Spring is finally here in full force!

I spent several hours outside on Saturday pulling weeds and doing a general spruce up in my gardens...boy did I ever feel it on Sunday! I was mighty sore! The weather was fantastic and warm all weekend, but it is back to the rain today. I don't have any great stitching pictures or stories this week, but thought you might enjoy some flower pictures. My Japonica is gorgeous this year, it never has bloomed so fully. The apple trees are in their off year, so they don't have many blossoms at all. The lilacs are doing okay, not fantastic this year. My irises are just now beginning to bud, so it will be next week at the earliest before I can enjoy them.

We are planning on having 5 yards of bark delivered next Saturday morning, so John and I will spend the better part of the day distributing it to all the flower beds. Things should look really nice by next Sunday!!

I have been plugging away on stitching a new design that I have been working on since before we left for Hawaii..I have it all planned out, and it is about 3/4 done, but not getting stitched as quickly as I would like. Seems like there is never enough hours in the day!! I also started the Washington State Heart of America by Victoria Sampler, as I needed something to stitch that I could stitch without too much thinking when I was tired...it's about 1/3 done. I'll post a picture one of these days.

Amy, Lizzie and I took Alana (my granddaughter) to the park yesterday. We went to one of the newer parks in town, and I think everyone in town had the same idea...man, the place was packed. There were too many children on the playground equipment and Alana seemed overwhelmed, so we left and found a small neighborhood park where we were the only ones there. She wasn't too excited about the swings and slide, but she did enjoy running around on the grass! Maybe later this summer it will be more fun for her.

Hope everyone has a great week! I am looking forward to Von's report on her wonderful vacation!

A stitching picture

Here is a picture of the extent of my stitching while on vacation! Not very much really...this is Just Nan's Queen's Heart. I have a tiny bit of back stitching and some beads and the charm to add, and it will then be done. It was a fun one to work on, and is much prettier in person than the picture on the pattern!!!

Considering I usually get very little stitching done on vacation, I was pleased to be able to almost finish this!!

Pictures of Maui

I have finally gotten my pictures downloaded onto my computer and have begun sorting through them. I mostly took movies this trip, so I don't have a lot of REALLY good still photos to share...but here are some highlights...

First picture is myself in front of the Io Needle..a beautiful place, with a grim history. I think I have talked about already that this is the valley where King Kamehameha slaughtered many of the island natives in his quest to become King of all the Hawaiian islands. Sort of a sobering place, but very pretty.


The next picture is of John (my DH) walking in front of a strange lava formation called the Dragon's Teeth. The wind was blowing about 45 miles per hour that day, so we were having a hard time even standing up straight.




The next picture was taken at the top of the 10,000 foot Haleakala volcano. Kind of strange to be able to DRIVE up that high within a matter of 1/2 hour. It was beautiful, above the clouds, and very, very COLD! Our car thermometer registered about 36 degrees at the top. A little bit later at the bottom it was 85 degrees again!!!




I have also posted here a picture taken in the grocery store...notice the gallon of milk for $7.75 (this was the cheapest we saw for milk) and the gallon of orange juice for over $9.00. We saw bread at nearly $5.00 a loaf. I am not quite sure how people who live on Maui manage to feed their kids nutritious foods. It's one thing for the luxuries to be expensive (i.e., ice cream at over $8.00 per half gallon), but quite a shock to see basic necessities be so expensive.

I will close this post with a picture taken at sunset of the beach and condo (far right, first floor) we stayed in. I took a huge amount of photos this trip of the sunsets...all of them were glorious!

I will post a picture of the tiny bit of stitching I accomplished on the trip this evening! I still need to get it scanned...

Aloha, Mahalo Maui

It's almost time to head for home, tomorrow, Wednesday, to be exact. This has been the best trip we have had to the islands, and while we hate to say goodbye to Maui for this year, we are about ready to be back on our turf and sleeping in our beds again. The condo has been ideally situated for lots of playing in the ocean and laying in the sun, and we have taken full advantage of it. That's all we have been doing today, playing in the surf and laying in the sun, and now, drinking iced mochas in the internet cafe!

