the happy needle

A wee bit o' progress

2011-02-21T03:39:00.001-08:00

Greetings everyone!~ Not a whole lot going on. I had did some stitching over the weekend on a gift for a friend . I will see her today and present it to her. I wish I had remembered to take a picture before I wrapped it! Oh well.

I also stitch a little bit on LHN's Night and Day that I had received from Edgar. I changed the color of the house a wee bit so I could use the silk floss he sent me. I like the color change a lot. It was supposed to be stitched in DMC 924 and instead I am stitching it in Belle Soi Blue Lagoon. I am stitching it on a mystery blue linen that I think fits the piece nicely. Although not a patriotic piece, it has some very vivid colors and sort of reminds me of something patriotic , so I will probably display it in my patriotic themed bathroom when I am finished with it.

I will keep this short. Got tons to do today. Thanks so much for stopping by today and I hope you all have a wonderful day!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Some excitement arrives in the mail!!!!

2011-02-18T05:49:00.000-08:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies! Yesterday there was a knock at the door and I was pleasantly greeted with a package from the mailman. Ok, the package wasn't really from the mailman ,but rather he delivered it. The package was from dear sweet Edgar! Some time back I had won a giveaway from him and yesterday it arrived!

I ran and got the scissors ( but walked slowly once I had them ;) ) the opened it up. Oh, the anticipation was boiling....

I opened the little package in purple on top. Inside were two patterns; Night and Day from Little House Needleworks, and Forest Snowfall from Country Cottage Needleworks. Now I have many Little House patterns , but this is my first CCN pattern and I will really enjoy stitching it!
Also there were three skeins of silk from Crescent Colours and a pack of John James needles. Also in the box was the little box of Sees chocolates. I love Sees and have not had any in quite a while.

Next came the wonderful box with the stitching on top. I just love sheep and Edgar picked a great design. I cannot believe how perfecto his stitching is!

Here's a peek at the fabric on the inside. The lid is lined as well as is the bottom.

Inside the box was nestled this lovely flower frog in a wonderful little gold bag.

One of my grandmothers had a frog just like this . I will think of her when I use it. It will serve a dual purpose. It will hold scissors and then it will hold those sweet little wild violets this Spring that pop up all over the yard.

Thank you so much Edgar , for everything . I just love it all! Oh... half the candy disappeared while stitching on Night and Day last night. I couldn't help myself!

That's it for today folks! I just bet I'll have something posted soon to show my progress on my projects! Thanks for stopping by today and I hope to see you again real soon!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Well Fooey!

2011-02-09T04:41:00.001-08:00

Greetings all!~ Boy, I tell you, it sure has been cold!!!!! I thought I would take advantage of being able to heat the house a little with the oven and decided to bake some wheat bread. BIG mistake! I couldn't get the dough to rise much but thought I would go ahead and bake it.

THIS , my dear friends , THIS is what happens when you bake unrisen dough!

So... did I get a giggle out of you?! LOL. I am still getting a kick out of Jennifer's commit yesterday on Facebook. She said , "Girl! " lol. I could almost hear it all the way from Georgia!

For those of you that are my Facebook friends, you may have seen this yesterday. As I mentioned there, it looks like I took a lesson from Elly May Clampett!! After talking to my mom, she told me what happened. She told me that I got my water too hot and killed the yeast. You know what's REALLY pathetic? This was the second loaf. The first one was hard as a rock!!! This one was barely better! Nope, I didn't learn the first time! LOL. I may try later this week to use my last package of yeast, but it won't be today! LOL.

Hope you all have a nice day and thanks so much for visiting!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Just a little FYI

2011-02-08T06:40:00.000-08:00

Howdy all!~ I wanted to give you all a heads up. My local needlework shop, ok it's about a 40 minute drive but about as local as it gets, put a bug in my ear. They said that many of the overdyed floss brands raised their price on Feb. 1st, which meant the needlework shops were doing the same. They , Cecilia's Samplers, are not going to raise the prices until June 1st! If you have experienced a jump in price where buy your floss and would like to save some money, consider checking them out. Margaret and her crew are very helpful and quick to get orders out. There is usually always a little something extra in the package when it arrives. Things I have gotten have been calendars, free patterns of course, and rulers, to name a few. This is the place where I have gotten all those rement bags of linen for $1 a bag. There are usually 6-8 pieces in the bag of various brands, counts, and colors.They don't always have them, but sometimes they do. They are perfect sizes for ornaments , needlebooks and other small projects.

Hope you get a chance to check them out.

take care,

Sharlotte

A little progress

2011-02-07T03:28:00.001-08:00

Greetings all!~ Well, did any of you get anymore snow? We got dumped on thru the week , then it slacked off , and we got a little more on Friday. We are supposed to get some more starting tonight, but who knows?

Having a difficult time with our dog being sick. She's getting pretty old and has been weak and having this horrible cough which has led to lots of vomitting , which is never pretty. Gonna have to see what the vet says.

I did make some progress on Kindness Matters. I'm really liking this little banner! I noticed yesterday that one of the little berries fell off , so I will have to trace another. Hopefully this time it sticks!!

Ok, so I will come right out and admit something this morning. Not only am I addicted to virtually anything regarding the needle, I am also addicted to Facebook games! There , I said it, out in the open! I play Cityville, Frontierville, and Farmville. So if you play these games and are in need of neighbors like me, send me an email and we can swop info.

Well, it's that time again to wrap things up. I hope, *fingers crossed* , that I will be back later this week with more progress on projects. Hope you all have a great day and thanks for visiting!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Mail and Baking

2011-02-01T05:20:00.001-08:00

Greetings all! ~ Well, am I excited or what?! Remember me telling you that I had a pattern that I won coming in the mail? Well it landed in my mailbox yesterday! That was really fast! I won the giveaway from Kim of Stillmeadow Quilting. Thanks a bunch Kim! I was so excited that my son thought I was going to come unglued! Not really, but I was pretty excited! I had already been pulling fabrics that I thought I would use. Soon after it's arrival, and I'm talking maybe 15-20 minutes, I grabbed my fusable webbing and went to tracing out the shapes. In no-time I had the shapes all ironed in place and cut out! I didn't notice until this morning when I was taking a picure of it, that I had accidently traced the same leaf twice instead of tracing the third. I will have to fix that today. I know the snap below isn't a great one because of the glare, but once I get this put together, you'll be able to see it better.

Now this little birdie is not going to go beakless. I have decided to satin stitch his beak on rather than use a small piece of scrap. I think it will look ok. Can you see my leaf goof-up? Ugh.

Well, yesterday was a chilly day. We are expecting about two feet of snow along with sleet and thick ice! I thought it made for a good baking day so I whipped up some coffee cake muffins and this......

....became this! Yummy! Didn't take us long to gobble them up. Of course after the gobbling came the wobbling . Gotta watch that!

Well, I suppose the time has come to wrap this up and get on with my day. Hope you all have a most excellant day! Thanks for stopping by.

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Learning my ABC's

2011-01-31T05:42:00.001-08:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ Well, here it is Monday , and low and behold , I DO have a post for today! :) I started working on Lizzie Kate's ABC's that I won a little while back from Melissa. I am enjoying every bit of it!! Not too shabby a start for a few days work. I worked on this this weekend and then another day or two a few weeks ago. I am stitching it on 28 count mushroom Jazlyn as opposed to the 32 count lambswool that it is supposed to be stitched on. It will wind up being a little bigger than it is supposed to be, but , that's ok.

I did do some hand quilting on my son's quilt and then I also put a few stitches into Village at Hawk Run Hollow (VoHRH) . Remember back when I started on that? I really need to get going on it again!

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I will spend today stitching on a pincushion for my Mom's birthday which is Wednesday. I am hoping that I will get to see her that day. We are expected to get a big snow storm starting today . We could get up to 12 inches! I am thinking about Ma Teakettle today. Did you read that she has gotten 56 inches so far for the month of January? Yikes!

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I also found out that I won a giveaway for a pattern of a quilted banner that I have been wanting! Yay for me! I have been informed that it is on it's way , so I will show a pic of that and some details when it arrives!!! Thanks again Kim!!

That's it today. Thanks so much for visiting and do come again real soon!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

I'm still alive!! ;o)

2011-01-28T06:20:00.000-08:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ Yes, you read right! I'm still alive! I have been pretty busy and also have not had use of the camera, (kept forgetting to buy new batteries) so I have been out for a bit. I am really making a nasty habbit of this am I not? I must stop that!!

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Well, as I said, I have been busy. I have had a naked sheep since Christmas and thought I better do something about that! So I have made a new blanket for my little sheep. I used some blue and red striped flannel I had and then stitched the flag portion of a Bent Creek pattern and there you go, my sheep is no longer naked!

Well that put me in a rather patriotic mood and that resulted in me buying myself a birthday present. I ordered the Wishing Thee Freedom chart from Homespun Elegance and got it stitched up. I stitched it on a smaller piece of linen because I plan on making it into a pillow so it wasn't necessary to have a regular sized border for framing. I need to get the brass buttons ordered and then the fabric purchased. When I have that completed I will show you the finished product.

I stitched on Quaker Alphabet Sampler as far as the thread would go and need to get some more ordered so I can get it finished. This is where I left off.

I also got all the little cowboys rounded up, er I mean, I got the Li'l Cowpokes quilt all done and ready to give to the baby I made it for when the time comes. Which is just around the corner. I hand quilted it in a large cross hatch and then for the border, I just did straight lines out. I love how it came out!

Guess that does it for me! Wonder if I will be back on Monday. Hmm... if you are wondering too, then maybe you should stop by and see. :)

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend and a warm one! Thanks for stopping by and gving me some of your time!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Another giveaway from Jan. Go check it out!

2011-01-25T14:47:00.000-08:00

Hey all! I wanted to let you all know about a giveaway that Jan of Belfonte Notes is having. Please check out her blog to find out more!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

We have a winner!!!

2011-01-18T04:20:00.000-08:00

GREETINGS DEAR FRIENDS AND BLOGGING BUDDIES! ~ Can it be Tuesday already?? I tell you what, January is going by fast!! Well, I'm sure you are all saying "get on with it" so here goes. The winner of the Prairie Schooler Bunny is Deborah of Cranberry Samplings! Congratulations Deborah! Now send me your mailing address by email so I can get this off to you! A big thank you to all who entered!

I hope you all are having a wonderful week so far. So far, mine has been pretty ok. I have been busy hand quilting on a baby gift and I'm just about done. I should have a pic up soon. Next I need to finish a quilt for my son's bed. He keeps asking "mom are you done yet"? So that's been nagging me and I shall get it done fairly soon. After that, I think I will settle in and work some on a couple of stitched pieces I'd like to get done, then we shall see after that.

Thanks for stopping by!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Giveaway time!!

2011-01-11T05:28:00.000-08:00

Greetings all!~ Well, I didn't get around to posting the next giveaway last week like I'd hoped. Sorry, you all will forgive me won't you?? Sometime last year I completed the April Square from A Prairie Year from The Prairie Schooler. I downsizing and culling out, I have decided that it would make a great giveaway someday. I thought Spring would be good , BUT now would be better . Sooo.... if you would like your name in the pot , just leave a comment on this post sometime between today and next Monday, January 17th. I will announce the winner on Tuesday.

Well... that's it for today. I will be back later this week with some show and tell. Thanks for visiting today!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

My first finish for 2011 !

2011-01-04T05:14:00.000-08:00

Greetings all!~ I hope you all had a nice New Year celebration, however it was that you celebrated. Here.... no hoopla... just watched movies , the ball drop from Times Square...and then the Benedryl I had to take kicked in and I went to bed at 11:30. Just thirty minutes before midnight, can you believe it? !! I almost made it , but once the Benedryl kicks in, it knocks me for a loop and I'm a goner!

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The mail can bring such nice surprizes sometimes. The other day I recieved a beautiful Shepherd's Bush scissor fob kit complete with scissors from Jolene for my birthday, which was yesterday, the big four-0! I decided that the scissor fob would make a great little first finish for the year and I set to work on it right away. I just love the way it turned out. Thank you SO MUCH my friend!

Aye yi yi ! I can't believe that there are so many of you that have joined the stitching challenge this year! All of you brave souls are sure going to be busy! I had entertained the thought for about ...oh , maybe 5 seconds. LOL. Then I realized that there was no way with my crazy life that I could commit to that. I don't make any New Year's resolutions, but there are a few things I would like to work on this year....one being not over-extending myself. Therefore, I am going to try my best to cut back on commitments that I know I am not going to fullfill.

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Later this week I hope to announce another giveaway, so be on the lookout! Thank you all so much for all of your visits, continued support, and friendship. It really does mean a lot!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Li'l Cowpokes

2010-12-31T04:25:00.000-08:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ Well here we are....the last day of 2010. Any of you have any plans? Well any plans we would have had for going out , like to a movie or something, have been shot! We started having car trouble last week and we thought it was bad gas. Nope! More serious....way more serious. Hubby spent the entire day fixing the car yesterday, so any money for going out went on car parts! Fooey!

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It is a little warmer here this morning. The thermometer actually reads 58 degrees! A nice change from waking up to it being 3-8 degrees wouldn't you say?

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One day last week, at least I think it was last week, I posted a snaparoo of some cute little cowboy fabric. Some of you may remember. Well, yesterday I spent the entire day piecing on a quilt. Now I know what some of you are thinking. I was indoors doing something fun in the warmth while hubby was outside doing something not so fun in the cold wind. Well, that may seem a little mean I guess . I can only get anything like that done when he is not in the house or is asleep , so I snatched the opportunity. My efforts yesterday produced this!

The pattern is called Baby Blocks and it is from the March 2000 issue of McCall's Quick Quilts. It will be a baby gift for one of my long time friends first grandchild! I can hardly wait 'til she gets it! I think I will include a copy of the book "The Pokey Little Puppy" from Golden books. Hopefully that book is still in print!

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Now I don't know about you all, but I myself don't make any resolutions for the New Year. I KNOW I wouldn't keep them! I DO , however , plan to do more quilting this coming year. I have been inspired by so many quilting blogs , especially Quilt Hollow , that I realized how much I miss quilting . I have been wrapped up in stitching ( cross stitching that is) that I have really been neglecting one of my other favorite past-times, quilting. So... the coming year will hopefully include a lot more. I will even pull out my Thimbleberries book today and work on a flying geese quilt I have wanted to piece for some time. Be one the lookout for pictures of that in the near future. Also...something else you'll want to be on the lookout for is another giveaway.Yep! I said another giveaway!

Well, that's all dear folks! Thank you to all of you for the wonderful comments you've left and for the wonderful friendships I have made this past year. I've enjoyed it ALL so much! I look forward to more in 2011!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Just some stitchin'

2010-12-29T05:43:00.000-08:00

Greetings all!~ I hope you all are going to have your themometers warmed up a little this week! We are due to 50-60 degree tmeps here in the Ozarks later this week. That will be considerably warmer than it has been here lately!

Yesterday I went and got my driver's license renewed. I don't know if this is a country wide thing or not, but here our license expires on our birthday the year they are due. I knew (all too well since it will be my 40th) that my birthday was coming up , so I trotted on down there. I was so afraid I wouldn't pass the eye exam because of all of the iritis trouble. I did pass, but barely! I now have two restrictions on my license. Glasses, that was a given, and an outside left mirror. I thought that last one was dumb, because that's a requirement for all vehicles anyhow. Oh well.

Remember last week when I posted the winnings from Peggy's drawing and I had gotten a little Shakespeare's Peddler scissor pocket kit? Well , I decided to stitch it up . Wow! Stitching on 40 count was a bit challenging for me! I love the way it worked up though! I didn't finish it off with a corner opening like the instructions said to do. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get my scissors out. The fabric that it is laying against is the fabric I used for the back. Just perfect I think. Thanks again dear Peggy! I will enjoy it for a long long time.

I started a new project. Well, actually I have started a few new projects. This one I started a couple of days ago. It is Quaker Alphabet Sampler from Rosewood Manor's Quakers and Quilts. I am stitching it all in one color using Currant from The Gentle Art. I am stitching it on 28 count Country French Linen in Wheat.

Well that's it for now friends. I am off to piece a little while on a baby quilt that I am giving as a gift.Thank you all for stopping by today!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Christmas gathering

2010-12-28T07:06:00.001-08:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ Just a quickie post to show some of the pics I took during our Christmas gathering. Since there are several ,I will keep the text to a minimum.

First up is my sister Tracey. She was wearing reindeer antlers and I think before the day was over just about everone ended up wearing them at some point.

Here is my neice Amanda. She is the next to the oldest grandchild of my parents and she is the daughter to my sister Keena.

This is my sister Keena and her grandson Cooper. He is my neice Amanda's son.

A few of the family sitting around talking. L to R is my SIL Janette, brother David (married to Janette), sister Tracey, Aspen (long time girlfriend of Ben, nephew Ben (Tracey's son) , BIL Curtis (Tracey's DH) brother Danny, and nephew Joe (David's son ) .

Ben and Aspen. You always see them together! They plan to marry one day but want to finish college first. Smart move I'd say.

My mom, dad, and baby brother Danny.

Here is my brother David getting comfy after the big meal.

There was a total of 24 at our house this year. Whew! We were tired afterwards! We wouldn't have it any other way!

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday filled with wonderful warm memories!

Happy New Year everyone!

'til next time ,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

The kindness of others....

2010-12-21T04:34:00.000-08:00

GREETINGS DEAR FRIENDS AND BLOGGING BUDDIES!~ Lately I have had lots of kindness bestowed upon me. Recently I won Peggy's giveaway on her blog. The package arrived in the mail yesterday!

She cleverly wrapped everything is ths old pattern paper. Isn't that a great idea?

Now I had seen my winnings on her blog, but it is nothing like having it in my own hands! She sent tons of stuff! A BBD 2011 Calander, some stitcher's hand cream in the scent of Blackberry Vanilla ( my favorite scent), a tin of Burt's Bees lip balm, oatmeal soap, a kit from Shakespeare's Peddler, the list goes on and on. Hopefully you can see everything in the picture.

See the pins in the strawberry? She made those herself and I think they are just lovely!

I just love this little Willow Tree Angel! Been wanting one for a long time too! The flower frog for holding scissors is great too! Didn't really understand what all the rage was about those 'til I got one! It is so pretty!

