You Are The Best

 

All of you are the best blogging friends

one can have.

Some of you I have had the pleasure 

to meet in person,

and others I have got to know through

years of camaraderie.

Some I am just starting to get to know.

Either way you all are the best.

With this the season of being thankful,

I want to thank you all for following along

with me on my blog journey

with a giveaway of this sweet snowman.

He was drawn out by me using wool felt

and various fabrics. 

He sports a wooden blue heart to show his love.

How could you not resist this sweet face.

He will only melt your heart...

and wont melt himself.

Although I am not ready for snow,

he would be a perfect addition

to add to either your Christmas or Winter decor. 

If you would like the chance to win him,

please make a comment 

telling me what you are most thankful

for this year.

You also must be a follower.

Open to only my US and Canadian friends.

If you like to share this giveaway on your own blog,

feel free to do so.

In other news,

I am most thankful to have my mom

in my life still.

My dad passed when I was 35 years old.

Christmas was his favorite time of year.

He passed just before Christmas

and we buried him on Christmas Eve morning.

This is the one holiday I still go all out

decorating the whole house.

Somehow I feel his presence and believe he enjoys

the Christmas ambiance of my home

this time of year.

He loved listening to Christmas music

and he would just sit at night looking at the 

tree and all of the decor my mom would set up.

Well before I get even more teary eyed,

I will announce the winner of 

my snowman in my next post.

Good luck everyone.

The BEST Blessings To All!

Janice

 

Look What The Cat Dragged In

Hello Friends.

Well my cat is Bob.

I asked him to find me table.

A table he got me.

It even has a drawer.

It also has a nice patina.

Both sides come up.

Now why did I need another table?

Well this was our computer we used at

our gift shop.

Even though we closed that store and sold 

the building, I still need it to complete

my inventory since we moved a portion

of said inventory to our antiques store.

Once I retire from my real job,

this table will be moved to the living room

where my current table resides for my

work computer.

For now it will remain here in the guest room.

I think my cat did good.

What do you think?

In other news,

cannot believe Thanksgiving 

is only a few weeks away.

I had so many plans to stitch up some turkey

pillows and even hook a turkey.

Well most of those plans fell by the wayside.

 I wont even finish the turkey I just started.

Maybe, just maybe, I will have more time

when I retire. 

Yesterday driving home I saw a heron flying

through the marsh.

Two things wrong with this.

1. He was flying North.

2. Usually our herons have left by now for Winter.

Just weird.

More weird is a town about an hour and a half

west of us had a tornado on Sunday.

Here in Michigan this is a first for this time of year.

Also weird is for me driving into work

on Thursday as usually I work from home this day.

Have to go in though today...again more weird.

Well hope your upcoming days are not weird.

Thursday Blessings To All!

Janice

 

Sunday Starts

Hello friends!

Hope the weekend is going good for you thus far.

Today am showing what I will be currently

working on for November.

First from Prairie Schooler.

Its all about the turkey. LOL

I dont have much turkey items,

so I want to keep creating some turkey pillows,

to eventually fill up a bowl or trencher.

This is my one day start.

I got two leaves completed.

Working on a third one.

GOBBLE GOBBLE.

Thanksgiving is right around the corner.

My second start for the month 

which I will be alternating

is another Prairie Schooler pattern.

This one is called Button Up.

 

 I want to make this on into a pillow too.

Also I will not be adding as much red into this.

When it comes to snow related items,

I am more of a blue person.

 

As you can see from my one evening start,

I already changed the words from red to blue.

Will add a pop of red to each square. 

For this one will do the word winter in red.

I also am cross stitching a border around

each square instead of doing 

a backstitch around each one.

In other news,

the church bazaar was so-so. 

Not many sales, but did enjoy visiting

with folks I had not seen in such a long time.

Also enjoyed spending time with my mom and sister.

Rained the entire way back home this morning.

A slow drive but at least no deer to be found.

Well have to get some housework done.

I have tomorrow off for work.

Please take time to remember our Veteran's.

They serve to keep us free.

Freedom is not free either.

Sunday Blessings To All!

Janice 

 

Whippy Wednesday

Hello friends.

Today am showing you my WIP's 

for this month.

First up is Penny Pumpkin.

I continue to stitch this during

 my lunch break at work.

Did my own color conversion of this pattern.

I wanted a more primitive look.

The pumpkin is finished now.

Along with the leaf and vine on the left.

Plus a bit more of the border.

Next up is House On Pear Hill.

The house is finished.

Working on finishing the grass now.

This has been my nightly stitch after dinner.

I want to get this finished and framed 

for my Christmas decor. 

Once again my primary Christmas colors 

for our keeping room this year

 will be yellow and orange.

I call this my un-traditional color scheme.  

Once the grass is completed, 

the bottom row of pears is all thats left

plus a small border row.

Finally Laura Vorgensen 1853.

This one am doing with my mom and dad's

wedding date for my heritage wall.

She is a biggie.

You can see my feet (slippers) at the bottom.

In order to take a pic of this one, have to place

it at the end of the bed....and still it is all not in.

Have my moms name in now.

Then added my dad's name in.

Now working on the center motif.

I have a confession.

When I purchased this pattern online,

I had thought it was a church on a hill.

My parents were married in a church on a hill.

Upon further inspection once I had 

the paper pattern, what I thought was a church

was just a house with shrubs and a pond in front.

I was very disappointed in this.

So I ended up stitching in a steeple

 to make this a church.