We saw whales up close, drove to the top of the 10,000 foot volcano, shopped till we were ready to drop and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

I'll have some pictures to post on Thursday evening!

So, Maui, thank you (Mahalo) for the wonderful week. We are already looking forward to coming again next time. Aloha nui loa! (very much love)

Aloha!

Lizzie and I are siting in a nice little internet cafe here on Maui, sipping iced mochas and browsing the web, so thought I would make a quick entry on my blog. I have no way to upload any pictures here, so you will need to be content with just descriptions! Sorry!

We had a great plane flight over. (*Side note, the movie they showed on the plane was called Freedom Writers and it was a great movie. If you have a chance to see it, I would really recommend it. John and I were brought to tears several times and we were bawling openly by the end of the movie). We arrived about 1:00 in the afternoon, and after picking up the rental car, headed for the condo. The weather here in April is perfect...about 85 degrees in the afternoon. Very warm, but not too hot. This has been the best weather of all the times we have been here. October and May were both tooooo hot.

We have an ocean front condo on the first floor of the building, just steps from the pool and sundeck, a few more steps to the beach. We don't have to bother with the elevator which is wonderful, so convenient. The weather is cool enough to enjoy our breakfasts on the deck (lanai) outside, and have been sitting out there alot. The sunsets so far have been gorgeous. We have been watching the whales (with binoculours), and getting tan. A little. We are being careful not to sunburn!!!

Yesterday we spent a couple hours at the Marine Center...a small but very cool place. There is a tunnel through the middle of the large aquarium and the sting rays swim right over the top of you....it's like swimming with them...almost surreal. I took lots of cool movies and pictures! We then spent a hour at the Io Needle park, a lovely place. Today we drove to the top of Haleakala volcano, 10,000 feet high! We were way up above the clouds...it was gloriously beautiful. I will post some pictures when we get home!

Tomorrow morning we are going whale watching in a boat...it promises to be a great adventure, the whales have been very active since we have been here. I am looking forward to it!

We have about done everything we really wanted to do this trip, so now we have several days to relax and enjoy the beach and sunshine. Wish you could all join us here! I'll post more early next week, and post pictures when I get home.

Missing you all!

It's been a busy two weeks!

The last two weeks have been very full and busy. Last weekend my dear friend Von came over from Kennewick (other side of the State), and we had a wonderful time visiting and getting caught up with everything. If you are interested in hearing about the weekend, please see Von's blog...she gave such a great run down of all we did, that I don't need to repeat it all here. I will say though that I had a marvelous time with her, as I always do. Thanks for being such a long time friend and stitching buddy Von! I believe we have been friends for nearly 30 years, as we knew each other before we were married! We were married within a month of each other, had our first baby within 2 months of each other, and now we are enjoying being new grandma's together, tho she beat me in that department by a couple of years!!!

So as you can see by the picture, the saga of the leaking shower continues. I took a picture of the lovely hole in my living room ceiling...John spent alot of time last weekend installing the new parts and it still leaks. He says that's what you get when you use free labor!!! LOL! I am not sure what he plans on doing now.

I am also sharing a picture of Catch the Wind since I framed it. I think it turned out pretty well for a do-it-yourself project. Von asked me if I had put spacers between the fabric and the glass...oops, no! I need to fix that soon!

It's been a great Easter Sunday here...even tho it rained and we had to have the egg hunt indoors for the little ones. They seemed to love it in spite of being inside. My whole family, except one sister, came to my parents home for dinner, and we exchanged birthday gifts for all the winter and spring birthdays in the family (let me tell you, it was like Christmas all over again!), then had the egg hunt. We were all amazed that Alana (17 months) picked up so quickly the jist of the game, and she filled her basket to overflowing with very little help! It was so fun!

I was out nearly every evening and most of the day Saturday this last week shopping for things we needed for our trip to Hawaii. I hope that I have everything under control. We just need to get it all into the suitcases now! We leave very early Wednesday the 11th! Woo hoo! I tried to find some Hawaiian music code to have playing as you read this, but everything I found sounded pretty dorky. My favorite site for music was down today. Oh well. At this point, you can start humming Aloha Oe, Aloha Oe....dum dum dum, etc. Then you can still be in the mood!!! Grin.