And this big guy... my husband and I had watched a special on the Travel channel some time back about different places in the US that still make candy by hand and the maker of this one, Hammond's , was on that show. They showed how the candy canes were made. Very neat that I have one , but who can tell how long it will last! I love candy canes! Thank you so very very much Peggy! I will treasure it all!

I recently won another giveaway from Melissa's blog. I had been pondering what linen to stitch this on and was making a list of the special overdyed threads I would need for it. Just so happens that I was needing CC's Second Hand Rose and that was one of the flosses that Peggy sent me! When I get some spare time and things calm down from the holiday season, I plan on getting this one stitched up!

Nicky from New Zealand sent me this cute Lizzie Kate Santa. A Good Night was a pattern from the Santa Snippet series that I had been wanting and she was so very kind to send it to me! Thank you Nicky! Didn't have time to stitch it up this year. I will indeed get it done for next year though!

Well... that does it for this edition of The Happy Needle. Thank you so much for visiting and for your continued friendships and support.

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

We have a winner!!!

2010-12-17T04:20:00.001-08:00

GOOD FRIDAY MORNING EVERYONE!!! ~ Whew! I can hardly believe that the weekend is here already! I simply MUST get all my Christmas done TODAY! I have only gotten one thing so far! I am way behind. Ok, ok, I bet now you're all saying "stop chattering and give us the winner already"! LOL Well...... that would be....

Kathy A. of Kathy's Sit and Stitch! Congratulations Kathy! Email me your address so I can get this out to you ! Hope you enjoy the charts. Will there be more in the future you ask. You bet, so stick around because you never know when they may pop up!

Well, I have really been in quite a quilty mood lately and when I seen the fabrics down below, I just knew I HAD to put my paws on it ! I instantly knew what pattern to use and who to make it for . Isn't it just so cute?! Just perfect for a little boy don't you think? The focal fabric is by Michael Miller and the other two prints are made especially for Hobby Lobby but go just perfect with the cowboy print. I can hardly wait to get my hands on that rotary cutter!

*EDITED FOR CORRECTION* ~ I was just looking at the selvidge of the blue fabric as I was cutting it and I see that I was mistaken about it being a Hobby Lobby print . It is a Michael Miller print as well called Bandana Blitz. The red is printed for Hobby Lobby though. Thought I would mention it for the inquiring minds that may want to know. :)

I hope you all have a most wonderful and hopefully warmer weekend! I appreciate all of the comments you leave and the emails you send. They mean a lot! Thank you ALL for stopping by . I hope you visit again real soon! Now I think I will see what I can get done with that rotary cutter before the guys get up!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

A Christmas Quilt Finish!

2010-12-16T05:13:00.000-08:00

GREETINGS ALL! ~ It's getting closer isn't it? The BIG day, and I got my Christmas quilt done just about in time. I absolutely love the way it turned out! It is a little bit older line from the girls of Holly Taylor for Moda called Birchwood Lane. I think this is like the third Christmas since it came out , so I've had it around to complete for a bit haven't I?

The cardinal is my favorite of the printed blocks.

If you are interested in the Just Nan charts that I have up for grabs from the last post, you must enter that drawing by midnight tonight , as I choose the winner tomorrow!

Well, I need to keep this short and sweet today. I have a TON of things to get done! I hope you all are having some peace with this busyness of the hustle and bustle this time of year brings. Thank you so much for your continued visits, support , friendship, and inspiration!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

A Just Nan Giveaway!

2010-12-10T08:04:00.000-08:00

ATTENTION JUST NAN FANS ! ~ I am doing some life changing and with that is coming some down sizing! In doing so , I am finding that I have many charts that I no longer desire to keep. So , that being said.... I am doing a giveaway for ALL 5 of the Just Nan charts below. That's right... one lucky winner will receive all five of the Just Nan charts below. I'm sorry , but only one has the charm to it and that's the "Charlotte" chart . No other threads or beads are included.

The charts are : Spring in the Air, Summer Stroll, Ariel, Charlotte, and Twinkle Bear.

If you are interested in becoming the lucky winner of these charts, just leave a comment on this post only and I'll draw a name next Friday, Dec. 17th!

Good luck to all!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

A dash of Christmas Cheer Part 2

2010-12-09T08:13:00.000-08:00

GREETINGS DEAR FRIENDS AND BLOGGING BUDDIES!~ I hope you all are doing your level best to stay warm! It is supposed to be a little warmer here the next two days and then snowy on Saturday. The forecaster actually said light snow, usually here that means we're gonna get dumped on! We shall see!

Still having some internet issues from the cold so I will get through this as quick as possible. I mentioned that we have our decorating done and the lights are on the house. I can't believe that I forgot to move all the storage containers and what not out of the way before I took this picture the other night! Oh well, you get the idea.

I just love the red and white lights together!

I mentioned a little while back about our tree being a little different this year. Ok , no one laugh, but you know those skinny pre-lit trees that are made for entry ways? You know, the ones that aren't ment to have ornaments haning on them? Well, guess what? We have ornaments haning on it! LOL . We opted to go for a little more woodsy look this year and this tree seemed to fit the bill, so there ya go! My husband added the lantern and the fishing rod to make it look a little more official in the "woodsy" department.

The tree skirt that I was working on, finally completed and in it's spot.

Hmm.... wonder if I should make a part 3 installment? I think this just about covers it though, except for a Christmas quilt that I've been working on that I will probably finish up today.

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods! Thanks for your visit today and for the wonderful comments! You all take care.

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

A dash of Christmas Cheer Part 1

2010-12-07T07:30:00.001-08:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies! ~ We have been having lots of trouble with our internet here due to the cold weather. I haven't been able to visit many blogs as I am kicked off A LOT . Sorry for being MIA. There are so many great posts and giveaways and ideas. I am having to miss them as I am not able to stay on long enough to get to them it seems. Such as life I suppose.

So how's your Christmas decorating coming along?? I am in full swing with it, just about done. I needed to already have it done so that I could enjoy it longer. It just about there. I have so many pictures to share so I thought I would share them over the course of the week. So I will just get on with it.

Remember me showing you a picture of a recent finish, Sweeping Snowflakes, from With Thy Needle and Thread? I had a couple of ideas tossing about in my head on how to finish it. I finally decided on a little wooden crate that I painted a nice Avocado green . Then mounted the snowman on the front. I put some pinecones inside and viola!

Recognize the pitiful little tree with the red ornament next to it? Yep, that's right1 It's the little tree from A Charlie Brown Christmas. I thought it worked next to the crate.

I needed a new centerpiece for my kitchen table and ran across a wonderful sale at Hobby Lobby. I found a wonderful candle ring on sale half price for $5. Then I did some scouting in the candle department and found a wonderfully cranberry scented candle on sale for $4. Pretty nice arrangement for $9 don'tcha think?

My mother gave me these resin Birch Tree candle holders a few years back. I thought they were the perfect compliment for the new table runner I just finished up.

One of my favorite wintertime decorations are snowmen. You put 'em out at Christmas and leave 'em out all winter. I just love these two getting warm by the fire. They were a gift from my sister last year and they are sooo cute!

I hope your day is a warm one! Thank you so much for coming by today and spending part of your day with me. I always look forward to your visits!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

A non stitchy post

2010-12-03T05:59:00.001-08:00

Hello everyone!! ~ Just poppin' in real quick with a non-creative post. We went to Oklahoma for the Thanksgiving holiday to visit with my husband's side of the family . We had 11 total in the house. When you have 6 adults and 5 kids constantly using the bathroom, guess what you end up with? A stopped up toilet! My in-laws have carpet in the bathroom , so I guess you know what Grandpa was busy with! It wound up not being so bad. We took lots of pictures but I won't bore you with them all , just a few. ;)

I am always snapping surprize pictures of the guys and on our way down on Wednesday night , I couldn't resist. Here is our son asking me just what am I doing? LOL I love it!

Here is my beautiful sister-in-law Jerilyn and her son, my nephew Gabe. You can see one of the roaming garbage disposals in the background. Her name is Sadie and she belongs to Jerilyn. She is a very sweet dog.

I just love the collection of dream catchers my mother -in-law has over her fireplace. My sister-in-law Jennifer made the two smaller ones, and the big one to the right.

Here the boys are getting ready to go hunting with Grandpa.

The three Muskateers. L to R: Keegan, Alex, and Gabe.

Leaving beautiful Grand Lake. Still pretty now, but much prettier, and busier, in the Spring and Summer.

We are busy with getting our Christmas decorating done and and that jazz , so I will have more to show on Monday. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! And don't freeze your tails off! It's 26 degrees here... brrrr!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Over the river and through the woods, to Grandmother's house we go!

2010-11-23T04:33:00.000-08:00

** I dedicate this post to Mary , Quilt Hollow , with whom I share an inside joke about stitching! Big waves to you Mary! "**

Greetings all! ~ I hope you all are having a wonderful week so far. I know most of you must be getting ready for all of the hustle and bustle the season brings. I am amazed at how many people I have heard that has already gotten their Christmas shopping done! Now , there's some busy beavers for you! I have yet to start mine!

Though I haven't gotten any Christmas shopping done, doesn't mean the smell of evergreen, fresh baked cookies and a sloo of things to add to the Yuletide fare, have not entered my brain. Those thoughts have been really heavy on my brain. Those that were readers of my blog last year may recall that I had simple gift ideas posted on Fridays. Though I would love to do that again this year, I just simply don't have the time. I am not good at labeling my posts, but if you go to my posts in the archives from this time last year, you'll find them. I also have another blog that I will be adding to the top of my sidebar for ideas for the season.

Ok, so now on to what's been keeping me on my toes. First up I absolutely fell in love with a new design by Brenda Gervais of With Thy Needle and Thread titled "Sweeping Snowflakes". That little snowman is just the cutest! It is the second design in her broom series. Though I wanted to stitch it so bad as a band for a wisk broom ( I even picked one up) I simply can not see to stitch over one very well anymore. I opted to stitch over two which made it much bigger, too big for the broom. I must now come up with another idea to finish it off. I have one or two , so I 'll do some thinkin' and see what I come up with.

Here he is in all his cuteness!!!

Next, I have really been wanting some new Christmas decorating accessories . In my last post I showed some fabric I'd been squirreling away and I fianlly found the projects I wanted to do with some of it. I pieced a table runner . It is from the book I showed the other day, "Cardinal Season" from Gathering Friends. It's called 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. This worked up so quickly. Cutting and sewing I think was about two hours. Probably less, but I had to take time out to make coffee, and put wash in and take it out of the dryer. You know those pesky things called household chores? LOL . I still have to layer, baste, and quilt it but I will be doing it on the machine and it should go fairly quick.

Here is a companion piece. It is called Sweet Inspiration , from the same book. It can either be a table topper or a tree skirt. I will transform it into a tree skirt. After I have it all quilted and before adding the binding, I will cut into one side , then a hole in the center and bind. YIKES! The cutting is making me nervous! It will match our new tree nicely!

I also pulled out the Pinion Pines blocks from last year to work on this weekend. Did I ever get around to piecing on it? Nope! As you can see above, I had too many other irons in the fire!

I did manage to pull off Mexican Casserole for dinner Sunday night. It was a nice treat after being so busy on the weekend!

Well, this will be the only post this week as we will be heading down tomorrow to my mother-in-law's house for a few days. I hope YOU ALL have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving that will be remembered for years to come!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

The thoughts are churning.....

2010-11-18T06:08:00.001-08:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies! ~ Brrr, it's getting cold here! Ok, granted , I'm not out in the deer woods where it would be even colder , especially since it's been raining here. The temps have dropped quite a bit here though. This morning it is 35 degrees and last Thursday it was in the 70's. No wonder I am starting to get scratchy throat!

Well, I have been doing lots of pondering on what to do for Christmas. How to decorate this year and what projects I want to work on. Then a light bulb went off in my head and I remembered that I had stitched up a BBD stocking this summer from the December stocking book. So I went searching for it to finish into a stocking. But then .... what fabric do I use for the back? Did I already have something suitable or do I need to go shopping. Well the breaks came to a screeching halt on a shopping trip when another light bulb went off. I remembered that my sister had just given me some fabric and in it was some Christmas fabric. But again, would it be suitable? So I went searching for the bag and found it. Bingo! It was just perfect! So here is the stocking and that is the print that I used for the back.

I also decided last week that I needed to pull the flannel quilt out again that I was working on last winter for my son's bed. For those that didn't see it last year, here it is again.

Now I have been trying to come up with something to do with this fabric that I have held on to for the past few years. I decided that THIS was the year it would get transformed into something. Just got to do some more thinking on this!

I am considering a project from the book below for the fabric above. The book is Cardinal Season by Gathering Friends. I just love their pattern books. Those two are geniuses !

I will spend part of the day trying to plot and plan what else I can come up with! LOL . I also have a couple of pieces that I have been stitching on as well. I hope I will get it all done!

Thanks so much for stopping by and for all of your wonderful comments!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

We have a winner!!!

2010-11-17T05:09:00.000-08:00

Hello all! ~ Just a quick note to announce the winner of the Bent Creek chart Gobble. The winner is April Mechelle!! Please send me your address via email as soon as possible!

I have been doing a little planning for Christmas decorating and stitching and I plan on showing some of that sometime before the week gets totally away from me!

Stay tuned for some more giveaways!

Hope you all have a great day! Thanks for visiting!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Holiday finishes...and a giveaway!

2010-11-12T06:54:00.000-08:00

Greetings all!~ I hope everyone is doing well. My, we are having some wacky tempertures here in the Ozark Mountains! Cold at night with temps in the 30's and 40's, and warm during the day with temps in the 70's. I fear I am going to catch a cold from this! I feeling better than I was the other day though.

To answer a question from the other day about the quilting. The Turkey is a banner that will go on the wall. I still need to hang it as I still have not gotten a dowl rod for it.

The last couple of days I have been finishing up some projects and can now get them framed this weekend. First up is Gobble from Bent Creek. I have stitched it using the recommended threads and I stitched it on 32 ct. Country French Latte' linen. I think it turned out nice.

Next up is Long Winter , also Bent Creek. I used the recommends threads on this as well. It is stitched on 32 ct. Lambswool linen. I wanted to use the called for Mount Vernon Mist but couldn't find it anywhere. The lambswool isn't too bad though.

Well , so on to the giveaway. That will be the chart for Gobble. If you are interested in a chance to win the chart, just leave a comment on this post only. I will draw a name .... let's say ... on Wednesday. That should give everyone a chance to enter that wants to.

I have tons to do today so I gotta get crackin'! Hope you all have a great weekend! Thanks for the visit and come again real soon!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Dancing with a turkey!

2010-11-09T06:03:00.000-08:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ I hope you all are doing well today! I on the other hand, am starting to feel like I am coming down with something. I sure hope not, but it feels like it!

I did a little baking yesterday . Nothing elaborate. Just in the mood for something so I decided to make a German Chocolate cake. I had to substitute the icing as the store was out of the typical icing for that sort of cake. I used caramel and then sprinkled cocunt on top.

I am doing a little happy dance with my turkey! I finished him up last night and I really like the way he turned out.

I'm sure you can't tell well in the picture, but I used a different red for his wattle than what I did for his tail feathers. It has black in it and was more appropriate.

Well friends, that's it for today. Thanks for stopping by! And to all of my new followers. if you have a blog that you would like for me to follow , just post a link in the comments. Hope you all have a great day!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Giveaway winner!!!

2010-11-08T06:33:00.000-08:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ I am back to shar with you all the name of the winner of the Bushel & A Peck chart. The winner is....drum roll.... FAYE of Carolina Stitcher! Congratulations Faye! I will get this out to you shortly! Now for the rest of you who entered, have no fear. I am culling out my charts and there will be more to come for giveaways. Want to know just when ? Well, stay tuned and you'll find out! :)

I got the Gobble Gobble Turkey Banner, pieced, quilted , and now it is just ready for the binding. I hope to finish that up today. While we are on the subject of gobbling... there were a few that guessed my mystery piece that I am working on. Yes, my fellow gobblers... it is indeed Gobble from Bent Creek. I did work some on it this weekend, but I spent the majority of the time working on the turkey banner, shopping for jeans for the boy , who is trying like the dickens NOT to stay in his clothes longer than a couple of months at a time. Boy those teens can grow fast! We also spent some time at a new location for a grocery store that we have in town. Way ot busy in there right now. We also went shopping for a new Christmas tree. I know you are probably all gasping at how could a buy a fake tree! Well, see, I get really tired of running those pine needles in my feet all year. Why IS it that they stick in the carpet so bad? We found a tree. It's a little different , but it's pre-lit and we like it.

Well folks, I will go and let you all get back to your lives as usual. Hope this week brings you some joy to brighten your days!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

A new blog on the block!

2010-11-06T16:00:00.000-07:00

Hey kiddos! There is a new blog on the block that I just had to let you all know about. It belongs to Miss Catherine. Many of you know her by her comments she leaves on your blogs. Some of us have gotten to know her a little more through emails we exchange. You must go check it out and become a follower because I just know she'll have wonderful things to share!

Have a great rest of the week everyone!
Sharlotte

New Projects and an Exchange

2010-11-05T05:09:00.001-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies! ~ I can almost hear you all from here saying that you can hardly believe that I have posted almost everyday this week! I'm surprised myself. Isn't it amazing what little things that happen in life can really change how much time you have for something? Well , at any rate, I'm glad you all stopped by today and will stick around a little while to see what's going on in my world today.:)

I received a wonderful exchange this week from Melissa. We were in a Fall Exchange. She stitched an awesome piece and turned it into a lid for a basket. I think the design is a JBW one. Anyone know for sure what this one is? Then as an act of kindness she sent some Ghiradelli chocolate, a little pumpkin figure, a pair of black and white stork embroidery scissors, a couple of fall colored fat quarters, and a cute little pumpkin plant pick. I enjoy it ALL Melissa, thank you very much!

Ok, I mentioned that I was going to be starting another project yesterday. I began stitching and this was as far as I got.

I didn't take a picture of the chart, so I thought I would leave you all guessing on what I am stitching. Anyone know???

I used to have a subscription to McCall's Quilting Quick Quilts. I just love the little sseasonal banners by Pat Sloan that they always publish. This particular one of this little turkey, I have wanted to sew up ever since it came out. Well, that was 11 years ago, and I am FINALLY going to make it this year.

