting, the mountain (Mt. Baker, Washington) was out in all it's glory, and it was so beautiful! I love being in the San Juans Islands, I just wish it were closer so that I could do it more often! I even was able to do some stitching on the ferry, making the day absolutely perfect!! They even serve good coffee on the ferry (Tulley's)...which for us in the Pacific Northwest is a requirement!!! LOL!

Blog Anniversary

I realized this week that my blog is now officially one year old! I began it the third week of July, 2005. It is amazing how quickly this year has flown by. I celebrated my beginning last July with a picture of the daisies in my garden...so here is a picture of the daisies this year!!
It is blistering hot today. 98 degrees in the shade with high humidity. Not that we are alone with the hot temperatures, just that we are so unused to it. I broke down today and took the car in to get the AC recharged...couldn't stand the heat any longer. I am taking Lizzie and friend camping tomorrow for three days. We have a camping resort about 60 miles from here that we really like to go to...I hope it cools off a bit, but at least there is a large pool to keep cool in. Then on Wednesday, Lizzie and I will drive up to Everett to stay overnight with my sister Karen...Lizzie will spend Thursday there with Alisha (almost cousin), while I go on up to Victoria to visit with Thea. I planning on spending one day there and then coming back to Karen's before we come home Friday. I guess I forgot to say I have a week of vacation this week! I am really looking foward to some time to "play" during the good weather.

John started working on the shed again this week, and we have three walls now...it is 8' by 10', but with the walls it sure looks smaller! I am really looking forward to getting that much stuff out of my garage!!! It's getting hard to get in and out of the car!

In the world of stitching, I am working on another original design of mine...I like this one, it is flowing out very easily onto the fabric, and is called "Beyond the Garden Gate". It is fun when the design comes so easy.

Forgotten Treasure

I spied this treasure in the back of the top of my closet the other day, and realized it needed to come out and see the light of day again. I started this piece on July 4, 1976, while our country was celebrating it's Bicentennial...I remember watching the fireworks on TV as I was house sitting for friends in Spokane, and stitching away on the outlines of the states. I thought it was an appropriate way to celebrate the United States at the time. It took me nearly 4 years of off and on work to finish and hung on the wall for many years until after one of our moves it was relegated to the closet. It had gotten quite dirty in all its years (nearly 30!!) and so it spent about 2 full days soaking in Oxyclean. It looks pretty good again now as it hangs by pins unframed in my office. I designed it. All of it. Every last stitch. I don't think I will ever be that ambitious again!! LOL! I have to admit that about 30 of the blackwork patterns were from books I had at the time, but coming up with the other 20 was my invention. It was pretty hard to get something to fit in the tiny little states like Rhode Island and Connecticut!!! But now, after all this time, I am proud of it again. It will soon have a frame worthy of all the hard work!I traced the map onto the fabric with a fabric transfer sheet, using a map from the road atlas!! It is stitched on hardanger 22, creme colored, black DMC and some kind of gold thread outlining the states...not sure I could tell you what kind of gold thread, probably doesn't exist anymore anyway!!!

Western Washington was cooking like an oven today, it got over 100 degrees, which is torture for us here with the humidity and all...my thermometer still says 90 degrees, and it is after 9 PM. So unusual here...it usually cools off drastically in the evenings...it is supposed to be worse tomorrow. It's a little hard to see in this picture but we had a brilliant orange sunset tonight...absolutely gorgeous!!!

Ornament finished

I finished up the 2005 Shepherd's Bush Christmas ornament this week...I think it turned out cute, but it took me a long time to stitch. There are a lot of color changes, many for just a few stitches, so it worked up slowly. Warning to those who have not yet stitched this...some Weeks colors are called out in the pattern...which if you don't have and need to buy...are for only 3 or 4 stitches!!! Don't buy the whole skein, substitute some DMC. I should have taken more time to study this pattern before I bought all the threads!!! Glad it's finished, now I can wait until the 2006 JCS ornaments magazine comes out to do the next one!

I'm wishing!

Last April at the Northwest Stitcher's gathering (see post of April 2, 2006) that we had in Bellevue, Von and I stayed a little later and did some shopping in Bellevue. We found a wonderful place called The Container Store, and we spent quite a bit of time in there shopping and wishing. Von agreed to come help me set up my stitching room when such a room becomes available in my house!!! Last week I received a flyer in the mail from the Container Store, and this is one of the pictures of "what you too can do in your own home" type of pictures. I love this. I had envisioned these exact same shelves in an alcove of one of the upstairs bedrooms...course, it would be mainly needlework supplies, and not scrapping. But since I am accumulating a ton of scrapping supplies too, I can guess that one of these days I will need a second space like this one for those supplies too!

What a difference a few months makes....

I saw this old photo taken in early March of my front yard and I was amazed at how different it looks now that everything has leafed out, bloomed and grown....here is a comparison if Blogger will let me upload two pix tonight. Hey! It worked!

Today is my dear friend Von's birthday! Wishing you the happiest ever Von! (oh, by the way to answer your question, the new shed's dimensions are 8 foot by 10 foot. Not very big, but large enough for all the tools!)

Here's yesterday's picture!

Here is the picture of the concrete we poured yesterday for our new shed. For some reason Blogger would not allow me to upload it in yesterday's post! Maybe it has decided that one picture a day is all we get right now!!!

I'll try and post more pix as this shed takes shape!

Another Finish!

I have finished the next Shepherd's Bush ornament, this one from 2004 called In A Stable. I changed the colors slightly to match the previous ornaments a little better....the pattern calls for a different color for the words, and since I want to sew these all into a wall hanging when they are all done, I wanted them to match. I was pleased with the result, and it was very quick to stitch up.

We had a very nice Father's Day. We did some yard work and house work on Saturday, then Saturday night at midnight I went into the office to help out with a software upgrade for the credit union software...Not sure I was alot of help, but I learned alot. My co-worker said it's the quickest upgrade they have done, and called me the good luck charm. I don't know about that, but I was back in my bed by 4:45 AM...so it wasn't too bad. We have to do the upgrades in the middle of the night, when the members are probably sleeping and not wanting to use the ATM's etc. So I slept in till 11 AM while John was at church, and then at 1 we went over to my folk's house for dinner and presents...we also celebrated John and my birthday's as well as Father's Day. Had wonderful time visiting and playing with all the grandkids...my sister Nan has two grandkids, Austin and Chloe, and they are alot of fun. So it was good. I had fun. I came home and stitched for awhile and we watched a couple DVD's. I got them for John for Father's Day, The Man from Snowy River (one of our favorites) and an old black and white movie called Pride of the Yankees, about Lou Gehrig. It was a pretty good movie, but then we like baseball movies.

This morning we had a slab poured out back for a shed...we've been needing to get our garden tools out of our overcrowded garage, so this will be a great addition...it is going to be surrounded by raspberries and my grape vine, I'll try a picture tomorrow. (Blogger won't let me upload any pix right now, so I will try later.) I picked a small bowl of raspberries tonight, I can hardly believe how early they are this year! We are going to have more than we can handle if anyone wants to come over and pick some!! LOL!!