Tomorrow, Monday is Amy Sue's 25th birthday. We will have them over for dinner and gifts and cheesecake tomorrow evening. Birthday cakes are becoming a thing of the past in this family...most everyone would rather eat cheesecake!! Tuesday we pack, and then I will be gone for 8 days...I leave you with a picture of the view from our balcony at the condo. You can see the island of Lanai in the distant background. Aloha everyone!!!

Sunny Sunday Afternoon

I wish I had something exciting to write about. I wish I had some wonderful new pictures to share. But....Lizzie loves to take pictures on my camera and now the batteries are dead. So I have no new pictures to share today. So what is going on here at the Dunton household?

We have a hole in our living room ceiling where John is trying fix a plumbing leak from the shower upstairs. Let me tell you, it looks lovely!! (SNORT!) Thank the Lord for a husband who can fix these things without having to hire a plumber. We spent $23.00 at Lowes for the parts...hope that will do it. It was leaking so bad, that you can stand downstairs under the shower and get a shower too!!! Wish I had a picture...

I've been busy working on a couple new designs this weekend. I am getting more comfortable designing on the computer and not by needle. It certainly is much faster. I have a large one now passed off to Amy for stitching, and another good size piece that just needs some tweaking...the edges aren't lining up just right, but an hour or less of fiddling and it should be ready to stitch also. I REALLY love this new piece. This one will be called Quaker Alphabet I think.

The trees and flowers are finally in full glorious bloom here in Western Washington...it certainly LOOKS like spring around here. It has been so cool and rainy though, I haven't spent any time outside enjoying the flowers. I hope it warms up soon, I am itching to get outside and work in my gardens! John and I took the chain saw to the wysteria and hot red poker plants last weekend and really cut them back big time. They always look so much better with their new growth, and the blooms are nicer too. They look a little butchered right at the moment though!!!

Only 16 days until we leave for Maui! And on that note, I will close with a few of my favorite pictures from our trip to Maui last time (18 months ago). Have a great week!

Another Sunday afternoon...

and time for another blog post. This week has been pretty routine and quiet, so there is not much to share, but I do have pictures of some stash shopping I did last weekend. So here goes!

I travelled to the Sewing and Stitching Expo last weekend in Puyallup, WA, and made a beeline for the Martha Pullen booth, and purchased two more premade dresses to smock for Alana. She is going to be flower girl in a friends wedding in August, so the white dress will be for the wedding. The bride is wearing ecru/offwhite/cream...not sure what the exact name of the color is, instead of the traditional white, and she wanted Alana's dress to match hers, so we will probably try a tea or coffee dye on the white dress. It will be smocked in solid ecru. I'm thinking of perhaps getting some pretty french lace for a bit of a trim. Here's a picture of Alana wearing the dress I finished for her last month, thank you Amy for the picture.

After leaving the Martha Pullen vendor booth, I took a quick look at the Stoney Creek booth and Liz Turner Diehl, the only other stitching vendors in attendance. All the others were geared toward machine sewing and quilting. Because the crowd was horrendous and impossible to get close to many of the vendors, I quickly left. A friend of mine told me she always goes on Sunday morning, and that it is nearly empty then. I think I will skip church next year and try that. At least I would have a more pleasant shopping experience!

So I got back in the car and headed up to Issaquah, about 40 minutes up the freeway, to my not so local, but closest, needlework shop, ThreadNeedle Street. I spent about half an hour on the phone talking about the Waterlilies color selection with daughter Amy...we were wanting some very specific colors for a design I am working on...so I described them all to her and then we chose together. It was fun. Picture of what I came home with is here. I also found some Victoria Sampler and Just Nan leaflets that I wanted. (Also pictured here). The Blue Carnations leaflet is very special as I had the incredible honor of working with Thea on this project. I still had the working patterns, but wanted the leaflet for a special souvenir. If you ever see the leaflet, look inside and you will see why I wanted it for a souvenir. I also purchased a yard of cashel white linen...a big expenditure but I was tired of never having enough fabric when I needed it!!! It was a great time, and a rare treat to be able to visit the shop.