Here are the fabrics I purchased for it. I put them in the wash and now they are just ready for me to get my hands on my rotary cutter and get cutting!

Here's a couple of the fabrics upclose.

I hope you all stay tuned for how these two projects turn out. If you want to sign up for the drawing for the Bushel & A Peck chart from yesterday, be sure and do so before Monday morning as I will be drawing the name then. Thanks so much for stoppimg by today!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

A Bushel & A Peck Finish and a giveaway!

2010-11-04T05:53:00.000-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ Well , as promised yesterday, here is the Bushel & A Peck all finished! So without further ado....

I really enjoyed stitching this ! I also enjoyed hearing all the stories from some of you of what this little ditty of a song meant to you. I figure with that in mind, and the fact that I received it as an act of kindness, I would pass it on to one of you. So , here goes....if you are interested in being included in the drawing for this chart, just leave a comment on this post . Then on Monday, Nov.8, I will post a winner. Pretty simple I think.

Yesterday I received a wonderful exchange in the mail, which I will share more on tomorrow. Gotta have a subject to post about you know. *wink* I may even have a picture of a new piece that I will be starting today!

Well, thanks all for your visit today and for the wonderful comments! Please come back and visit again soon! Oh, and don't forget to sign up for the drawing! Good luck!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Fall Exchange

2010-11-03T05:59:00.001-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ I learned yesterday that my partner, Marie W., I stitched for in the HOE/HOE II Fall Exchange had recieved her stitched piece. I stitched Turkey Flatbed from Bent Creek on natural linen, and used a cube finish. This was the first time I had used this finish and I hope I did it correctly as I was just guessing! LOL I really like the way it turned out and may have to do this one for myself.

I am planning on being back tomorrow to show my progress/ possible finish of Bushel & A Peck that I have been working on.

Thank you so much for all of your visits, comments, and emails. I appreciate them so much! :)

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Jolly Santas

2010-11-02T05:46:00.001-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies! ~ Well , here is another quick little post from me to show that I haven't fallen off the face of the Earth! Been busy with a party we had this past Friday and then of course I was doing more knitting. With that out of the way for a little while , I have had some time for stitching. I have worked quite a bit on Bushel & A Peck , but I was also in the mood to do some Christmas stitching.

Up first is re-post of a piece from last year. I am re-posting it as I have a lot more followers this year that haven't yet seen it. It is Lizzie*Kate's Just Be Claus.

This next one is one that I just finished. It is another one of Lizzie*Kate's , By Golly Be Jolly. I have stitched this one before and wanted to stitch it again.

I will be finishing these two into pillows for the couch. I would like to eventually stitch LK's To All A Good Night, but I still need to purchase the pattern.

Well, that's it for today . I will try to get caught up on some blog reading. Thanks so much for stopping by and for the comments. I appreciate them so much!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Bushel & A Peck and seeing stars

2010-10-21T05:44:00.000-07:00

Greetings dear friend and blogging buddies! ~ Ahh... 'tis another day of busyness ahead of me. Those are just about constant these days it seems! I thought I would take a minute to show you all the fruits of some of what is keeping me on my toes these days.

I just had to start Bushel & A Peck right away! What bit I have gotten done on it has gone much faster than I anticipated. I can hardly wait 'til it is done. I think I have found the perfect place for it! :) Thanks again dear Myra! As a result of your generousity, it has given me the oppurtunity to meet someone who isn't too terribly far from me. ((( Waving big to you Tina! )))

Now I have been talking for some time now about wanting to redecorate my smaller bathroom in the Patriotic style.Finally, here are a few pics of that. First off, I was able to get some fabric for a valance for $3.49! I didn't want to make a very full one as I was wanting the stars to really show. I just love the way it looks and I LOVE the bargain price! :) I found some paper mache' stars, painted them dark red, antique white, and navy blue. Then I used poster gum ( handi - tak to some of you) to attach them to the wall. Those were just 50 cents a piece, so only $3 to frame the window out!

Some time ago I borrowed the pattern "Patriotic Row" from Bent Creek from Natalie. I was going to originally make a valance out of it , but decided to make a window sill pillow instead. I used ribbon that I got in the 4th of July exchange I was in for HOE/ HOE II . Just perfect for it!

Up next is another design from Bent Creek simply title Flag. I thought this would go quite nicely. Then I have Hometown Gameboard from Little House Needleworks that I had made into a little checkerboard game tray some time ago. That sits on the back of the toilet and the Flag piece resides above.

The flag arrangement I'm sure you all recongnize from a recent post. The candleholder is from Partylite and has long since been discontinued. I have had it tucked away in a drawer for eons and due to the color, I found just the right place to use it.

Oh, here is a closer shot of that gameboard....

.... and one of the flag.

I still have two more walls to go . I know that I am going to be adding LHN's America when I get it framed. I don't know just yet what to do with the other wall. It's a very small space. so it won't need much.

Well, that will be it today folks! I hope you all have a great great day ! Thank you so much for stopping by and for the comments. They truly make me smile!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Flowers, decorating, and a wonderful RAK

2010-10-19T05:42:00.001-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies! ~ Thank you so much for stopping by today! I do appreciate your visits!

Now I do not have a green thumb. I always say that it is brown! LOL I even have a stitched pillow with a design from Bent Creek that says so. I'll have to show it again soon. Anyway... I am amazed that my rose bush is still alive and kickin'! I was looking at it the other day and noticed that several of the buds are turning two colors. It was a cream colored rose bush for the longest time and now some of them are starting to turn pink! Hopefully you can tell in the picture that there are two different colored roses on this bush. I guess it is trying to show support for Breast Cancer awareness!

Well every now and again I like to change things around in my house. I get a little bored with things sometimes and go on a little decorating jag. Lately I have been attacking my kitchen and small bathroom. I rearranged my shelf in my kitchen and adding a few things. Below is some things I have added. I love the towel from Dan DiPalo and I decided the shelf needed a small bowl of eggs (plaster of Paris ones) . On that shelf I have a milk bottle from a local dairy, Memory Lane. I found a new home for a very old Coca-Cola gobblet that used to belong to my grandpa. I thought with it being glass and having red on it, it would go well. I added a wonderful little fresh eggs sign that I got at Hobby Lobby and also a rooster hook that came from Jo-Ann's. I love the way it turned out!

I received a wonderful RAK in the mail from Myra. I have wanted this chart for quite some time. My mom used to sing this song to me when I was little and I STILL sing it to my 13 year old son sometimes! For those inquiring minds that want to know, YES I started it already! LOL.

So also sent me one of her adorable little birds she makes! Isn't it sweet? I have it on a cabinet nob in my laundry room that hangs over the washer. It cheers me up when I'm back there doing the dreaded laundry task! I picked the basket up at Jo-Ann's.

Well , hopefully I will be back this week with some decorating I have been doing in my Patriotic bathroom. Thank you all so much for all of your wonderful comments! They keep my going and really make my day!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Check this out!!

2010-10-18T10:13:00.000-07:00

Greetings all! I wanted to let you all know about a give away Terri is having over at Dixie Samplar Designs. Hurry on over and check it out!

Good luck!
Sharlotte

Project Finishing

2010-10-11T05:41:00.000-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies! ~ Thank you all SO MUCH for the comments on my last post! I appreciate them SO much. I would like to give a warm welcome to my new followers as well!

Natalie asked in the comments if she could see the cabinet full of stockings. Well... that cabinet isn't full of stockings LOL. I do have some stitching in there and some figurines so I thought I would go ahead a take a picture.

Every now and again I find a bargain at a yard sale that I just can't pass up. I got this little painted galvanized bucket at a sale for a quarter! I knew that it wouldn't be left the way it was, so with some paint , some flags, greenery, and some ribbon.... this....

became THIS!

I picked up the flags around the 4th of July at Hobby Lobby for 50 cents each. I had the paint and ribbon , so the entire thing cost me $1.25. Not bad huh? I plan on putting it in my patriotic bathroom , that I will eventually get finished.

I also whipped up the Fall blanket for my little sheep. Here is the result of that effort.

I finsihed BBD's Autumn Song and was really eager to get it finished into a box. I wanted to use the dark paint but couldn't find the right shade so I opted for Delta's spice Brown instead. For the band and the lining in the bottom , I used a print that had leaves and acorns on it. I think it goes really well.

Well, that will be it for today ! I will hopefully be back this week for another post, we shall see.

You all take care and I hope you all have a great week! I hope you all enjoyed your visit today! Come and visit again real soon! :)

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Jack O' Lantern stocking finish

2010-10-08T06:39:00.001-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies! ~ I want to thank all of you for your wonderful comments on my last post. I appreciate them so much! :) Kind of hard to believe that I am having 2 posts in the same week the way things have been going huh? LOL

I finished up the Jack O' Lantern stocking this morning. I might stitch a couple more this weekend. Have to see how things go.

Well now that I have finished up those afgahns I was working on , I have a lot of yarn left over. I have been pondering what I will do with it and have decided to knit up some hats for cancer patients. That will keep me busy, I have LOTS of that yarn left! I am also working on a new pair of socks for moi and can hardly wait til I get them done.

Just a quick little post today to show that I still know how to finish something! :) Hope you ALL have a wonderful weekend!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Simple Joys completed...

2010-10-06T05:23:00.000-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies! ~ Whew! I am finally done with all of those afgahns and can hopefully get back to life that feels somewhat normal!! First off here, I want to thank all of you who have stuck around and waited on me to come back. I fully exspected to loose followers during that time instead of gain them! So I am pleasantly pleased! :) One thing that all needleworks share, is how we inspire one another. I have really missed reading blogs on a regular basis and being inspired by all of you wonderful needleworkers out there. While I work to get my creative mojo back, I look forward to reading the blogs again and drawing that inspiration from you all!! Jackie ~ I too have seen that new pumpkin design from Little House Needleworks. I hope to get that one too! :)

Well , here it is! Simple Joys all finished! I am looking forward to finding just the right frame and getting this displayed. I love all of the colors!!

I got another litte quick stitch done from the BBD book 'Tis Hallowe'en. I am hoping to get a few more of those stitched and then finished into little stockings to get them hung.

There are so many giveaways going on in blogland! Wow, I can hardly believe all of them out there! One you need to check out if you haven't already is one being held for each day of October, aka the 31 Days of Halloween, hosted by Missy Ann and Annette. Check it out if you haven't already.

Speeking of giveaways, I was pleasantly informed by Edgar yesterday that I won his Hobbit Birthday Giveaway!! I am really jazzed about this and can hardly wait til I can share with you all what he will be sending! I just know it will be fantastic!

Thank you all for all of your wonderful comments and support. It means A LOT! Thanks to to those of you that commented on my header picture. Come closer and I'll tell you a litte secret. (whispering) It's recycled from last year! LOL

Well, excuse me dear friends and blogging buddies, while I leave you all to go and make myself busier than a family of beavers! I have lots and lots to catch up on!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Day #2 of the giveaway!

2010-10-02T15:00:00.003-07:00

Today is Day #2 of the 31 Days of Halloween Giveaway. Go Stop by Missy Ann's blog if you haven't yet today!

Sharlotte

The 31 Days of Halloween Giveaway has begun!

2010-10-01T17:45:00.001-07:00

Greetings all! The 13 Days of Halloween Giveaway has begun. This year Missy has a partner in crime , Annette. Go check out the fun HERE.

Good luck!
Sharlotte

Another giveaway .....

2010-09-22T08:36:00.001-07:00

Just wanted to let you all know about another giveaway. Katherine is having a giveaway that you can check out HERE.

Simple Joys progress and a Hobbit giveaway

2010-09-21T06:33:00.000-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies! ~

First off , I want to mention about Edgar's Hobbit Birthday drawing that he is having. As if you all haven't already seen it! Run on over and check it out.

Ok, I meant to start posting a little more often. Bare with me as life passes me by! LOL. Cole had asked if any of the men from the Celtic Festival had Scottish or Irish accents to go with thier kils. Yes, actually , there were a few. I really enjoyed talking to them. It almost felt like we were on vacation to the isles!

I have spent some time working on Simple Joys, but mostly playing " catch up" with some things. Yes, Maggee, this design is LHN. I just love it! I love the new one coming out, and will probably have to get that one as well. :) . Here's the progress so far. Sorry the picture isn't great, but for some reason the flash wouldn't go off this morning. Gotta frog the row going down the left side, as I realized that I used the wrong green. Of course, none of you ever do that right? ;)

Thanks for those that mentioned my glasses. Funny thing though.... I took my son in for an exam and just happened to mention that I didn't think the glasses were as strong as they seemed to be when I was in the office getting them. Next thing I know, I'm in the exam chair. Result.... stronger lenses! :( Part of the problem is these blasted cateracts! I hope they won't look like Coke bottle bottoms! Like my husband said though, at least I'll be able to see. Oh , and my son will be getting glasses too. He doesn't need them very bad though, his vision is 20/25. Pretty good I'd say.

Well , I shall run. For those of you who have recently ( within the last couple of months) became a follower, please pass on your blog link if you have one, so I can check it out. Thank you all for stopping by and for the comments and continued friendships. They really do mean a lot!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Helping teen moms to be.....

2010-09-14T20:07:00.000-07:00

Greetings all! A friend of mine has started a new website to help teens who have found themselves facing motherhood. Regardless of how you may feel about premarital sex, the fact is, it happens. When that happens and a teen becomes pregnant, they are scared and overwhelmed by it all and many times have no where to turn. During this time they need to know that someone cares and is there for support. My friend , whose own daughter is a teen facing motherhood, is an NICU RN and has worked for an obgyn and has lots of experience in this field. While the site is still new, and there are some things that still need to be added, there is quite a bit of info on the site already. I think at some point in our lives, we've all known someone that this has happened to .This site will lend non-judgemental Christian counseling and support. If you have some time, or so desire , you can check it out here: http://teenmom2b.com Perhaps you may know a teen now that can use this site where they can connect with others who are going through the same thing.

Thanks,
Sharlotte

Woo Hoo , I'm stitching again!!!!!

2010-09-14T06:19:00.000-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ I am finally done with all of those afghans and can get back to stitching as normal ! Oh , I enjoy the time, had some frustrations too along the way. But I have really been longing for getting on some stitching projects and am glad that I now have the time! Catherine asked if I could show some pictures of the afghans. Well, I would like to, and had started to when I first began. However, they are models for a new book that will be coming out for the designer I knit for , so I thought it was probably best that I stopped doing that. Don't want to cut ties you know.

Here is the stitching that I have been working on. I finished up the house yesterday , all but the chimneys and the crossbars in the windows. Started a couple more flowers and a good portion of the flower stem up the side of the house. Not sure what I will get done today. It feels so good to put needle to fabric again!

I recently started wearing glasses and I had a couple of you ask if I could please post of picture of me wearing them. This is not super great. Looks like I had even forgot to put on makeup. I wish my photographer , aka my son, would have told me. LOL I don't know if you can tell or not, but they are a dark red. I really like them and although it's not perfect, ( because of all of the damage the iritis left me with) it's nice to be able to see a little better after all this time!

We went to a wonderful Celtic Festival and Highland Games event this past weekend. We had so much fun! I even ran into my brother and his family, who I hadn't expected to see that day. That was a nice surprise! My husband belongs to the Cameron Clan and I to the Home/Hume Clan. Neither of our clans were there this year, but we had fun watching the gathering of the clans to march in the parade anyway. Here they are getting all lined up.

This next shot is of the Central High School Kilties. They are the oldest all girl marching band here in the states and date back to 1926. A lot of my family and my husband's and my family have graduated from this high school and it was very cool to see them. They even did a show , but there were so many people that were watching , I couldn't get a good shot.

Here is Alex ( in the black ), dueling in the boffer weapons tournament. Nope , he didn't win. He had fun though.

They also had carriage rides.

This couple and a pal of theirs demoed weapons and gave a history and meaning of each one. It was very interesting. They were very good duelers as well.

I have to tell you a funny story. There were hay bails placed around for people to sit on. There were three kids sitting on one, Alex included. They always , unbeknowst to the crowd, charge at certain point in their show. When they did this, they charged toward Alex and the other two kids. It scared Alex so bad, he screamed , jumped up and ran several yards from the spot where they were.It was so very funny. The duelers even had to stop a minute because they were laughing so hard! We were finally able to convence Alex to take a picture with them, only after they told him he could hold some weapons to protect himself against them. LOL

Here is one of the bagpipe players that were there. They were all very good.

Lastly, here are some beautiful wolf hounds that were there. The one on the right, is only about 2 1/2 years old and weighs 200 lbs! These guys were huge! The owners have 4 altogether. They were all there, but I only got a shot of these two.

Well, sorry this post was kind of long. It's been so long, I had a lot to share! Thank you all for all of your continued visits and for your wonderful comments! I do so love reading them! Come back real soon!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Boys can sew too!!!

2010-09-09T06:31:00.001-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ Whew! Still working on all of those afghans. I'm on the last one though, so hoping life will return to normal soon!

My mom and dad's 54th wedding anniversary was yesterday! Not a whole lot of people making it that far these days.

On Fridays I have started to teach sewing to some young children. I know I have mentioned the little girl, Nyah , whom I have been teaching to knit. I think I have mentioned the sewing here but can't remember for sure. Anyway. Here they are sewing away on bourses, except without the stitching inside.

Like the title says, boys can sew too. Here is my youngest student Jack. He picked a couple of nice bear prints and will use his for carrying his army men. He started later than the girls , who are older, but finished before they did. He had lots of fun!

Here is Taylor sewing away on hers. She choose a couple of very cute prints with ladybugs on them. I wish I had gotten a better picture of the fabric, but I tell ya, with working with small children, I stayed plenty busy!

Last , but certainly not least, is Abbey. She chose a really cute fabric that had pink flowers on a blue background. The inside was a solid pink. Her mother tells me that she has not put her purse down since last Friday!!! Can't tell she's proud!! LOL.

Tomorrow we are going to work on pillowcases. These kids are so enthusiastic! Should be lots of fun! While I work with the kids, one of the moms work with my son on geography , so it works out great!

Well, there's not much else going on except the same 'ole same 'ole. As Fall starts to set in , that will be changing I'm sure!

Thank you all for stopping by with your continued visits and for all of your wonderful comments and support! It means a lot!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

A new blog to visit with a giveaway!