Will add in a brown cross on top of that as well.

I hate this pattern so much.

The symbols are very hard to read.

Even the colors are too similar to read.

Also the picture was deceiving on how

much confetti (color change) stitching there is.

It will be nice once completed, 

but am just not happy with the pattern.

I recently just purchased another one

 from this designer.

A very small one this time.

Looking at that pattern...same issue

as the symbols are very hard to read.

Will not be purchasing any more from this designer.

Will also be glad when this one is over.

If not for being a part of my heritage wall,

this would have been sent to the closet unfinished...

that is how much I hate this pattern.

In other news.

Friday afternoon I am heading back to my mom's.

Am doing her church bazaar with my sister there.

Saturday is the show.

Have not vended anything since covid.

Bob and I use to vend antique shows and craft ones.

We dont do either anymore,

however my sister talked me into this one.

It will be fun visiting with her and my mom though.

Bob will be home spending some quality time

with Tundra. LOL

We have also been having some unusual high temps.

Am not complaining, but do know the colder

weather will make its return eventually. 

Well friends.

Have to get ready for work.

God Bless America Blessings To All!

Janice

I Finally Found It

 Yes Sireeeeee.

It took me 11 years,

but I finally found the final piece

of furniture I wanted.

Would you believe I frickin

found it the weekend of the antique trail too.

Yep I was perusing online...

like I always do.

Could not believe I was feasting my eyes on

on what I have been searching for forever it seems.  

Was at my mom's at the time and called Bob

up right away.  

I could not pick it up right away as it was in Ohio,

but picked it up a month ago.

I wanted it the day I saw it.

With Bob's peripheral vision still not up to par,

 I drove our cargo wan both ways.

It had to be a quick trip as I had to go to work

the next day and Tundra went to our doggy sitter. 

This bottom drawer was originally used

 for putting you shoes inside.

Back in the day shoes were sometimes called mules.

Thus this particular piece of furniture is called a

Mule Chest. 

The top would lift up to add all of your

quilts and coverlets.

It is a deep one.

Back in the day there was no such thing as a closet.

Even both of my grandparents farmhouses

had no closets in their bedrooms.

I have seen these in pine and blue.

I really wanted a blue or red but not pine.

Had come across a blue one, but not the right blue.

I was being picky but I knew this was my last piece...

and it needed to be special.

I added all of my blankets inside.

The drawer has my July 4th decor inside.

This is how I decorated it for now.

Just a simple display.

If I ever find a hanging cabinet

this red color, I may swap out the candle shelf;

but for now it will stay here.

A final view from my stitching chair.

I am over the moon at finally finding

my forever mule chest.

In other news,

This Halloween was the best night for

trick or treating in many years.

We never got the rain.

Although a bit windy it was still 72 degrees

at 7:00pm when we left the restaurant.

Dinner was good.

Bob ended up getting Cajun Angels, 

which was steak bites and mushrooms

in a cajun seasoning.

His cousin got shrimp scampi

while his wife got mahi mahi.

We all loved our food.   

Breaded chicken parmesan was dinner last night.

Tonight I am making an enchilada chicken casserole.

Bob will be making strawberry margaritas for us.

Dragging out my Christmas totes

to start decorating for Christmas.

I will do one thanksgiving display for 

my November CupboardScape,

but want to get a jump on the decorating,

so I can enjoy it before the rush.

Plus I can take my time...since I can only

do this on weekends. 

What will your plans be this weekend?

November Blessings To All!

Janice

Past And Present

Hello everyone.

As October winds down, I wanted to share

just a few past Fall and Halloween decor

for my newer blogging friends.

For my long timers, hope this post does not 

bore you too much,

for at the end will be a new bit of Halloween. 

Before of our keeping room.

This was an old railroad rack.

 

Keeping room again.

..

One Halloween at the antique store.

An October past CupboardScape.

One more pic of Halloween at our store.

This was years ago.

Now for the new.

If you remember this huge Victorian house

up the river last year did a skeleton graveyard.

This year they added a large skeleton

to the top of the house,

with a rope going all the way down to 

another huge skeleton on the ground.

Then they added more skeletons

to make it look like they were climbing the rope up. 

Other skeletons are hanging all over the house.

Although you cannot see it in the pics Bob took,

also on the roof of the portico, they added

a bistro table with 2 skeletons sitting in chairs 

with what looks to be drinks on the table.

This owner owns a construction company.

He brings in a crane to reach 

all of the levels of the house.

At night it is all lit up, and for Halloween

he has music playing outside.

The lines to get candy are quite long

with kids on the sidewalk both

North and South of the house.

He must give out pretty good candy for those lines.

We know because we drove by it last 

Halloween evening going home.

There is no parking on this road,

so I quickly pulled over for Bob to take

these pics before a cop came by....

which they often do...especially on Halloween.

In other news,

We are finally getting some color changing 

of the leaves in our neck of the woods.

However most of the trees just turned brown.

Yesterday it was 61 degrees and we enjoyed it.

Since I will be hosting Christmas this year,

will be dragging out my bins to start

decorating.

I like to take my time, 

so decided to start this weekend.

Halloween evening we will be going to 

one of our fav seafood restaurants for dinner.

This place is s packed all year,

therefore we go once yearly.

Bob's cousin and his wife will be joining us.

I can taste my lobster ravioli now.

Plus we always get a smoked salmon

dip appetizer with toasted bread. 

Well off to work.

Past & Present Blessings To All!

Janice