DD#2 (Alli) and her hubby (Christopher) just got back from spending a week at Disneyland/Los Angeles. They had a great time. They shared the plane ride home with Henry Winkler (Fonzie on Happy Days, etc.) and they thought that was pretty cool. It was a very quiet week without them here, and we are glad they are home!

I purchased enough of the Blue Lavendar Waterlilies to finish my M Designs "D" (see previous post regarding this), and have put a few more stitches into the design. I think that the dye lot is going to blend in just fine, thankfully! I am busy working on a companion piece for one of my designs at the moment, so I'm not sure when the "D" will get finished, but it will be next on my list!!!

Only 31 days until we leave for Hawaii!!!

More than one way to finish a project!

I started this design "Catch the Wind" by Butternut Road in 1997. I had always loved this piece since I first saw it, and promised myself that if I ever had three daughters that I would stitch it for myself. Well, our third daughter, Lizzie, was born in 1995, and I no longer had a reason NOT to stitch it! I managed to get it about three fourths done before it made it to the bottom of my UFO (unfinished objects) basket for 10 YEARS!!!! Yep. It sat untouched for 10 years. Lizzie is now 12 years old. I really wanted this design finished, but just couldn't seem to get myself to do it. I decided to ask DD#1, Amy, if she would be interested in finishing the stitching if I paid her for it, and she agreed, and immediately set to work. It took her about a month of stitching here and there, and yesterday my piece came home, finished. I am so pleased! Thank you again, Amy! I need to dig through my frame stash and see if I have one that will work for this before I go and buy one. I am so excited to have it done!!!


This afternoon I stopped at an antique mall, just to browse and found some real treasures. The first thing I found is this little china dish with a cross stitch or needlepoint, design on it. The lady at the mall said it is a regular china pattern, she has some of the larger pieces. I had never seen it before, but I think it is lovely. It cost me $3.50. The little doily underneath came from a different booth, and was only $2.00. Then I found a bag full of embroidered pieces...but only the top piece was showing enough to be able to see...I was amazed at the beautiful bouillion flowers that someone had painstakingly embroidered, so I bought the whole bag for $7.00. Most of the pieces are just embroidery cut out of whatever they were in, some are not in great shape with stains and a few little holes, but others are whole and in good condition. I am very excited about these treasures and I am sure I can use them somewhere. I think I will soak most of them in Oxyclean and see if I can't get some of the stains out. These boullion stitches are just absolutely perfect, not a thread out of place. Mine never look this good!! My hat is off to the person who embroidered this piece!

Almost, but not quite...

I had high hopes of being able to finish this design with just one skein of Caron Waterlilies...Amy did it with her "R" design, but this one must have had about 60 more stitches in the design than the "R", because as you can see on the upper right corner, I came up about 60 stitches short of thread!!! ARGGH! Of course, I only had one skein of this color (017 Blue Lavender) in my stash. Looks like I am going to have to order another skein to finish. The design also has a line of stitching two threads out on the edge for a border, which I was willing to leave off if I didn't have the thread, but will probably now go back and do that part of the design also.

So a word of warning, if you like these designs and choose to do your initial, and like to stitch on 28/14 count fabric, be sure and purchase TWO skeins of Waterlilies!!!

Can I do this week over again?

I don't know where I got it from but I caught the creeping crud this week. Any number of sources, probably, since the majority of my family was sick also. By Wednesday I felt miserable and didn't go to work Thursday or Friday. I'm starting to feel a little better today, but I am still coughing and feeling very fatigued. Whatever it is, it's not something that was covered in this years flu shot, which I was so careful to have last October. Oh well. I have been able to get some stitching done on my M Designs "D". It is finally starting to look like something recognizable, and I really like the way it is turning out.

We purchased our airline tickets for our trip to Maui today. We are going for a week to Kahana to stay in our time share in April. (It will be John, Lizzie and I). Here is a picture of our building...RIGHT ON THE BEACH!!! Can't get any closer or we would be IN the water!!! It guess it would be an understatement to say that we are getting very excited to go! There were places we didn't get to see and things we didn't get to do last time we were there, so we will find lots to keep us busy. Although the drive was beautiful we will NOT be taking the Road to Hana this time. Once was enough. (if you are unfamiliar with the Road to Hana, think one lane 160 degree switchbacks no guardrails type of road...you'll get the idea). We are planning on driving to the top of the Haleakala volcano though!!!! LOL!