2010-09-01T05:24:00.000-07:00

Hello all~ I would like to let you know about a new blog and the giveaway that she is doing. Check out Stephani at Harvest Moon Hollow and sign up for her giveaway. You can also check out her Etsy shop here .

200th Post !!!!......

2010-08-31T06:06:00.000-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!!! ~ Well here it is , my 200th post! Quite some time ago , I had pictured my 200th post being a little more of a "whoopla" than this. You know, I'd have so much stitching and what not to show. But alas, I have been so busy with all of those baby afghans that I don't have much else going right now.

I have been meeting with my little 7 year old student who I have been teaching to knit. She painted me this "thank you" picture. Wasn't that so sweet??! Her knitting is coming along good. I think before too long she will be practicing on her own. Oh , the brown figure is a puppy , not a bear, like I thought! LOL

I have done a little bit of stitching on Simple Joys. Not much , but as soon as those afghans are all done, watch how quick I get it done!! LOL

We have had some sad news. My brother's ex-girlfriend , who he still thought a lot of, tragically drown in a swimming accident this past weekend. She has 3 small children. It is so very sad. It will be very hard for them to cope and I can only imagine what they must be going through.

I haven't had much weight loss going on , but I think before too long *crossing fingers* I should start to see a little more.

I don't have much planned this week other than knitting and working on school with my son. I do have some girls to teach sewing to this coming Friday. I went to teach them last Friday and we will actually start a project this Friday. I'll try to remember to take pictures.

Well, that will wrap it up for me, and probaby for the week, we'll see. Hope you all are having smooth sailing of getting your kids back off to school, starting a new job, stitching, crafting, quilting, or whatever little adventure is you've got going on. Thank you all for your continued visits and I hope you all come back real soon. Of course I suppose you might if I'd post a little more often! LOL I hope to remody that next week!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Things are changing.......

2010-08-20T05:36:00.000-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies! ~ Thank you all so much for the Happy Blogoversary wishes! I appreciate it so much! I still can't believe it's been a year! Where on Earth does the time go? And who in the world stole days from August's calendar? I mean , where is August going? You know the saying, time flies when you're having fun? Well it flies when you get older too , whether you're having fun or not? LOL

I have a few of you ask if I could post pics of the things I have been knitting. Well I did post some a couple of posts back. Then I got to thinking. Since those things are for a publication that has not yet been published, probably not a good idea. Therefore , that will have to wait until I know the patterns are on the market.

Well , as the title says.... things are changing in the Barber household. We are on a quest for healthier bodies. One thing I want to do , is change eating habits, which is slow going, but working. We found a popcorn from Jolly Time that is 97% fat free , but you wouldn't know it. It is really good. Now it says it has 0 trans fats. Let me tell you a little tidbit that I picked up on The Doctor's the other day. They said that a product may say that it has 0 trans fats, but you need to look a little closer. Look at the ingredients and if it says "partially hydroginized vegetable oil , then it DOES have trans fats. This popcorn has soybean oil, so no trans fats. You should try it!

I have had a toenail fungus for some time now. I am getting really tired of it and it was time to do some combatting of the problem. Rather than resort to prescription drugs that are hard on the liver, I have used the home remedy approach. I am using, vinegar, household bleach, and hold on....... Monistat 7. Yes, you read right. I am using a vaginal yeast cream on my toes! It is well known that people who get this fungus often times have a high level of candida (yeast) in their body. To fight the yeast you need a good probiotic . I've been taking those as well as eating yogurt with probiotics in it. This is how the treatment works. You use the vinegar on your toes and let it set for a couple of minutes, this opens up the nailbed. Then you apply a ratio of 1 cap bleach to 4 caps water. Let that set for a couple of minutes , then completely rinse and completely dry. Let the toes then continue to air dry for a couple of minutes , then apply the Monistat. You do this twice daily. It will take some time for it to go away , but it takes time for the prescription medication to. Anway, I have been noticing some change and look forward to being able to cut this one particular toenail with regular clippers instead having to use the dog clippers because it too think for the regular ones.

I haven't gotten much done on my Simple Joys because of all the knitting, but this is where I am at so far.

I was one of the winners on Danielle's blog a little whileback. I got several pieces of some nice linen. I am so excited that I won this . Now to plot and plan what I will do with it all! What fun awaits me, no?

Well, that's it for me today. Thank you all for stopping by and thank you to all of my new followers! Please let me know what your blogs are so that I can follow you as well. I hope you all have a terrific weekend!

'Til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

One Year Blogiversary!!!!

2010-08-16T06:52:00.000-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!!! ~ I suppose some of you have been wondering where in the world I have been. Well ... I'm still knitting on those afghans for one, and then just getting busy with life in general. You know how that is! Haven't been doing any stitching to really mention as I have been doing the knitting instead. I'll get back to it as oon as I can though.

I wanted to do a post today just to pop in and say that I miss talking to you all, and low and behold , I find out that today is my one year Blogiversary!! I knew it was coming up soon , but didn't realize it was today! I can hardly believe it's been a whole year already! And where on Earth is August going ? Halloween candy is popping up in the stores here already! Some stores are already getting in Fall decor.

I fully intended to have a one-year drawing but I have not had the time to get that ready. When I get these afghans out of the way , I will do it then.

I wanted to quickly mention a floss sale to you all. I know you all love overdyes and they rack up. The needlework shop that I love to go to, Cecilia's Samplers is having a sale of buy 3 skeins get the 4th one free. If you're interested, go check it out. If you place an order , you need to mention the sale on the comments section of the ordering form to get the price. They will ring up regular on the ordering form , but will adjust correctly when they are shipped out. I have ordered from them online as well as going to the store and they are quick and reliable.You should sign up for their newletter to alert you for future sales. Margaret , the owner, has a good sale of some type almost weekly. They also have the new Whitman's Sampler tins in that I know are in limited supply.

I went to a new eye doc for insurance issues and found out that the iritis that I have been battling on and off for quite some time, is gone for now!!!! I'm so excited about that! I also am going to be getting glasses to assist with the vision loss that I have had from the iritis. They should be in some time this week and I am anxiously awaiting them.

I've had some comments that got erased by accident with the comment moderation I had turned on. I didn't mean to delete them , but everytime I check which ones I want to publish, they highlight blue and then I click publish and they are deleted. I cannot get them to stop highlighting blue! If you have commented and don't see it, I am so sorry that it was deleted! Guess I'll have to take the comment moderation off and pay closer attention to the spam and delete it as soon as I can.

That will do it for me today. I hope you all are doing well , and I will try to pop by your blogs more often. I have really been missing it! Thank you all for stopping by today and for your comments. I really appreciate them! Hope you visit again real soon!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Nothing much here....

2010-08-02T05:03:00.000-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ I hope all is well with you today! Gonna be hot here again today and the humidity is supposed to be pretty high too. As a matter of fact, all this week is supposed to be pretty hot and sticky. I don't want it to get cold too fast, but the Fall temps sure would be nice about now.

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Well I haven't done much stitching at all since I have been doing all that knitting. As a matter of fact, these few stitches that I have put into Simple Joys is ALL of the stitching that I have done in the last two weeks ! I couldn't resist putting at least a few stitches into it though. When I get all the knitting done, what how quickly I will let my needle fly again!

Speaking of knitting...... I have some yarn on hand that I will not be needing. There are 6 hanks of Handpaint Originals from The Brown Sheep Yarn Company that I am selling for $60.00 including the shipping.They are 1 3/4 ounces each, and approximately 88 yards to each hank. The blend is 70% mohair and 30% wool. The colors are much prettier in real life. Let me know if you are interested. I am not using Paypal for this and due to that I will only be taking a US money order or personal check (held until it clears) and I cannot let it go to a non-US address . Sorry.

I'm not meeting with my little student this week. She is going out of state to spend a week and a half with her grandparents.That should be a lot of fun for her. I will be spending that time away from her , still knitting I'm sure! LOL!

******

Last night I had a hard time sleeping. It was humid and still 86 degrees with the heat index at 10pm. About 1:30 am, I woke up and I kept feeling like my right eye would not open all the way. I went into the bathroom and looked in the mirror and seen that my eye was swollen up. I thought it would probably go down during the night and now I see this morning it's the same if not a little bigger. I'm now thinking I must have somehow gotten poison ivy in it again. This happened to me a few years ago on a fishing trip and I would up having to go to the doctor and be put on steroids. So , I will keep ice on it today and if it doesn't go down, I guess it's back to the doctor! Ugh!

******

Well I finally turned on the "blog owner approval" for the comments. I was so tired of those pesky spammers trying to get me , and my readers and friends as well, to look at porn. So bare with me, I've not too computer savvy so, if something went wrong, just send me an email and I'll see what I can do.

I hope you all have a great day! Thanks for stopping by and for all of the wonderful comments. I appreciate them so much! Do come back again soon!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Where have I been?.....

2010-07-29T05:22:00.000-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ Ok so I have been a litte MIA lately. Wanna know what I've been up to? Well stick around and you shall find out! I've been busy that's for certain!

*******

Are you a miserly mom?

Well.... I have decided I have to buckle down and really really try to manage our money better. Oh I'm pretty frugal already . Try to save where ever I can. But it seems to be pretty difficult to stretch that all mighty dollar doesn't it? In my recent efforts to get that money belt a little tighter, I landed in my local Barnes & Noble. I turned my head and (gasp) walked right by the Starbucks in the corner on the way in! Now if I hadn't already came in with my money saving armour on, I probably would have caved and stopped by.

I walked back to the finance section and was hoping to purchase the Dave Ramsey book "The Total Money Makeover". It wasn't in stock . My eyes slowly skimmed the other books on the shelf and BINGO , I found a name I recognized. I picked up the book "Miserly Moms" by Jonni Mc Coy. Any of you ever see her around on the talk shows or in articles from Good Housekeeping? Well, anyway, I continued to look through it. Now came the questions. Do I order the Dave Ramsey book and wait for it to come in , or do I buy this book and get started today? Well I decided I'd better start that day, so Miserly Moms came home with me. I can tell you that there are some things that don't fit our family. But then I looked at Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace program that someone had and I see that he has things that don't apply to us either. Guess they're just trying to cover everybody, which I get. Just gotta gleen what you can from them both I guess.

My husband took a little mini- vacation from work last week to surprise me. One of then things we did was take a little trip NE of us to a little town called Tunas. There's not much there , but they have a wonderful little Amish country store there. He had been in there before for something for work and knew I would want to check it out. They have some awesome prices there and you don't have to pay tax on anything! They have raw honey for 73 cents a pound so I bought some. We also picked up some Amish butter cheese, farmer cheese, homemade orange slice candy, chocolate covered pecan-carmels, and some whole wheat flour. The flour was 5 lbs for $1.86. I couldn't pass that up! I could have spent a couple hundred dollars in there easily. Not because the prices were high, because they weren't .It's because I wanted so much! Most of their spices were probaby double to three times the quantity you would get at the grocery store, and most of them were under $2 a container! I really wanted to stock up on those , but I had to watch it! LOL.

No pictures inside the store, so the best I could do was take a picture of the outside. Sorry for getting part of the car door in the shot!

I treated myself this week to one LHN's newest patterns, Simple Joys. I also got the floss I need for it. All but one color,as the store didn't carry that shade. I'm sure I can find something that will work though.

I have picked up a needle to stitch in over a week! Still working on projects for the lady I do ocassional knitting for . They are all baby afghans. I knitted the following three in a weeks time and I have 6 more to go! Here is what I have done so far.

The knitting lesson with the little girl is moving along. She told me the other day that she wanted to get good enough to sell her things later. I told her that she would have to stick with it so she could get better. She was very excited and said that she could hardly wait! I kind of thought that in the beginning that she would kind of get tired of it and that , at 7, her interest would kind of be fleeting. After we spoke the other day , and she told me of all that she wanted to learn how to knit, I think that interest will linger for some time to come! She gets so excited, it's really funny to see.

******

Well that will do it for another "edition" of The Happy Needle. I hope you all are doing great , and I hope to see you all back here again really soon!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger, ( guess I've been one lately !LOL)

Sharlotte

Even hotter today?.....

2010-07-20T04:16:00.000-07:00

Hello all!~ Well, the weatherman says it is supposed to be hotter today than it was yesterday! I plan on staying inside enjoying the cool air we have now. It hasn't been this hot here I don't think since a few years ago when it was 115 with the heat index. It was so hot here in the house ( the a/c was acting up then too) that all of my candles were leaning and warped! That was an awful hot summer!

*******

I am so excited ! There is a local dairy farm here that we just loved. About 2 years ago we had several tornadoes ( it think it was 63 in a two day period) and the dairy farm took A LOT of damage. They kept trying to get up a running again but they were struggling. We went to the store yesterday to pick up a few things we were out of. When we went by to get the milk, I couldn't believe my eyes! Our beloved dairy farm, Memory Lane , is back in business full swing!! It is just like the old days. The container below is glass, you pay extra up front, then when you take it back , you get your deposit back. Their milk seems to last longer too! Isn't it great how simple little things like this make us happy?

Once in a while I do some knitting for someone. Look at what I am using for her this time!! It is a wonderful mohair/wool blend from the Brown Sheep Company. It knits like a dream! It will be an afghan.

The knitting lesson with the 7 yr old went pretty well yesterday. I was very happy to see that she was picking it up a little better yesterday then she did the last time we met. I'm not sure how long a 7 yr old will be interested in this ,so I am trying to make it as easy as possible so she is not discouraged.

******

Ok, I had a couple of questions from yesterday . I will answer them here.

Deb~ yes I was able to get that stitching done without much cool air. We do have an attic fan but when it's really hot , it doesn't do much good. In the summertime when my hands get sweaty, I tend to go through a lot of needles as I'm acidic and I wear the coating off the needles. This time I have only gone through two I think.

Jackie~ I haven't noticed many color differences on HoHRH yet, but I am only on block #2 so we shall see.

*******

Well all, thank you so much for stopping by today! Your visits are always welcome! Please come again soon!

'till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

We have air!!!!

2010-07-19T04:37:00.000-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ You read right! We now have new airconditioning! Finally! It is so so nice. It has been very hot and miserable here and without descent output of air....well you can imagine!

Some more of the Cosmos have bloomed. Of any of the flowers I have ever tried to plant , these are the only types I can ever get to produce a bloom.

Haven't been doing much stitching lately , but I did manage to get a little more done on the HoHRH piece. I switched the colors around a bit on block #2. The called for colors looked a lot different than what the pictured showed. I really liked what the picture looked like so I had to change it around some to get it to look more like the model.

Well I will be meeting the little girl again today to give her another knitting lesson. I think I will try a different tactic to see if I can get her to understand a little better. Someone asked the other day in the comments if I would be taking pictures. I have asked some of the parents how they felt and they were okay with it. I have not asked this parent yet , so I should be getting that done pretty soon!

Well, I better travel along and get some things done before heading out the door. Thank you all for your continued visits and for the wonderful comments. Keep 'em coming! Do stop by again soon!

'till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Some mail and another stocking,,,,,

2010-07-14T04:03:00.000-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ My , but it is hot here! Very sticky too. I keep having these heat induced headaches that are about to drive me ape!! I am headache free at the moment, but give it a few degrees.

******

I partcipated in the Summer Exchange from the Holiday Exchanges group and yesterday's mail brought me this from Amy.

The designer wasn't listed but I believe that it looks to be something from Pine Mountain Designs. She sent along some patriotic conversation Sweethears, chocolate covered sunflower seeds, some red ribbon with blue and white stars, and some colored binder rings. I can hardly wait to make some floss tags to put the binder rings on. Thanks Amy, I love it all!

*******

Next up is the stocking that I stitched for Rebecca for the BBD Stocking Exchange that I set up. It is Deer in the Meadow from the December Stocking Booklet.

I used a mistletoe print for the back. Perfect match , no?

Yesterday I got a phone call from my BIL to tell me that my husband's uncle ( who is only in his 50's) had an anurism. He is fine and stable for now, but the doctors have no idea if the tiny clots will break off and cause a stroke or not. Please pray for him. This is a very scary time for us.

******

I gave my first knitting lesson to one of the little girls yesterday. She is 7 and the cutest little thing. She has part of it down but still a long way to go. I"m wondering how long a 7 year old will want to stay with it, you know?

******

Well that's it for me folks! I hope you all have a wonderful day and try to stay cool! I want to thank you all for your continued visits and comments. They make my day!

'till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

One house down....Only a ton to follow!

2010-07-13T04:55:00.000-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ We have been having some much needed rain here. Sunday night we had flooding. We didn't take the camera out, wish he would have. It was quite amazing to see one of the parks where only just the top of the swing set was sticking up out of the water. We seen several vehicles stalled from trying to cross water that was too high. We were due to get another storm last night, but nothing happened. Oh well. It is 70 degrees here right now . At this time of the morning here lately it has been almost 80 already so I can live with 70. We are supposed to get the new a/c installed on Thursday and that will help bunches!!

I got block #1 of HoHRH done and the start of block #2. Here is that progress.

My local quilt shop had a terrific sale of 5 fat quarters for $5. I couldn't resist. I was able to pick up a fat quarter of sampler style fabric from BBD. I can't remember what line that was. Anyone remember? Anyway, I am collecting fat quarters for a quilt called Ricky's Heart Warmer. I think the first 4 fabrics will go in that nicely.

Remember this photo from a couple of posts back? I had mentioned that I was going to be sending it to someone special and so I did. I sent this to Shirley. She emailed me right away and told me that she just loved it! She said it was perfect timing too , as her birthday is coming up and it is from the July BBD Stocking booklet. I am so happy you like it Shirley!!

Well , I will run. I have a knitting lesson to instruct this morning so I need to be getting ready for that. Thank you all so much for stopping by and for the comments. They mean a lot. Well, except for those nasty ones for the porn sites, but I can't get the 'trashcan' to show up to get rid of them this morning! I keep dragging my feet about the comment moderation. I need to do that and soon!!

till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Another stocking and a little HoHRH progress

2010-07-09T05:32:00.000-07:00

Greetings all!~ Woo-hoo! Friday is here! Not really that big a deal to me while the summer is going on . During the school year it means NO SCHOOL for the weekend! :) We start back up in a couple of weeks though. Then I will really be saying Woo-Hoo, when Friday comes!! LOL!