Friday was Lizzie's 12th birthday. Happy Birthday dear youngest daughter. (Lizzie is in the middle of three girls). Being so sick I didn't have the energy to do much, so it was pretty low key, but she has had a couple friends over all weekend and completely decorated the house. I think they had fun. John took them all to go see A Night in the Museum at the theatre yesterday, and we have spread out the presents and fun over the whole weekend. We bought her a small TV for her bedroom...it will be interesting to see how much use it really gets!!!

Stitching Retreats

Today’s SBQ was suggested by Danielle and is:
Have you ever been to a stitching retreat?

I rarely answer these SBQ's, but I this one I will. I have been to TWO stitching retreats and they were both absolutely fantastic. Back in 1990 Von and I attended a weekend at the Oregon Coast (Cannon Beach) by a LNS (Stitches and Straw) in Vancouver Washington. We had two (I think...am I right Von?) projects we worked on over a long weekend at a beautiful hotel right on the beach. It was a fantastic getaway.

The second one I had the privilege of attending was in 2002 in Victoria, BC for the Victoria Holiday put on by Thea at Victoria Sampler. It was a wonderful time, and I marvelled all the way home how relaxed I felt. We had three teachers with three beautiful projects and lots of new friends and memories.

If you ever have a chance to attend a stitching retreat, you must do it! I would do it every year if I could!!!

Super Bowl Sunday

I can hardly believe it's been a year since I last posted about the SuperBowl. Not that any one much cares about it now, a year later, but I was really into the game as our home team, the Seahawks were playing. (They lost. I can't even remember now who they played!!! Shows now just how truly unimportant all this really is in the scheme of things!!)

Anyway, we are leaving in a few minutes for a Superbowl party. There is also a Chili cookoff, pie contest and potluck dinner. This is my main reason for attending. I have been perfecting a recipe for a pie that I called Burnt Creme Pie, and so I made one to take for the contest. It turns out a little different every time I make it, so it will be interesting to see how it is this time. I am taking my stitching along too, and will probably only stay for a little of the game, since I have absolutely no interest in who is playing this year.

I am still plugging away on the same "D" design as I have been. I didn't even stitch on it this week again, but decided to post a picture anyway. Can you tell it's a D??? (Snort!) Maybe next week I'll have more to show you. I love the colors against the tan background, and it's been a pleasure to stitch, even tho I rarely do a piece that is only cross stitch anymore.

I actually finished our taxes yesterday and got them electronically filed. Lord willin', we should have a nice refund in about 2 weeks. I love this electronic stuff...no more waiting for 2 or 3 months for your refund check! I expect in a few years we will be able to get our refunds in a matter of a day or so and we will think 2 weeks was slow!!!

Well, we need to scoot, or we will be late for the potluck. Have a great week!

Getting Organized

Here it is, another Sunday, and time for another post. I haven't done much stitching this week, other things seemed more important, and I wasn't really all that much in the mood anyway. I am working on the "D" design from M Designs, but haven't made enough progress for anyone to be able to tell what it is yet, so I will wait a little longer to post a picture.

I did organize my stitching closet and boxes this afternoon. Not that they were a total disaster, but things were getting a little out of hand. Here are pictures of the finished result. I love being organized, I sure wish things would stay that way!!! I must really be in an organizing mood this weekend, yesterday I straightened up the garage some (my car was getting very crowded with all the extra stuff that has been brought in lately) and I did some extra cleanup and rearranging in the house too. I still had a few wintery type decorations up, and I decided I am mentally through with winter, so I took them all down and put up some of my spring decor. Made me feel a lot better...especially since the sun was shining all day yesterday also!

I also put the finishing touches and hem into the smocked dress I made for Alana. I am really pleased with the way it turned out and can hardly wait to see her in it.

There is not a whole lot of excitement to share from this week. John and I went to a movie at the theatre last Saturday, something we almost never do. We went to see "A Night in the Museum", and enjoyed it immensely. At one point I was laughing so hard tears were rolling down my face!!! This movie will definitely on our "have to buy" list when it comes out on DVD. This website I linked to is kind of fun also...there is a mystery game to play if you enter in.

Treasure Freebie

I designed this little piece a few years ago to be used with some beaded scissor fobs I had made, and decided this would be a nice gift to all of my blogging friends. You can see from the photo that I stitched it mostly in blue and white, but the colors can be changed to suit your fancy. The little pink heart in the pattern indicates where to attach a heart bead or charm. Click on the pattern and it will take you to FlickR where you can enlarge and print the chart.

Row 1 is done in white perle cotton 8, a ray stitch variation.

Row 2: done in thread colors of your choice, straight stitches. I used french knots at the heart symbol, but seed beads would be perfect too.

Row 3 and 4: backstitch lettering with one strand of thread, your choice of color.

Rows 5 and 6: these are mirror images of Rows 1 and 2, and can be stitched exactly the same.

I finished the little back by stitching around three sides and hemming the top with a small rolled hem. Then about one inch down from the top edge, I removed about 6 horizontal threads, and wove a ribbon through the remaining vertical threads for a draw string. This is a great little gift bag for a treasure for that special someone in your life!

I hope you enjoy this little pattern. If you decide to stitch it, I would love to see a photo of your work! Please feel free to direct others to this pattern if you like. Thanks for being such a great blogging community!

Smocking About Finished

I have finished the yoke of the little dress for Alana...this smocking went very quickly and easily, I finished it in just a couple evenings of work. I have one of the sleeves partially smocked, but realized I need to try the dress on her before finishing. The sleeves seem to small when completely smocked, so I want to make sure before I finish. This was a fun one to stitch, and I can hardly wait to see her in it!

Hmmm, now I get to choose something else fun to stitch!!

I can't think of a catchy title....again!

Note: This post was actually written and posted on Saturday January 13th. I had begun this post last Sunday, January 7th by uploading the pictures below in preparation for posting, and didn't get back to finish this until the 13th. Sorry for the confusion I may have caused!!

I've been waiting all week to post these pictures, but didn't want to until I was able to give this gift in person to my daughter Amy...she's been sick all week, and I haven't seen her, and didn't want to spoil the surprize by having this pictures here. I saw this little pattern and really wanted to stitch it up for my granddaughter Alana. The wording says "To my Granddaughter, a sweet blessing, a joy and delight, with love, Grandma". It was perfect, because she is such a blessing, joy and delight in our lives. I went to the local Joannes store to find a frame, and found this one with a different picture in it...at 75% off the original price. It was perfect for the design, and looks so wonderful in person. Our Joanne's store is closing, hence the rock bottom price. At least there is another Super Joannes on the other side of town. This local one was practically next door to Michael's and I am assuming the competition was too great. Too bad, because if I couldn't find something at one of the stores, it was easy to go check at the other one. Now I will have to make a special trip. Oh well.


This week has been another bad one weather wise for us. Wind, again, then snow that froze. It's still only in the low 20's here. COLD!! and the roads were treacherous for a few days. I am so tired of this winter weather!


I am so proud of myself that my goals list for January is quickly being finished up, and I may even be ahead of myself by the end of the month in many things. Though, one of my written down goals was to do a once a week post here on the blog, which I was doing regularly anyway, and then I purposely skipped a week because of the above pictures. So I guess I should try and do two posts this week? But truly it has been very satisfying to get so much done, and it's only the middle of the month! I have even started and almost finished the smocking on the next dress for Alana...I'll post a picture in a day or two! Amy wanted white thread on white fabric and it is looking quite elegant. I am very pleased with it.

I've nearly completed charting "My Child's Heart" (Alana's birth sampler) with my new Easy Grapher Professional program. I sat down and installed the program and did about 85% of the chart in two hours last Monday night. I was so excited at how quickly and easily it went together for me! The rest of the job is to chart the ribbon embroidery, with it's free form embroidery, its a little more tricky to get into the chart. (see this old post for a picture) I feel like a child playing again...I love becoming immersed in something so fun that I lose track of time!!

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.