Well, the BBD stocking exchange is wrapping up. Since Catherine has no blog ( you see this Catherine, I am spreading this for the whole world to see...nudge .nudge...just kidding! LOL!) I offered to show the stocking she stitched for April on my blog. April has received this so it's now safe to show. She stitched April one of the stockings from the April book.Appropriate don't you think? This is her first stocking and I think it is a most excellent job, don't you? Way to go Catherine, I know April is proud of this!

Here's my latest progress on HoRHR. I am hoping to get the first block finished up this weekend and possibly more progress of VoHRH.

I think it will probably rain all weekend here. We really needed the rain and I am very grateful for the cooler temps. Especially with the bigger a/c unit still out.We should be getting a new one soon! Let's hope!

I hope you all have a most excellent weekend ! Find something fun and exciting to do. Afterall , all work and no play , makes us dull, right?

Thank you all for all of your wonderful comments and words of support. They mean so much!

'till next time,
don't be a stranger,
Sharlotte

Roses and Pumpkins

2010-07-07T05:06:00.000-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ Are you a little cooler lately where you are? Our temps here have dropped a bit and the humidity hasn't been as bad. It's nice to go a few days without a headache from the heat!

I haven't been doing as much stitching. My eyes need a break. What stitching I have done has been frustrating. I started working on An Apple a Day from Plum Pudding Needleart and made a couple of bad errors! Gee wiz!! Anyway, I can't find my seamripper so I will have to set that project aside until I find it. It's not like I don't have a ton to choose from right? LOL! I do have a couple of the HRH series that I have going so it's easy to find something to pick up.

I did make a little time to stitch up and finish this stocking. It's from the July BBD stockings booklet titled Summer Roses.It will be going into the mail tomorrow to a very dear person.

Yesterday I received my stocking for the BBD Stocking Exchange I set up. I received this wonderful stocking from April . I wish I had taken a closer picture of the linen, it is just gorgeous! I am getting to where I really like Quaker designs and she stitched a lovely Quaker pumpkin. I love the Fall too so the choice was just perfect! Thanks again April!!

Has everyone that was involved in this exchange sent and received their stockings? Please let me know. I will be setting up Round 2 in August for anyone who is interested.

You know, I mention the other day about the July 4th fireworks we shot off. Well, there were a ton of people all across Missouri that had reported UFOs. We seen something as well but knew it had to be some kind of firework. Turns out it was some new one that was out this year. At least new to our neck of the woods. It was suspended from some sort of balloon and went sailing slowly across the sky. We had seen so many of them and joked about being invaded by Mars. Little did we know that there would be tons of reports of UFOs the next day! Too funny! Did any of you see these this year?

The other day I had also mentioned about a couple of girls that were wanting to learn to sew and other types of needlework. Well, a couple of other moms have contacted me and it looks like that I will be having 4 new students! I have a flower girl dress to make as well so I am going to be quite busy I think!!

I am off the do some things around here this morning. Then I think I will put some more stitches into HoHRH this afternoon.Thank you all for all of your wonderful comments, friendships , and visits. You all are THE BEST!!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Just a little Monday post

2010-07-05T05:16:00.001-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ I hope you are all having a wonderful Monday! I also hope those that celebrate, had a terrific 4th of July! We went and bought a few fireworks and combined them with some we had leftover from last year. My husband works with a guy who owns a fireworks stand and he gave a big ole fat discount which made the fun spread further. We took a friend along and he had brought fireworks as well. He brought some cherry tomatoes and strawberries and put firecrackers in them and blew them all to pieces. Does that sound all male or what? LOL!

Here is a picture of our son. I can't for the life of me remember what in the world he was doing when I took this picture ,but I remember we all busted up laughing. Ever have those moments when you just knew without a doubt you'd remember something and then forgot?

I didn't get a whole lot of pictures when the fireworks were actually going off. I am not good with timing that sort of thing . Besides , they go kablooie so fast!

We had several of these ground type things and I was actually able to get a picture of one.

There were also all sorts of the balloon things with lit fireworks attatched to them that were floating across the sky from somewhere. It looked like we were being invaded from Mars! My husband is going to ask the co-worker that has the stand what they are so we can get some for next year. They were really cool.

*****

Ok, ya'll know that I have spoken many times about not being able to grow anything. Well I thought I would go ahead and try to grow some Cosmos this year and low and behold one of them actually came up! Not only that , but it had several blossoms on it! I was excited so naturally I had to take a snap of it.

I have a little more progress of HoHRH to show. I haven't gotten much more done as I have been devoting my time to other things besides stitching.

Ocassionally some of the other homeschool parents are in need of services for their children that they themselves can't provide. One of the dad's had that very situation this past week and was looking for someone to teach needle arts to his daughter and that led him to me. That same day I had a mom who doesn't do that sort of thing, contact me about teaching her daughter as well. I am so excited, I will soon have two students to pass on needlework skills to!! I think that is going to be lots of fun!

Well I am off to gt myself another cup of coffee before I start buzzin' around here for the day. Hope you all have a great day! Thank you so much for the comments and continued friendships. It meas a lot!!

'til next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

A new start and some mail

2010-07-02T04:16:00.001-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ I tried posting yesterday , but had troubles galore, so I am trying again today. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I wanted to mention that I will probably be going to "owner approved " comments instead of just word verification. Even with the word verification on, I am still getting those nasty comments to look at some trashy website. With Blogger not having the " trash can" available half the time , I can't delete them and it's really frustrating! Hopefully if I go to 'blog owner approved" you will all understand. Anyway, moving on.

I started Houses of Hawk Run Hollow this week. I haven't gotten very far as other things have needed my attention this week. This is where I am so far.

I had joined Exchanging with BeckySC and was invovled with a scissor keeper exchange. It arrived and here it is below.I don't know the specifics on it like , who the designer was , pattern , linen , or floss used. I can tell that it is a Quaker design and I really like it. I think it would even be cute with some little Fall colored dried flowers and hung on the door knob this Fall . That way it has dual purpose! :)

Here is the fabric used on the inside and the back. Again I don't know what fabric it is, maybe Debbie Mumm? Anyway, it's cute.

It has been a little cooler here this week. It's made things a lot more bearable like yard and house work.

Yesterday I took the kid to the mall, where I ended up getting a wonderful massage.We went to bowling practice and also to visit hubby at work. It was his birthday . We went out to Mexican Villa after he got off of work for a birthday dinner. We always love eating there.

Thank you so much for the prayers for my husband's grandma. She is still in the hospital where I think she will most likely be staying. Her kidneys are working a little better , but other than that I think she is about the same.

Thank you for your visit today and for the wonderful comments that you leave. I appreciate them so much! Hopefully I won't have so much trouble next week with being able to post and I can post more often!

'til next time,

Don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

2010-06-29T04:25:00.000-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ The heat has been much better here the last couple of days. We had a nice little downpour and then the temps and lowered some. We were not expecting the rain and we had shampooed the carpet.So needless to say that with the moisture in the air, it didn't completely dry until into the next day. On Sunday , when we had the rain , we had a beautiful double rainbow. You know , you usually just see the ends of the rainbow, but this one stretched all across the sky. These pictures of course do not do it justice.

I don't know if you can tell in this next picture here, but in real ife the second rainbow was more vivid. I sometimes think of the song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" when I see one, but I always think of Noah and the Ark and the promise the rainbow represents.

Well , I got LHN's Virtue Sampler done . It was a lot of fun to stitch. I had planned on framing it and putting it in my laundry room , but now I am thinking of maybe making it into a quilted tote. I will have to think on that one.

I also stitched up part of the Two Roosters pattern from LHN. I am thinking about stitching this one a few times and finish it out a few different ways to have things in the kitchen co-ordinate. My Shaker style kitchen is quickly turning into a kitchen with more farm decor.

I wanted to give a shout out to a new blogger . Some of you have already seen her blog.Her name is Peggy Lee, go check out her blog. Yesterday Ma Teakettle gave a shout out on her and you should see how fast her blog followers are growing. I know last week, she had three,me and tow others. Yesterday morning she had 6, and then whammo, it jumped to 30! Can you imagine gaining 24 followers in one day?! That's quite impressive! Another one you can check out is Colorado Stitcher. She has deleted her old blog and has began a new one.

I will be taking a new project to work on and will be sitting up at the hospital for probably a good portion of the day. My husband's grandmother was taken to the hospital for sugar spikes and then huge and fast drops.She is a diabetic. Her blood pressure as of last night was staying fairly steady of around 67/44 which , of course , is not good. She has really been declining in the last several months so we shall see how it goes. Prayers and thoughts would be appreciated.

I will go. You all take care and have a lovely day! Thank you all so much for stopping by and for your kind comments.

'till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

A little more patience

2010-06-25T05:14:00.001-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ Just popping in real quick to show you the picture of the progress that I intended to show you yesterday. I am hoping to make much more progress over the weekend. I've been taking it easy on my eyes so we shall see.

I"m not quite sure what to start next. I have so many things I'd love to jump in on. I will probably work a little more on VoHRH and start An Apple a Day from Plum Pudding Needleart. Decisions ,decisions!

Well I hope you all have a terrific weekend! Let's hope it's not too hot in your neck of the woods! Thank you all for visiting today and for all of your wonderful comments! I do appreciate them! I hope you enjoyed your visit today!

'till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Some progress and an exchange

2010-06-24T04:23:00.000-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ I actually made it through the heat yesterday!! Man it was hot. My husband said that he heard that the heat wave was supposed to end last night, but Weather Bug says today that we are in for more. Weathermen; gotta love 'em. I sometimes think it is 90% guess, and 10 percent scientific! LOL!

******

Yesterday hubby worked a blood drive at a Genral Mills convention. All of the employees that were working brought home two bags of groceries that they were giving away. I was pleasantly surprised. Below was just part of what he brought home as there were duplicates in the other bag. They even had a huge towel with a big blue "G" on the front. Hey , for free, I can live with a blue "G"! Oh, and you see those new pretzel M&M's upfront? I snagged those right away! LOL!

I found out from Barbara of Mainely Stitching that the exchange I sent her for the 4th of July Exchange I was in arrived. I stitched Bent Creek's Uncle Sam Flatbed and finished into a pin pillow. I think it turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself!

I got just a tiny bit more done on the Virtue Sampler. As I sit here typing, I see that I posted the same picture as I did yesterday . Whoops! Well , I guess I won't change it now since I would have to pull all of the pictures and repost them. So ,hopefully I don't pull the same bonehead move tomorrow!

Well, thank you all for your visit and for the wonderful comments! Keep 'em comin'!

'till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

A little patience

2010-06-23T04:53:00.001-07:00

Hello dear friends and blogging buddies!~ Man has it been hot here! I can hardly stand it! The air is still out and will be for some time as it is going to being costly to replace . :( It's not going to be fun to be without it for any length of time. It's 74 right now , not as hot as it has been for this time in the morning, however, our expected high is supposed to be around 95, yuk!!

*******

Well, they say that patience is a virtue and so it is befitting that it would be on the Virtue Sampler.I haven't been getting much stitching in as there have been other things that have needed my attention. I had hopes that I would get it finished this week ,but there isn't much hope of that happening since this is as far as I have gotten and I am needing to slack off of stitching this week because of eye strain. Gee, imagine that! LOL! Here is my progress so far.

You can't tell in this lousy picture,but I have dyed the fabric I am using a very pale olive green. In the view of daylight, it looks sort of a yellow- green , but I guess I will stick with it as I really don't want to take everything out and re-dye it.

******

Well, I am keeping this short today as I have many things that I must get done. I hope you are all doing well, and that you can all stay cool! Thanks so much for the comments and the friendships. They mean a lot !

'till next time,

don't be stranger,

Sharlotte

Quilting tips and tricks

2010-06-18T04:50:00.000-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ Boy yesterday was so hot! Not the 69 degree temps the weatherman had predicted the day before. It was 86 by about 10 a.m. I think. I didn't even look after that. While I had Cottage Cheese Loaf baking in the oven, I noticed that it sure was hotter in the house than it should be. I checked it out and I about had a cow! Our airconditioning as went out!! It's not something that is going to be fixed anytime soon and it is only the middle of June!! We do have a attic fan but on the really really hot days, all that does is circulate hot air. They'll be lots of iced tea served in this hot today !!!!

Well, last week I mentioned having a quilting tips and tricks post this week and since today is Friday and I have ran out of "week" I guess it had better be today. Here is a book that I find very helpful and I think you will too!

1.For starters , I can't stress enough how important it is to have all of your supplies together in one place .It is such a time waster to have to go back and forth to get this and that, not to mention annoying.

2.Once all of your supplies is together , make sure that you check those things that may need attention, i.e. , do you need to fill bobbins for the sewing machine ,do you need more thread, does your rotary cutter need the blade changed? Those kinds of things.

3. Before I start a new project , I make sure that I read the entire pattern before hand. This can be tedious but you may very well find math errors that the editor didn't find. It's a terrible waste of time and fabric to find this out only AFTER you have cut your fabric.

4. I do my best to do all of the same tasks together. Examples of this would be sewing the same type of pieces together. If you are sewing a group of flying geese blocks, sew all one corner, press , trim , then sew all the next corner. Clipping the dog ears can be done all at the same time , tracing all applique pieces at the same time, those kind of things when grouped together can be such time savers.

5. If you don't have a lot of time to spend quilting , break that time up. You don't have to wait until you have a full day or half a day to quilt. You'd be surprized how far 10 or 15 minutes of piecing blocks will get you on your quilt. In the book above , Lynette calls sleeping a time bandit. We do need our sleep but when it is possible you can rise earlier than the rest of the family to create more productive quilting time. Lynette suggests that getting up just 30 minutes earlier one day a week will get you 26 extra hours of quilting a year. Rising 30 mintues earlier 3 days a week will give you 78 more hours a year. Doing this 5 days a week will give you of bonus of 130 hours a year! That can get lots of piecing done!

6. You can do all kinds of sewing tasks while talking on the phone. However, never use your rotary cutter while on the phone .You could miscut something or worse, cut yourself!

7. I always keep a medium tan color of thread on hand for piecing a quilt top. As a matter of fact it's a pretty "happy medium" color to use for most piecing . With the exception of piecing a very light colored quilt top , a cream or white colored thread would be best.

8. If I'm pressing smaller units or blocks, rather than get out the big ironing board, I just get out a big fluffy towel and fold it in half. It can be placed on the counter top, table or floor and used for small ,quick , pressing jobs. You're using it in such short intricles it shouldn't cause any damage. ALWAYS press across your seam and not up and down the seam. Up and down can cause the fabric to stretch and then the qulit top will be out of shape and not flat. Also , don't use steam when pressing biased pieces and it wil cause the bias to stretch as well.

9. When piecing a block that requires lots of pieces, them seams can start to get bulky. If you need to leave any pins in for those blocks ( especially those blocks with partial seams) when pressing, the pin heads can get in the way and they could melt. For this process I use needles instead of pins, as there are no heads to be in the way.

10. Chain piece whenever you can . It saves on time and thread. Save the clipping of the chain pieces apart ( and clipping dog ears too) for when you are watching your favorite t.v. show. That way you won't miss your show and STILL can be doing something productive toward your current project.

Well, that will do it for me today. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Thank you so much for your wonderful comments . They mean so much. Thanks for your visit today and come back real soon!

'till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

A finish and an exchange arrived!!

2010-06-17T06:24:00.000-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ Well, I finally got the picture code thing figured out but now Blogger will only let me post two pictures. :( I am baffled, not computer savvy, so there's not really a whole lot I can do. I will hopefully be able to post pictures tomorrow that I wanted to post today.

I got Mrs. O'Leary's Dairy Farm done! Yay! I had so much fun stitching this. I am not sure of the frame but I have a couple of ideas I am kicking around. Hopefully I'll come up with something that I will be satisfied with.

Yesterday the mail brought me my 4th of July exchange stitched by Becky K. I have had her reputation for her impecable finishing and I can see why she has that reputation. It is fabulous! She stitched me a littlein cushion and matching scissor fob! I can't believe she had the patience for all of those beads! She had each one cleverly wrapped like fire crackers. It was so cute and I wish I had taken a picture of that before I had opened them. Thank you so much Becky! I love them both!

I'm still in sort of a reflective state that I had mentioned that I was in. It didn't have anything to do with learning about the passing of the friend's husband as it had started before then. I hope that it is over soon.There are some things a person just does't want to "revisit" you know?

Well, I started working on the Virtues Sampler from LHN . It is going to be a lot of fun too! I hope I wil be able to add a picture of that progress.

Thank you all so much for your wonderful comments, support , and friendship! It is really appreciated!! Thanks for visiting today and I hope you come again real soon!

"till next time,

Don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

The farm is growing

2010-06-15T04:38:00.000-07:00

Greetings all!~ Well I am just a bit frustrated with Blogger this morning. I can't center my post. I posted a picture and it's just a text code so I will have to be careful and type around it. I know they have recently added a "design" feature and maybe that's throwing everything off , I don't know. My tools are gone from my blog, and the trash cans for deleting posts. Hubby fixed it once and then "poof" they were gone again. Urghh... Wordpress is looking pretty good right now!

Well, on to other things. The husband of a friend of mine passed away sort of unexpectedly. He had open heart surgery and his kidneys shut down. They were married 35 years, had 4 children , and two grandchildren and one on the way. Everyone is in shock. He will be missed by everyone that knew him!

I got some more progress done on Mrs. O'Leary's Dairy Farm. As a matter of fact, I have the chimeys, two trees to do , and the border and then I'm done!! It might be today , but I'm thinking it will probably be tomorrow evening before it is completed. I can hardly wait to start on my next project and I do need to put some more stitches in VoHRH.It's been a bit since I worked on that one.

I've been doing a lot of personal reflection lately. Thinking of things I haven't thought of in a long time. Other things I wish I could get off my mind. Kind of in a little melancoly state I guess you could say. Maybe... I don't know. Things will change soon.... I hope. I hope I am not the only one that gets like this. It's not really depression, it more rethinking things from the past. Did I learn the lessons that I needed to learn? Am I thinking about these things because there are more things to learn from it? Just a very odd place to be for me .

Well, I'm going to go before some of you think I am turning into some kind of a kook!LOL! I hope you all have a wonderful day, thanks for all of the lovely comments. They are so appreciated!!

'till next time,
don't be a stranger,
Sharlotte

Getting Personal

2010-06-11T06:04:00.001-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ Thank you all so much for your comments yesterday! I have forgotten to thank you for your thoughts and prayers for the family concerning my husband's aunt. I'm so sorry about that . I appreciate it so much!

*******

Before I get on with the rest of my post, I want to talk to candidly about a subject that is very important to me and hopefully will be to you as well. When was the last time you did a self breat exam?? I'm being serious. Do you do it when you think about it, once a year, once a month (like you should) or never?? When I was doing this I wondered about how many of you take the time to do it. Now please don't think I was being a pervert because I thought of you while doing it. I just know that even with today's knowledge and how high the risk is, there are still women , and yes men, who do not partake in the ritual. Almost two and a half years ago, I went with my mother for a mamogram. She hadn't had one for eons. But her doctor found something that concerned him and told her to have it done. A week later she got the results and it confirmed our fears. In just a very few days , she and I were at the surgeon's office for a consultation. She would have to have a mastectomy . I asked the surgeon how comfortable he was with the size of the lump and he told us that there was hope and that he unfortunately sees that size all of the time. You know what size it was ? It was about the size of a quarter , but spherical and starting to spill out on one side. He sees that size so much because people do not take the time to examine themselves. I mean really examine themselves. It's not just a matter and poking around a little bit. Get on the internet and educate yourself about how to do it.Keep a journal of each months findings, ask your doctor or the American Cancer Society or whatever your local cancer organization you have if you're not in America , and get a self -exam card to hang in your shower. Just do it! You owe it to yourself and your family! :) Btw....my mom is getting ready to head into her second year of remission!

*******

Ok, now let's get on with something a little more pleasant. I worked some more on Mrs. O'Leary and it filled the door in all of the way. Now it looks like a door and not a cellphone! This is soooo much fun to work on ! I'll be sad when it's over ,but I have a ton of other patterns that I can stitch up , so I certainly won't be bored!:)

This may sound silly , but when I was finished with LHN's Little House Neighborhood, I really really missed working on it . So much so that I was "stuck" and couldn't think for several days what to stitch! Like I said, silly!

******

I thought I would leave you today with a little list of some blogs for you to checkout this weekend.Some of these may be some you've seen and some may not. So without further ado, here they are:

Carol

Melanie

Sherri

Maggee

Lynne

Well, that it for me today. Thank you all for stopping by and sharing some of your time with me. Hope you all have a super weekend!!

'till next time,

Don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Moooo....

2010-06-10T07:41:00.001-07:00

Greetings all!~ Thank you so much for your wonderful comments yesterday , and always. You make my day ! Stitchers are just THE best! I have had a few questions aksed of me about quilting tips . I thought I would plan on a having a little tips and tricks post next week. I hope it doesn't bore those of you who are not interested in quilting. :)

Well, yesterday Kathy asked what I was going to work on next. Well, that would be Mrs. O'Leary's Dairy Farm! I worked on it last night while watching Sleepless in Seattle. There are a few movies that, even though I own them, I can't help but watch them when they are on t v. This is one of those movies. Here is my progress.

For those of you that haven't seen this pattern before, it is one of the new ones from LHN ( Little House Needleworks) . Just go to the new patterns page.

Oh, but it is going to be hot today! I stand corrected on the rain thing. My husband informed me yesterday, after I had made my post, that it did in fact rain cats and dogs during the night. I slept right through it! I have been so tired the last couple of days . I took a nap on Tuesday and during that time, we had some repair men come and fix the garage door. My husband said that I slept through all the banging. I didn't even know that they had shown up until he told me the door was fixed. I get up a couple of hours before everyone else does so I can have some "me" time. I guess all of that early rising and going to bed late has caught up with me!!

Well all of my exchange stitching is done, I just have to do the finishing. I can now sit back and relax about having that done. I don't have any others that I have signed up for so I think I will probably take the summer off from exchanging other than Round 2 of the BBD Stocking exchange in late summer, so I can do some for myself. We'll see.

Well girls and guys, I am off to do some housework. Hope you all have a wonderful day and stay cool! Thanks for visiting!!

'till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

A little Autumn Song

2010-06-09T04:23:00.001-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ I want to thank you all for your thoughts and prayers concerning our family's loss. It is appreciated more than you know! Thanks also for the wonderful comments on my quilt top. It was so much fun to piece and I was sad when I was finished. :( A good sad though!

Goodness , it was so hot and humid here yesterday. We had a 90 % chance for thunderstorms last night ,but it didn't . At least not here in town, I don't know if the surrounding towns got anything or not.

********

Been doing some more work on Autumn Song. Well, ok, I finished it. I still have the pincushion and the alphabet band to go. I'll need to wait until the Fall themed fabrics come in to finish it into a sewing box, as I don't really think I have anything appropriate to use. I was at Hobby Lobby last week, and they are already getting in some Fall flowers and pumpkins and a few other things! Can you believe it?! Well crafters that have booths in the Fall season do have to have their supplies early ,but the 4th of July isn't even here!! I suspect that the Fall fabric will soon follow so I will probably find something before too long. Anyway, I just loved stitching this!!! I can hardly wait to see it come together!

If some of you are wondering why I am only posting about 3 times a week now or haven't commented on your blogs much , you can blame Blogger for that. Well, I know I did say that I was going to slow down on posting , but here lately , it's been because I can't log in and post hardly without getting a "timed out" notice. That happens when I try to comment on blogs , or even visit them as well. Also I keep having to retype my password as it will tell me that my password is wrong and I KNOW it very well isn't ! Very frustrating!

Well , I will step off of my soapbox now and let you get on with your day!! I hope it's a good one for you , and by all means I hope it's cool!!! Thank you so much for stopping by today and come back and visit real soon!

'till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Some stash, some mail, and a finish....

2010-06-08T04:54:00.000-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ I am so glad you all stopped by today , I will try not to bore you! Been puttering around trying to get some things done. So many things, so little time. You all know how that goes right? Things have calmed down for us a little . We did spend Saturday attending a funeral for my husband's aunt. I know a few of you knew what was going on with her and she passed away on June 1st, our anniversary. She was a very sweet lady and will be truly missed.

******

Well.... she's at it again!! If you guessed "she" is Shirley, you'd be right! I received a lovely package in the mail with the remaining Hawk Run Hollow patterns and a couple of Little House Needleworks patterns! One of which, is a new one that I was dying to have, Mrs. O'Leary's Dairy Farm. So guess what? Well, I started it of course!! Thanks again so much Shirley for your kindness and generousity and for just being you!!

Faye and I have done a borrowing swap and she sent the pattern back to me that she borrowed. Look what she sent. Counting pins that she made herself!! They are lovely and I am disgusted that I can't get a better shot! I know a few of you have received these and are just tickled pink like me!! I'm sorry that I haven't emailed you yet to let you know they arrived, I do love them and have already put them to use!

I got the piecing pretty much done for 9-Patch Charm Walk. I just need to add a border when I can get the fabric. I had so much fun piecing this and cutting went very very quickly!

Well, I just had enough time to pop my head in here real quick to get some pictures posted .Also to let you know a little bit about what's going on with me. What's going on in your world? Thanks so so much for stopping by and spending part of your day with me. I know your time is valuable and I appreciate it so much that you spend a snippet of your time with me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart! I hope you all have a blessed day!

'till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

More Quilting

2010-06-04T04:45:00.000-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ Have you all been staying cool?! Boy it's real muggy here. I know it will only get worse as well move more into summer. i've been staying busy with the usual and then some. I've worked on some exchange stitching so I don't reall have much to show in the way of stitching.

******

I have been getting in a little quilting time. Thanks to the Thimberries tips and tricks , and a few of my own, I've been able to fit some in in the 5-10 min increments that I've had. I have gotten the first row pieced for the 9-Patch Charm Walk and here is the progress in two pictures.

I really like the fabric and color combinations . The aster print in the third patch , in the first row, of the first 9-patch of the second picture, (have I confused you yet? LOL) reminds me of some wall paper that I seen in a house when I was really little. It's almost the same. Isn't it funny how we can retrieve little things here and there from our memory? It's funny because I can almost smell that old wall paper! It's starting me to think of my grandmother's house so I better quit before I cry.

******

Well I have to race out the door soon... yes this early! I will go for now. I want to thank you all for your continued visits and for the wonderful comments . I appreciate them all and I appreciate you all! I have enjoyed learning what some of YOUR favorite things are! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!

'till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

A few of my favorite things...

2010-06-02T04:24:00.001-07:00

Greetings all!~ Thank you for the wonderful commenting yesterday and for the anniversary wishes! Much appreciated! For those that are in the BBD stocking exchange, I changed the mail date from June 30th to July 1st. I know it is only a day's difference , but since I didn't get the partner info sent out until yesterday ,I figure I owe you a day. :)

*******

Do some of you have favorite things that you use for your needlework? I know I do. Below is a few of my favorite things. One of my favorite things is a matress pin cushion that I got from Diane in an exchange we did in January. I love that the pincushion is flat and doesn't roll away from me. It is a regular staple in my supplies.Of course when quilting I must use a rotary cutter. I remember back before they came around. Man, am I glad that we don't have to cut all those blocks out by tracing then cutting by hand! I love those scissors too.Those were a gift from the lovely Jolene as well as was the wonderfully stitched and finished floss tag you see there.What stitcher can do without some fabulous overdyed floss? Isn't it great? Two new things I have fallen in love with is the stitchers station and the needle minder. You may remember those from a few posts back. They were a gift from Shirley. She and I are becoming friends through email and she is just the nicest!!

Well ,I caved! I was going to try to stitch one thing at a time, but I just can't do it!! So here is a start on Autumn Song from BBD. I have wanted to do this one for such a long long time.I will be stitching the pincushion too of course. I can hardly wait to get it all stitched and finished into a sewing box! It will be so grand!!

Well, I know you all have a ton of blogs to read so that will do it for me.Thanks so much for your visit today! I hope you all have a wonderful day and try to stay cool!!

'till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Some quilting and some finishing

2010-06-01T04:10:00.000-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend! We spent some time making our rounds to the cemeteries and paying tribute to those in our family who have served in the military. It is always a humbling time. We were also called away to the hospital to say goodbye to my husband's aunt who has been fighting lung cancer. That was a very sad time, such a sweet lady. Most of the rest of the time was spent relaxing and doing some of our favorite things. Guess what today is? It is our 14th wedding anniversary! I can't believe it's been that long. You know what they say, time flies when you're having fun!

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Edgar let me know via email that his win for the drawing I had arrived so now I can show a picture of it. Some of you have probably already seen it on his blog I'm sure. It was a stocking by BBD called Fourth of July and was ,of course, from the July stockings pattern. I had so much stitching one that I HAD to stitch another one! I didn't take a picture of the one that I sent Edgar as I already had a picture of the one I stitched for myself so I'm just recyling that picture.

I got the Bent Creek Patriotic Row piece done! I am excited of how it came out. It was such a quick stitch too! Thanks again Natalie!

Other than finishing off Patriotic Row, I took a stitching break to rest my eyes. In doing so , I got the rest of the blocks pieced for the 9-patch charm walk quilt. Now all I have to do is sew the blocks together, then in rows, and add the border, and I will be all done piecing the top! Using those charm packs sure make the cutting process a lot faster, which is my least favorite part of quilting.

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For those of you that are signed up for the BBD stocking exchange, I will get the names out in an email later today. Thanks to all of those that were brave enough to sign up for my first exchange organizing!

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That will do it for this edition of The Happy Needle Chronicles. Thank you all for stopping by and visiting today! I hope you come again real soon!

'till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Once Upon A Summer Give-away!

2010-05-30T07:24:00.001-07:00

Hey , go check out this giveaway for this awesome quilt book Once Upon A Summer! You have until June 1st to sign up!

http://thesecondtwinsews.blogspot.com/

Good luck!

Sharlotte

A this and that post

2010-05-28T04:04:00.000-07:00

Greetings all!~ My but it's been hot here. How about where you are? It will , of course, get hotter as we aren't even into the hottest months of July and August yet! This weekend will be it's busy usual for a lot of you and ,as always , you have to be careful out on the road. Yesterday , while watching the news, we seen something that was actually a little funny . I'm sure some of you saw the same thing. Part of a Grecian highway was closed for two hours while there were literally , millions of frogs crossing the highway looking for food. They had reported that the highway was closed due to three vehicles had alread skidded off of the road trying to miss the frogs. I think it was a good idea to close the road as if you think about it, that many frogs getting flattened at the same time would create a lot , and I do mean A LOT , of frog guts . You know that would be slick to drive on and create a very bad scene!

Our nation had some very bad news this week as we learned of the passing of dear Art Linkletter, he was 97. I remember watching shows with him on it as I grew up. Some of you probably remember the specials that would come up from time to time. He , of course , was the host of "Kids Say the Darndest Things" and he was a guest off and on of the rivival of that show , hosted by Bill Cosby several years back. He was definately a television icon and will be missed.

This time of year is busy with tons of graduations. This year , my nephew Ben took his turn. I , unfortunately , didn't get to go to his graduation as he lives in Wisconsin and we couldn't make the trip. Here he is with his longtime girlfriend Aspen. He baught her a promise ring not too long ago, let's see where that leads! Way to go Ben, and congratulations, we're all proud of you!!

I'm coming in on the home stretch of Bent Creek's Patriotic Row. It really looks great in real life and I can hardly wait to finish it up!!

This is one of my very favorite patterns from Carriage House Samplings. I was going to wait until I had some things freed up and my time on my hands to start it , but you know me!

Yep! I started it! Here's my progress so far. Not much , but I've worked on it enough to know that I am absolutely in love with this linen. The needle glides so easliy and the stitches go fast!
See the little snake down in the bottom corner? Trust me, a fabric and thread snake is the only one I'll get near!! LOL.

Well, the only plans we have for this weekend , is to stay out of the Memorial Weekend traffic!! It will most likely be spent at home doing the usual weekend laz-about! My favorite!! :) I will porbably will get to trucking some more on my 9 patch quilt as well.

Hope you all have a wonderful and safe weekend!! Thanks so much for taking the time to come by today and for all of your wonderful comments. I do so look forward to reading them and to your visits. Hope you come again real soon!

'till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

****Edited to include: If you would like to take part in tne Blackbird Designs Stockings exchange, please let me know via email and include your name, mailing address and blog url if you have one. Also your preferences as to what holiday stockings you would not like to receive, i.e. Halloween, Christmas, etc. Monday , May 31st, is the deadline to sign up. Thanks!

Garage sale -flea market finds and some stitching

2010-05-26T02:38:00.000-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ I hope you all are having a wonderful day! It is going to be plenty hot here today. We had a little bit of rain yesterday and then it got really muggy. Such as it goes for this time of year.

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Ocassinally I get out to some garage sales and flea markets. Here is a shelf that I picked up at a garage sale for $1. The ducks on the shelf came from dear ole dad, and the fishing lures are ones that have been retired from my husband's tackle box. The fishing kreel basket I found at a flea market for 75 cents. The fish ornament is exactly that. I got it a few years ago at Hobby Lobby and it seems to go so I hung it up. Not too shabby of an arrangement for less than 5 bucks!

I'm doing some exchange stitching right now , so I don't have those pictures to show. I did do a borrowing swap with Faye and I am using her Dec. stocking pattern from BBD and this is where I am so far on Snowy Eve. I'm about halfway there not including the finishing. I will probably do that later. For now, I wanted to get the stitching done while I still have the pattern in my hot little hands.

Do you ever stretch yourself too thin? I do that a lot and I do mean A LOT! I've started a lot of stitching projects and I don't really have to tell you all , you can see that! I have also signed up for a few more exchanges and then I turned around and set one up on my blog!! That's ok, I'll get them done. I just won't get much else done for a while. Wish the kiddo was on Summer break already and then I would have him do the housework while working on exchanges. He does do laundry and we have been working on cooking , but there isn't enough practice in really to just turn him loose. Know what I mean? Actually , now that I think of it, I have the stitching done for two exchanges so all I have to do is the finishing on those. Then I have two other exchanges to stitch up , so I guess that really isn't all that bad right?

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Berit had mentioned a relish for grilled ears of corn in yesterday's comments and it really sounded good. I mentioned it to my husband last night when he got home from work and said he is definately going to try that next time we grill corn. Thank you all for all of your wonderful comments. I do enjoy reading them!! I will have an update on the quilt soon You all take care, stay cool, and make the best of your day!

'till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Some more starts and a fire pit

2010-05-25T04:59:00.000-07:00

Greetings all!~ I hope you have been having nice weather your way! It has been hot here, but to me it's a nice break from all the rain we were getting. I've been busy doing a little quilting and stitching. I need to get caught up on laundry as well so hubby doesn't have to do it like he did last night. He doesn't mind , but I feel kinda guilty when he HAS to do it because someone was too busy with other things . :)

Here is my start on my quilt. The pattern I am using is Nine Patch Charm Walk by Larisa Key and I am using two charm packs by 3 Sisters from Moda called Aster Manor. I love the patterns and colors in these fabrics don't you? I mis-counted the triangles I needed and will have to go back and cut some more so that the blocks have 4 sides like they are supposed to. I probably have just enough cream fabric is squeeze those blocks out. I don't know what I was thinking.

I have been working also on Bent Creek's Snapperville. I have always liked this design and had the opportunity recently to aquire the necessary patterns from Natalie. Although, I prefer the overdyed flosses, I am stitching this in the DMC conversion as I planing on turning it into a valance for the kitchen, so I'll need it to be washable.

Last night, Jack wanted to cook out, but our grill is messed up so he made this makeshift fire pit to cook on. I don't know how he felt like doing anything like that. Friday he got roasted when he, our son, and my dad went fishing. That trip was a disaster as the lake was full and they had no where to launch the boat so it was pretty much a wasted trip. On Saturday , he cleaned gutters, and mowed the lawn , which added to his, already lobster looking skin. So I was quite surprised that he wanted to stand over the heat last night. I'm glad he did though. He made ribs, baked potatoes, and ears of corn. We ended the meal with Tin Roof Sundae icecream from Turkey Hill. It hit the spot!

Well , this will be enough of my ramblings for now. If you want to sign up for the Blackird Stocking Exchange , there is still time. Just let me know via email and include your blog url and street address. Hope you all have a blessed day and thank you so so much for dropping by. Please do visit again real soon!

'till next time,
don't be a stranger,
Sharlotte

Some mail , a finsh , a start, and a winner!!

2010-05-24T05:31:00.001-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ Whew! It's been hot here! I finally broke down and turned the air conditioning on yesterday. When you are getting headaches and you know it's from the heat, well... it's just time to turn it on that's all! LOL.

Well , let's get on with the show shall we? The answers, as if you all didn't already know them , for the drawing were as follows.

1.The Munsters

2. All in the Family

3. Bewitched

4. Leave it to Beaver

5. Happy Days

I had several people email me their entries as well as those who posted in the comments. All I can say is we all watch too much t.v.!! LOL. I know some of you Googled your answers , but I was amazed at how many people told me that they knew these from memory! For #2 I went by that from memory, however some of you emailed my your answer as 704 Hauser Street. After doing some checking I found that there was a show about a family that had moved into that house. What could I do but consider it?

Now, without further ado, the winner is Edgar! Congratulations Edgar! I will send you an email right away!

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I had some lovely mail pop in my mailbox over the weekend. It was from Kathy for the HOE/HOE ll Early Christmas ornament exchange. It is a design from the Winter Wind chart by Prairie Schooler. I just love Prairie Schooler and I love this ornament!! Thanks Kathy!! It was so nice to receive something from you.

Next up is a Beehive needleroll finish from Shepherd's Bush. It came in the package from Shirley. I had a lot of fun working on it. This is my third needleroll finish to date and the second one I own. I love how it turned out!

I've been doing some borrowing as you all know, and here is another design that's been passed my way. The lovely Natalie sent it to me on loan and I really am liking working on it. I hope to have it done by the end of the week, but we'll see. For those of you that loaned me patterns, you will be receiving them back soon!

I'll be posting pictures soon of a quilt I started this weekend. I would have posted some today , but I have to save something for tomorrow! :)

Thank you all for stopping by today and for your comments. I do so appreciate them. For those of you that didn't win the drawing, stick around, I just may have another one soon!! Please do visit again real soon!

'till next time,

Don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Stockings anyone??

2010-05-21T04:06:00.000-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ Finally, we don't have rain in today's forecast!! At least last I heard. I hoping things will dry out here this weekend. It is supposed to be 90 degrees here Sunday, so we shall see.

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I stitched up Lake House Catch from BBD , I think I started it Saturday night and then finished it up on Monday or Tuesday. It will be framed and will go in my small bathroom. The pattern came from Shirley and then I used the linen that Catherine sent me and it matches the design perfect! I loved working on this linen and it had almost a wool feel to it. Very nice. Thanks girls!!

Now for the BBD stockings.... I would like to start a little stocking exchange using the BBD patterns. As I mentioned , I will be doing this through my blog until I see that there will be enough interest to keep it going. These are my thoughts. You can stitch any BBD stocking from the monthly series , seasonal series, designs from JCS ornament issues, you get the idea. The actual stocking designs would be ideal ,however , if you would like to join in but do not have any of the stocking patterns, you may chose elements from BBD charts and make a stocking from that, so long as it is BBD. You will need to stitch on linen or evenweave. Just be creative and have fun. This will be done like the usual exchange, the person you receive from will be different from the one you send to. I will have either my son or my husband match up the names so as not to show favoritism. Since we won't know what season of stocking we will be receiving, it is key to let me know if you don't like certain things . Like if you don't celebrate Christmas or Halloween and prefer not to receive those designs, let me know so I can let your partner know, to ensure you will receive something you like. This will be for the stockings only , no extras. I will be taking names for the first go around up until May 31st. Let's set the mailing date for June 3oth. That will give a full month to get the stocking finished. You ,of course, could mail it out as soon as you wanted to . Serious stitchers only please. If you are interested , send me an email with your name, address and blog URL . You do not have to have a blog to join, it will just make it easier for your partner to know what you like. As of now, those I have that are interested live in the US but it is not restricted to that.

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I'm glad that you all are having fun with the giveaway. Remember, if you live somewhere where these shows were not shown, you can Google the answers. If you would like to enter you can do that here.

Thanks for all of your wonderful comments and emails! They mean a lot!!

'till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

A little hen party

2010-05-20T05:57:00.000-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ Wow! We have had so much rain here and I'm getting really tired of all it . Now watch, I say that , and when it is hot this summer and we have our dry spell, I'll want it! LOL.

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I have been stitching away and playing in all my new stash . One of the things that I have stitched up is Hen Party from the All Dolled Up series from LHN. I was so excited to have received this chart from Shirley and I had so much fun working on this. The little feed corn are beads, how fun! Since there was a hint of red in the pattern, and also since I do have some other red in my kitchen, I thought I would frame it with a red mat. I think it turned out rather well!

Years ago, in 1986, there was a show that came on called "Our House" with Wilford Brimley , Deidre Hall, Shannen Doherty , Chad Allen, and Keri Houlihan. Do any of you remember that show? I LOVED that show when it was on and it only ran for two seasons. Anyway, there are several episodes uploaded on Youtube and I watched them while working on this . Now when I look at this in my kitchen , I'll think of that show I loved so well. Why can't there be shows on t.v. these days that had such great values as this one? ! I did work a little bit on this also while watching the movie "UP" with Edward Asner. Have any of you seen this movie? It was sooo cute, but sad in parts as well.

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If you haven't signed up for the giveaway and would like to , please leave your t.v. show answers on yesterday's post. If you live outside the USA , you can still play . The answers can be found for the shows by anyone using the internet. You should give it a try! Also I will soon be organizing an exchange for the BBD stockings. I will be doing it through my blog until I see that there is enough interest to move it to a blog of it's own. There will be more to come on this so stay tuned!

Thank you all for all of you wonderful comments and lovely emails. I appreciate them all. Thanks for visiting today!

'till next time ,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Giveaway Time!....

2010-05-19T04:00:00.000-07:00

Greetings all! ~ I wanted to let you all know that it is giveaway time here at The Happy Needle! I am doing this one quite different and hope it will be lots of fun! For starters , it's a mystery. That's right, you will be recieving a stitched item but you won't know what it is until the winner receives it! Here's another twist. I am going to give you 5 addresses from t.v. shows and you have to guess what t.v. shows they are from. For each t.v. show address you get correct, you will get an entry for the drawing. I will tell you that these are all past t.v. shows, no current ones. I picked t.v. shows that mentioned their address on the show through out the entire show's run , whether it was once a year or 5 or 6. I didn't want to pick any that would have only mentioned it one time as that would have been a little hard and not really fair. So , do I have your interest peeked? Ready to play? Here are the addresses.

1. 1313 Mockingbird Lane
2.704 Houser Street ( I found the spellings to be Houser and Hauser so I was not sure exactly how it should be spelled)
3.1164 Morning Glory Circle
4.211 Pine
5. 565 North Clinton Drive

Put your thinking caps on. You can ask friends , relatives, co-workers, it doesn't matter as long as the answers are correct. Remember, the internet is your friend! LOL!

The rules are simple. Just include the name of the t.v. show with the address and you get an entry for each correct one. Also your entries must be received by Sunday May 23rd at midnight and the winner will be announced on Monday May 24th. Btw... you remember how the teacher always told you not to copy your "neighbors" paper , they may have the wrong answer? I would give that advice here. In order to get the entries , you want to make sure the answers are correct, so doing your own homework will ensure you have them correct. If you are thinking someone will "snatch" your answers, you can always email them to me. :)

Good luck!

'till next time ,

Don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Happy Holidays~ Huh?

2010-05-18T05:07:00.000-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies ~ Ok, you all are probably saying , "Happy Holidays, has she lost it?!" Well, for those of you that have been blogging any amount of time, you know how hard it can be to come up with a title for a post. I thought that since today's post covered two seasons, why not "Happy Holidays"! LOL. Ok, I'm warped, I admit it! :)

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On Friday , I had posted a finish , just not in finished form, of a BBD stocking . Berit had asked if I have ever finished a stocking before. Yes , I have , I think that I have only posted one other on my blog since I have had it up and running though. It was a stocking ornament that I had done for Sadie last year in an exchange she was doing through her blog. If none of you who are reading have never visited her blog, you must. She is a doll! Here is my BBD 4th of July stocking from the monthly stockings series for July. I strung on 4 clear beads and then two red ones and continued alternating like that until I had finshed the length I needed for the hanger. Kind of reminds me of fireworks in the sky , so I think it works that way. The backing fabric is a medium mottled blue and looks really great with the front. Thanks again Shirley for this wonderful pattern! Hope you get to feeling better soon!

A few weeks ago I had borrowed the BBD Pumpkin Blossom pattern from another dear blogging friend, Catherine. I finally got it finished into the needlebook this weekend and here is the finished result.

I really like the way this turned out! Thanks again so much Catherine!!

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I have a couple of other designs that I am working on. Oh , come on now, none of you are surprized! LOL! I am working on Bent Creek's Snapperville that I got from Natalie and also Lake House Catch from BBD that I recieved from Shirley. I'm just about done with that one. I'm re-doing the small bathroom in a patriotic theme and Lake House Catch will ge going in there. I will be working on Bent Creek's Patriotic Row and that will be going in there as well. I am thinking about a valance finish for that one, we'll see.

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Well all, that wraps it up for me for another day. Thank you all for all of your comments about my son and his trophy and for wishing him well after his accident. It's appreciated so much! He is doing a lot better and so far it looks like we won't have to do a follow up with his doctor. Thank you all also for your sweet comments regarding my blog and my stitching. I am still flabbergasted that you all take the time to read it! I appreciate you all!!

'till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Oh to be a kid....

2010-05-14T04:55:00.000-07:00

Greetings all!~ Do you remember back when you were a kid? I know I often reflect back to then, sometimes I have to take a little longer these days , but I remember!! Mine has had quite an eventful week. We started out the week by him going to grandma's while I went to the court house . Not so bad right? Then he got his first bowling trophy on Wednesday afternoon and he was on cloud 9! Another good thing right? Well.... the story doesn't continue to go that great.

Last night we spent two hours in the emergency room at Sister's of Mercy. He had been riding his bike and he turned too fast and went flying! He banged up his knee pretty good and sprained his ankle pretty bad. They took x-rays and no brakes which we were really relieved about. He was in so much pain that we were all pretty sure he had broken or fractured something, especially because his foot was so swollen. One of our concerns were that if he had a break or fracture, we hoped it was not in the growth plate. The doctor said that his growth plate is still open and he will be doing so more growing, but that they can't see a fracture in the growth plate on an x-ray. Which she explained that if he is still in quite a bit of pain outside of 7 days , we need to follow up with his doctor as it would likely mean he did have a fracture. We are keeping our fingered crossed and our prayers lifted. Most likely he is okay though since it didn't turn all black.

I just had to do some playing in my new stash from Shirley! I just love this stocking from BBD July stockings pattern . I stitched it in a day and will be finishing it off this week. I think I will put it in my small bathroom. I'm slowly getting some patriotic things in there and I think this will work just fine. You still have me baffled Shirley with all that stuff you sent! You will never know how much I appreciate it!

I hope your weekend is filled with sunshine for you all, whether it be weather wise or just good things that come your way! Hopefully both!! Thank you all for your wonderful comments , support , and friendships! Please come and visit again real soon!

'till next time,

Don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Busy, busy, busy.....

2010-05-13T04:19:00.000-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies~ Busy, busy , busy , that's how life can get sometimes isn't it? I've been serving for jury duty this week . You know how things get when you are away, the dishes stack, the laundry piles up, other things have to be tended to....you know the drill. Now that jury duty is out of the way, I can get back on track and even have a little time to make a post .Things are finally starting to be a little normal.

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Mother's Day was great. I got to spend a little time with my mom of course and also got to spend a little time with my sisters . The guys got me a little more for Mother's Day . The rose bushes were enough but I do like the new bird feeder hanging in front of the big picture window!! We've had lots of beautiful new friends flying by. In case you all were wondering, I did gt my mom's bellpull done in time for the big day. Here's a few pictures of that.

I think her favorite part is the sheep.:)

Well this time of year yields graduations galore and next week I have 3!! I just don't know if I can make them all. I would have 4 except my nephew's graduating in Wisconsin so I'll be missing that one! :( That's a real downer!

My son came home with a trophy from bowling yesterday and boy was he excited!! I forgot to take a snap of that this morning so I'll have to post one tomorrow. He turned 13 Tuesday and is very excited to be a teenager. It's funny because there was a part where all of us jurors were getting a little ~~bored~~ ,uh -hum, tired, with the long process that the judge started talking to us some and asking us questions and sort of teasing around to lighten the mood . He asked me if I knew what came next after 13 , and he said 16. He warned me that the years between 13 and 16 go by real fast and that all I will hear soon is when is he going to be able to drive or when can he get a car. Hmmm.... anybody think the judge has been through this before! LOL!

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Well all, I am going to go for today. Thank you all for all of your wonderful comments on all that awesome new stash from Shirley. I've been doing some playing when I've had the time. Maybe I might have something to show you tomorrow. :)

Hope you all have an awesome day!

'till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Some wonderful mail from an angel.....

2010-05-07T06:43:00.000-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ I might as well jump right into it and let you know what kind of a day I had yesterday.First, let me back up to tell you that it all started off with me recieveing a wonderful email from Shirley (no blog) last week, telling me how much she enjoyed reading my blog and liked seeing how excited I get over a project. She asked if it would be okay for her to send me something. We discussed it and I said that I was really thrilled that she wanted to do something like that. You expect something like a pattern or something , you know, a little something nice from someone which is certainly in itself generous enough. It meant a lot that someone wanted to do even that for me. Well , we had a longish day with schoolwork and went off to the bowling alley for practice, to the grocery store, then home . When we got there , there was this package on the porch and it was from Shirley. I brought the groceries in, went back and got the package, quickly put the groceries away . I opened the card and then the package. Inside was a little package which I opended first as she had already told me it needed to go in the refrigerator. Ah-hah! Chocolate! This is what that package was. Doesn't it look yummy?!

Next was a bundle of three packages. I carefully opened it. I'm gonna save that ribbon you know, for docorative trim on something as it was cloth.

I opened the one on top first, and inside were these lovelies! A stitchers station, two packages of needles, a needle minder, and some GAST floss in beautifully rich deep tones. Lovey gift right? Wait! I'm not done!

I opened package #2 . Inside were all of these wonderful things!! Patterns from Little House Needleworks and Plum Pudding Needleart WITH the flosses tucked inside! Also a Shepherd's bush needleroll kit....

....then came this wonderful Thimbleberries quilt book with a little charm quilt pattern and two charm packs!!....

..... then two Carriage House Samplings patterns; Autumn at Hawk Run Hollow and Village of Hawk Run Hollow! Also 3 Blackbird Designs pattern books!! .....

Wait, wait!! I'm not done! She also sent some very very generous cuts of linen and jazlyn!!!

I've died and gone to stitcher's Heaven I tell ya!! I can't believe the generousity that was bestowed upon me! ME! I could never tell Shirley how much this is appreciated and what it did to uplift my spirits! You know, I mean this in all sincerity. I really love everything and I am so excited to start plotting and planning my next stitching. What means the most though, was that she wanted to. It absolutely blows me away!! It touches my heart. :)

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Well dear friends and blogging buddies. I don't even know really how to end this post today, except for to tell you all how much I do appriate your visits and comments and friendships. They mean a lot!! I want to take a moment to let those of you know that have become a follower of my blog , that I have tried to follow some blogs only to find that there is no link for one for you on the list that pops up when I click on the icon for some of you. If you'd like for me to follow your blog, which I would be honored to, please let me know what your blog URL is either through the comments or an email. My email is in my profile.

I hope you all have a wonderful and safe weekend! For all of those of you who are moms, Happy early Mother's Day!!!

'till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Pumpkin Blossoms are blooming

2010-05-06T05:41:00.000-07:00

Greetings all!~ Pumpkin blossoms are blooming here in the Ozarks! Well , blooming in stitches that is! LOL! I borrowed the pattern from Catherine and she sent some fabric , floss , and beads , along with it! Wasn't that sweet?! I already had some fabric in mind for it so I will use that other linen on another project. I am excited that I have all of the stitching done. Now I just need to finish sewing on the beads and get it finished into a needlebook. Sorry the below pictures aren't that great. I think we are in desperate need of a new camera.

I have the stitching all done on the bellpull and also have the innerfacing ironed in place. I will get the finishing done it on either today or tomorrow. I'll post a picture of that when I get that done.

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I recently asked on another blog if they kept a stitching journal. Do any of you? I am thinking about doing so. I have certain things that go through my mind while working on a piece. Things like maybe what that particular piece reminded me of, what I was thinking of at the time, you know those things. I do keep an exchange journal. What I stitch for someone and what I receive back. I include all details like fabric and fibers used as well as the goodies if there were anything. I am quite a newbie when it comes to exchanging. I haven't even done it a year. I am coming up on my 14th and contenplating what I will do. Hopefully I can find something that that certain someone will like.

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Well dear friends and blogging buddies.... this post finds itself coming to an end. I want to thank all of you for your wonderful comments that keep me going in this blogland of ours. Thanks for your visit today. Please do come again!

'till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Just a little post....

2010-05-04T05:46:00.000-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ I don't have any pictures of stitching to share today . I have that bellpull to finish up , which I am on the very last bit! Yay! Just in time for Mother's Day! I am also starting to work on another piece as well as fitting a couple of exchanges in .

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I found this little picture of Tweety Bird a little while back. I had actually seen it in the office where I clean but has since been taken down so I didn't know who to ask about it. I found it while doing a Google search for Tweetie. I think it's cute and true a lot of the time.

I would like to thank you all for all of your comments on the roses and the stitching. Thanks also to Jolene for the pruning tip and to Valerie for the extremely nice email yesterday! Thank you all for all of your continued visits ,encouragement, and friendship. May you all have a wonderful day!

'till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Mother's Day comes early...

2010-05-03T05:48:00.000-07:00

Greetings all!~ We had such a windy and stormy weekend! All is well in our area though . Some other cities and towns nearby were not so lucky. I just hate storms! A few years ago we had a local dairy lose a lot of their bulidings during a tornado and they still are not back up to business full speed. I really miss them! Thanks so much Catherine , for checking on me. I really appreciate it!

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Well Mother's Day came a little early to my house. Hubby planted two rose bushes and the pictures just do not do them justice! I hope he plans on taking care of them because I'll just kill 'em! LOL!

He also decided to recycle a tire into a planter and spray panted it green .It looks a lot better in person .

The pretty pink doesn't show up as well in this picture. I will have to try to see if I can get a better shot.

I got the stitching finished on Psalm 145! Yay! I can't wait to get it into a frame. I have one picked out so we'll see how it works.

I need to finish up the bellpull this week as Mother's Day is just around the corner! I will show more progress on that later. I also started a couple of new things this weekend that I will be showing this week as well. Stay tuned!!

I hope the rest of your day goes well and I look forward to you all visiting again!

Thank you all for all of your wonderful comments and continued support! It really helps me get through the day!

'till next time,

Don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Some more progress and a lot of kindness.....

2010-04-30T05:33:00.001-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ Ah 'tis Friday again! I always look forward to the weekend. Hubby will be home, which means he usually takes over the cooking, Yay! I get lots of stitching in , and we just have fun being together! Today my world is great! I have received lots of wonderful mailings this week . So far I've had something in the mail box nearly every day! I hear tell in an email that there will be more on the way!! Wow! Lots of fun , makes me wonder if I will ever get back to my flylady deep cleaning! Maybe I should put the boy on that this summer! Speaking of him, I am so proud! He did a wonderful job at bowling league this week! He is a one man team and he played against a team that usually wins trophies and MY SON won all 4 games ! He was so excited!

You know, some time back I was thinking about possibly giving up my blog. I asked myself , do I have time for this, does it make a difference to people, would they miss me if I was gone? You know , things like that. One thing I decided to do was have a week once in a while where I'm not posting every single day. That's helped on the time thing. As far as if I make a difference in any way , I don't know. I do know that you all make a difference to me and I need that! I won't go into detail , but here lately I have been having some pretty low times. I have shared that with a few that I swap email with. This past week has really been a pick me up. This morning as I was looking out my kitchen window and thinking about how much I have been blessed by such kind words and gestures this week, a beautiful dove flew down and landed in the backyard. It was such a soothing sight to see!

Well, on to the stitching! Below is my progess so far on Psalm 145.

Thanks to wonderful Rebecca , I was able to get this in my possesion and heading in on the home stretch! I was getting a little worried as to whether or not I was going to be able to stitch it in all the colors the pattern called for. I thought I had enough Kudzu for the grass and trees and then I discovered I didn't. I went to the quilt store, they were out. I went to the yarn store, THEY were out! So , I hopped on the computer and ordered them in from Cecilia's Samplers and had them right away! I had just enough Kudzu to hold me until my little order arrived! Whew!

Well dear friends and blogging buddies, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend filled with family , friends, rest and relaxation ,and lots of stitching! Thank you all for coming by again and for all of your wonderful comments! They really make a day so much nicer!

'till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

A quick post...

2010-04-28T03:58:00.001-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ I hope you all are doing well! It has been rather chilly here the last few days but at least the rain is gone for now! :) As you can tell by the picture below, I have started another project! I have put the bellpull aside for a few days while I work on LHN's Psalm 145. I am loving this so far!

I'm going to have a busy morning and need to have some "me" time before the guys get up so I'm gonna scoot. Thank you all for all of your wonderful comments on the ornament, I appreciate them ! Oh and Deb, bring 'em on! LOL! If all you don't see me the rest of the week, don't be surprised.I will be wrapped up in this stitch , it's loads of fun!

"till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Happy Monday!

2010-04-26T04:48:00.001-07:00

Howdy everyone!~ Did you all have a busy weekend? Our's was pretty relaxed. We did have an incident with our puppy Cassie eating Alex's bicycle seat! Boy I tell you , he was several different kinds of mad! We don't have anywhere to put it right now , other than the back porch. We are still waiting for the men who fixed the water heater to come back and fix the garage door, so we can't raise the door to put his bike in their. Hubby was finally able to get her to leave it alone. It will still need to be replaced though.

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Do you remember a few weeks ago when I stitched a JBW Christmas design? Well, I finally got that into finished form and here it is all finished. I rather like it myself! :)

Ok, this is the last time on this one! I decided that the border looked a little "naked" so I went ahead and added the yellow flowers facing inward. Looks a lot better I think .

Got some more work done on the bellpull. I wasn't sure where I would put this once I was done with it. I got to thinking that Mother's Day is coming up and I still was not sure what I was going to do for my mom, soooo.... I think she just may get this as a gift! I will still have the pattern should I decide to stitch another one for me, which I undoubtedly will someday.

I just love this little bird!

I'm about 3/4's of the way through to finishing it up. It's been a fairly quick stitch actually. It got faster once I got the corrected pages. Thanks again Maria! Still thinking about what fabric I will back it with. I'll probably take it to the fabric store like usual to match it up since I don't have anything that will do right now I don't think.

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Well that wraps it up for me today . Thank you all for your continued visits and for all of your wonderful comments. They truly make my day!

'till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

We have a winner!!!!

2010-04-25T05:44:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody! I hope you all are haviing a wonderful weekend! Our's has been terribly rainy and stormy! I guess if the flowers are going to grow they need water , right?

I am pleased to announce that the winner of the rooster towel is Loraine!! Congratulations Loraine! I will get this out to you this week ok?

For those of you who didn't win, have no fear. I will be having another giveaway sometime probably in the next couple of weeks so stay tuned~

'till next time,

Don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Stitchers are the best.....

2010-04-23T04:48:00.001-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ Stitchers are some of the BEST people on the planet!! This past week I have had some lovely emails from some of them and they really touch my heart. Unfortunately I had a situation where another stitching blogger had hurt my feelings. Most of the time I am pretty thick skinned , but this particular thing really bothered me. I discussed it with someone else, which I did without naming names, and they told me that they would have felt the same way. At least I can feel a little validated that I wasn't taking it the wrong way. So , anyway I am sending out a hug to that friend that was there for me!! She knows who she is!! On the flip side, I had mentioned those that have been great this week. I had mentioned a few posts back , that there were a lot of mistakes on the bellpull that I am working on. Well , I had a reader come to my rescue! There was a correction printed in the next issue of that magazine and Maria was kind enough to not only remember that I had mentioned it , but send me the correction. Thanks again Maria! What a sweet thing to do! For the other blogging friends that emailed me with sweet thoughts and gestures, YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE, thank you from the bottom of my heart!! Your thoughtfulness means a lot!!

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Well, without futher ado, here is Joy in the Journey , which I think is pretty much in it's finished state. I say "think" because there was supposed to be a second border , but it's pretty much straight and kinda boring and I thought perhaps I would just leave that part off. Also on the inside border, there is supposed to be yellow flowers facing toward the design and since I don't care for yellow enough to have that much yellow in the design, I think I may leave that off as well. So I have the centers of the flowers to stitch and I will probably call it done!

We took off to the lake for a couple of hours of fishing yesterday . The guys fished and I watched and of course I stitched... what else? LOL! Here they are getting all baited up. They didn't catch anything by the way. It was pretty windy there yesterday and the wind kept blowing their line into the brush there.They did , however, find a couple of nice lures that other fisherman had left behind. All the good spots were already taken so they had no where else to go. They are planning on going again this weekend bright and early before all of the good spots are taken. Will I go or will I stay...hmmmm.

Well I'm off to finish the flowers before the kiddo gets up. I hope you all have a most wonderful day !! Thank you all for all of your wonderful comments and words of encouragement, they mean a lot ! Don't forget that I will be posting the winner of the drawing on Sunday morning!

'till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Getting there....

2010-04-22T04:34:00.000-07:00

Greetings all!~ I hope you all are doing well! The pollen sure is falling around here. How is it in your neck of the woods? No new updates on the neighbor situation. Kind of one of those things where you're afraid to know and afraid NOT to know . Our cooling fan on our refrigerator went out during the night, night before last. I didn't find out until I went to the frige to pull out the milk and eggs to make pancakes and found that they were warmer than they should have been. I started checking out other things and and then I felt the walls of the frige and everything had a slight chill be nowhere near what they should be . I called Jack into the kitchen, he happened to be off yesterday ,and he got his tool box , took the plate off that covers the fan, yep , just as he suspected, the motor on the cooling fan went out. Well we discovered yesterday that a little bitty fan motor that can fit in the palm of a man's hand will cost about $69! Good thing Jack knows the guy that runs the parts store, as he gave it to him for $39. More than we knew we would have to spend on a part that day, BUT better than the original price! Of course it could have been worse, we could have to buy a whole new frige , so I'll take the $39 dent in the checkbook with gratitude that it wasn't worse. We were able to keep most of the food too! :)

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I got some more stitching done on Joy in the Journey. I like how it is coming along. I still need to 'plant' a tree behind the fence and add the two borders and then I will be done! Still not sure about the frame or where I will put it , but I'll find a place!! Sorry about the flash sort of washing it out!

I thought I would show a close up of the little bees. Aren't they cute?

Thanks to two wonderful girls , I have some more stitching planned for the near future, plus I really need to get that bell pull finished and work on some exchanges and gifts.

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I realized that I hadn't posted about my Flylady routine in a while. That's been kind of hit and miss . We have been busy and I am just trying to keep the bulk picked up. When we are done with school, I will really get in there with the routine. I am usually A LOT better during the summer with it. I just thought I was hearing a noise outside that sounded like a huge gust of wind. I looked out and it is pouring down! There goes getting the lawn mowed today!

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Thank you all for all of your wonderful comments, friendships and visits! I love hearing from you all! There is still plenty of time to sign up for the giveaway if you haven't already and would like to. You can do that HERE.

'till next time,

don't be a stranger ,

Sharlotte

Help me, I'm at it again!!!!

2010-04-20T04:22:00.000-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ I hope you all are doing well and having a lovely start to your day! Yesterday I mentioned about my neighbor getting shot. I do hope that he is doing well but there is more to this story . There has been shady activity going on there for years and after things that we have seen and heard throughout the time we've lived here, we're really not surprised that it happened. When there is all kinds of different cars coming by day and night that only stay 5 minutes or less ,it doesn't take a body long to figure out what is going on. About 3 weeks ago , we had to call the police ourselves because my husband found drug parafanailia in our trash can outside. They were pretty sure where it had come from. Now before you all ask me why we haven't moved, we have thought of that many many times. When we start to get some money set aside something always comes up. The refridgerator goes out , can't be fixed and has to be replaced, the car brakes down , and so forth and there goes the savings. I'm sure lots of you can relate. Hopefully one day though. Stranger things have happened right?

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Moving on....I've done it again! I started another project before finishing another! I like the bell pull, it wasn't boring me or anything like that. It's just that I was going through my stash this past weekend looking for another pattern and ran across another one that I've had for awhile and just couldn't shake wanting to start it. It is Joy in the Journey from Diane Williams before Little House Needleworks was birthed. This was back when she was doing some designing for Leisure Arts. This design is so cute and I just can't wait until it is done so I can get it up and framed. I don't have a spot picked out yet , but I'll find one!

Speaking of Diane Williams and Little House Needleworks, does anyone have LHN's Psalm 145 that they would be willing to loan me or swap for LHN's Winter Whites ? I would take extra good care of it and would stitch you something in return. The last one I borrowed ,I didn't keep for very long at all. My budget is pretty tight and I just can't spend extra on more stash right now and would really like to stitch it.

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Well my sister is in town from Wisconsin and will be leaving bright and early in the morning so I'm not sure if I will get any stitching done today or not. We only see her a couple of times a year and sometimes just once, so I think I can put the stitching down for a bit! I should have taken a picture of her yesterday while she was here to put on the blog, but she hadn't showered yet and put on make up and all of that. You know how we women are! :)

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Don't forget, if you haven't entered the drawing yet , you can do so HERE .

That's it for me. I need to get off of here and put some laundry in. Kinda getting things backwords today,I'm supposed to put my laundry in first thing in the a.m. Shhh...don't tell Flylady!!

'till next time,

Don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

A little giveaway!!!

2010-04-19T04:00:00.000-07:00

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies! ~ I have a little giveaway to post about today. It wasn't my first choice for my giveaway , but the other one was getting hard to see to work on and getting tedious so I have put it down for a bit. Have no fear, I will be back someday with it as another giveaway so stayed tuned for that. So as not to disappoint, since I keep talking about a giveaway, I decided to giveaway a new freshly embroidered tea towel with a weather vane on it. This would be great for a country, prim, or even shaker style kitchen. Doesn't it look like something that your grandmother would have had? I love it and will eventually make another for myself. Scroll down for the details.

All you have to do is leave a comment on THIS POST between now and midnight on Saturday. I will announce a winner on Sunday. Good luck to you all!

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Well , we had a really crazy weekend. Our neighbor had someone come in on him while he was sleeping and they shot him!! Yes, I said they SHOT him! He's alive, but they doctors have no idea when he will be released. Very scary situation , and it get crazier every day. I can't really say as I'm surprised that it happened with the characters that hang around there but it still shocking! The police questioned us as to what we may have seen , but we didn't see anything or hear anything and didn't know about it until the ambulance and police arrived. Crazy world we live in!!

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THANK YOU ALL for your wonderful comments and support! I appreciate it and I appreciate you ! Come back real soon because you never know what you'll find in a post! Oh, and don't forget to enter the giveaway!!

'till next time,

Don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

A little stitching and another visit to the lake...

2010-04-16T06:30:00.000-07:00

Greetings all!~ I am sitting here with a pounding headache today. I hadn't had the headaches yet this time that iritis usually produces , but I think that's what I am suffering from this morning. That will probably mean sunglasses indoors today and no stitching! :(

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Yesterday was a lovely day. It was 80 outside and the sun was shining and we decided to head out to the lake. We grabbed a blanket, some paper goods, and took a picnic KFC style and headed out. I didn't get any stitching done until last night so this is as far as I got on the bell pull, just from the little flowers down.

I want to mention to Faye , Rebecca, and others that are thinking of doing this piece, it is a lot of fun , BUT there are a lot of misprinted symbols of colors and placement. I ahve to keep referring to the picture of the piece to make sure I know where the mistakes are. Just so you know ahead of time. :) Any seasoned stitcher could figure them out easily though. Anyone working on it that has any questions , please feel free to email me. Just let me know in the subject line what it's about.

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Here is just one of the few pictures I took of the lake itself. I was so entranced just sitting there and taking in the view and doing nothing that I didn't pick up the camera much.

I did have to take a snap of my two favorite guys though. Hubby Jack of course, wearing his silly hat a friend gave him at Halloween.....

...and the boy child , Alex , who is in desperate need of a hair cut but boks at me touching it! Is it the teen attitude coming through? LOL

Jack went walking the shoreline and found three bobbers , a couple of guys who flooded out the boat motor, and this little guy. He didn't stay on the blanket but about 20 seconds, long enough to take the picture. He was ready to head for the water again. Can't say as I blame him. If some big huge creature was carrying me around, I'd want to go home too!

Out around the lake area is this very old cemetery , that also has a section with several slaves buried in it. Being a genealogy and historian hobbyist, a stone caught my eye that we had to get a picture of. The base is one big solid piece and then splits where the angel is. I think when I go, I'd like to have one like it. Very peaceful looking don't you think?

***Yay! I just noticed that my headache is gone without medication or steriods!! ***

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Yesterday Berit asked about the threads on Where My Heart Blooms. Sorry I wasn't clear the day before. There are two colors that walls of the house calls for . The symbols mark where they are to be stitched in different places , so there is the interesting color change through the stitching on the house.

Maggee also asked what issue the bell pull was in....It's in the Summer 1992 issue of Cross Stitch Sampler.

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I am a little curious about what makes my readers read, and keep coming back. Just wondering what it is that interests you about my blog. Please feel free to let me know via the comments section or email if you'd like.

Well friends and blogging buddies, it's time once again , to wrap this up for the week.I will post the giveaway on Monday or Tuesday , so make sure you come back to see what it is!! Thank you all for your wonderful comments and words of encouragement. They mean a lot!

'till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

A bell-pull start

2010-04-15T05:58:00.000-07:00

Greetings all!~ I hope you all had a wonderful day yesterday! It was a balmy 78 here with the sunshining and just the right amount of breeze every now and then. It's due to be another fabulous day today as well.

If you've followed my blog for very long , you know that my dad comes up with some goodies for me from time to time. A couple of years ago he came across some cross stitch magazines that he knew I would like. In one of them was a pattern for a bell pull. I'm not overly coo-coo for them , but this one particular one was one I knew I must stitch someday. As I mentioned yesterday, I got a few stitches put into it and this is what I have gotten done so far.

What the finish will somewhat look like.

The pictures aren't very clear I know, but I hope the photo of the finished product will turn out better.

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Yesterday Berit asked if I did anything specific with the pattern to get the floss to "fall" the way it did. On the pattern, there are sections that are marked with different symbols so that the colors on the house will be different in those particular spots. Everyone's house that does this pattern is going to look somewhat different because, as you all know, each overdyed skein is different from one skein to the next. I like the look the different shades give to this house. Makes it look like an authentic saltbox house don't you think?

Yesterday , Judy also had a question , but I answered that within the comments so if you haven't read back over them , that's what that answer is.

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Thank you all for your continued visits, and for the warm and wonderful comments yesterday. I appreciate them!

'till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

A Blooming finish

2010-04-14T04:37:00.001-07:00

Greetings dear blogging buddies!~ Wow, I know it's been a full week since I last posted. Been having some personal issues that I am trying to work through and life gets crazy sometimes when you're trying to do that. I wanted to at least hop on here this morning to show my "Where My Heart Blooms" finish. It will be a while before I can get it framed but I am so so happy that I was able to stitch it. Thanks again , Catherine, for your generous loan!!!

I would have preferred to have stitched this on linen, but I didn't want to wait until my next trip to the needlework shop , which is about 40 miles away. I decided to stitch it on evenweave so I could start on it as soon as the pattern arrived. I dyed the thread for the house, with the exception of the bright white, for the same reason. All in all, I am pleased as punch with it!

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Other than the stitcing on this piece, I have worked on and finished a gift, and have been planning my next exchange pieces, I signed up for 4 more!! Plus I also started a bell-pull. I'm not real crazy for bell -pulls but have wanted to do the one I'm working on ever since I first layed eyes on it. Photos of that to come later this week. * crossing fingers* I also need to get some more stitces in on that giveaway piece before you all think I've abandoned that idea. : )

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That will do for this short little post edition . Thank you all for your continued visits. Come back real soon.

'till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte