Making Progress

Today's post is my progress

for June on my stitching.

This is where I left off in May

with Elizabeth Manners.

For June finished this motif now.

Finished the tree plus Adam & Eve.

Then I wrapped the border 

around and started on the bottom.

Am loving this piece!

This was Floral Motif at the end of May.

Started stitching this bird on the flowered vase.

Went up and did this green/ white motif.

 Then completed the red flower to the left.

Stitched these 2 red tiny flowers.

This is where I ended Floral Motif Sampler

for the month of June.

Sadly I did not pick it up in July.

America 250.

Started page three and here is my eagle.

Finished another flag.

The Rebellion Stripes one.

This red and white striped flag

was created by the Sons of Liberty

to resist the British Stamp Act.

Then I completed the Stamp Act motif.

The British enacted the stamp act

to the American colonies.

This required printed materials such as 

legal documents, newspapers and even

playing cards be produced in London

and had to be embossed with the revenue stamp

depicted in this motif. 

Although this was a British law that

was enacted for America,

this is a French saying meaning

"Shame to him who thinks evil of it."

This is the motto of the order of the garter.

The high order of British knighthood.

The royal crown symbolized the authority

of the British monarchy (King George III)

The one penny was the denomination

of the Stamp Act.   

Most stitchers are not stitching this motif.

Paulette also included in the pattern for a floral

motif if you did not want to stitch the

stamp act one.

I want my piece to include all of the historical

references, so I stitched it. 

Finished the rest of the initials of the men

who wrote the Declaration of Independence.

TJ- Thomas Jefferson

JA- John Adams

BF- Benjamin Franklin

RL- Robert Livingston

RS- Robert Sherman

  Am now finished with page 3 of 10.

This took me seven days to stitch.

I know this was not finished

by July 4th...but do enjoy stitching on it.

Page 4 took me 8 days.

This was a massive American flag.

This page also has a portion

 of Independence Hall.

I did change the backstitch color 

on the steeple and clock hands

to Hickory Sticks (brown)

Now on to page 5 of 10.

Whew this is a lot of stitching,

but I have hopes of completing

by year end.

This was my progress on Faith 1831 for May.

Finally finished the one over one stitching.

YAY

Then I moved to the wreath.

Then the bowl of fruit.

Finished more of the flower border

on both the left and right.

Now that the hard part is completed

(one over one saying)

I am loving stitching on this again.

In other news,

was not feeling the best early Sunday 

morning and yesterday...therefore

I refrained from seeing my mom.

Will see her today sometime.

Am slowly taking down my patriotic decor.

Putting it carefully away until next year.

Bob and I are headed this morning 

to my mom's house.

We are meeting folks to donate

the furniture that did not sell

in the estate sale.

It will be going to the new parson coming

to one of the churches in town who

is moving and needs furniture.

My mom would approve.

One more tidbit.

For those not familiar with the DSA

Democratic Socialists of America...

be aware of their platform.

Abolish both the presidency and Senate.

Abolish the Pentagon.

Abolish prisons.

Abolish both ICE and the Police.

Open borders for any illegal to enter once again.

Free rent and mortgages for all.

Work when you want.

Abolish Capitalism.

In other words...lets become a Communist country.

The leaders of this group are millionaires.

Don't let them fool you.

If you want to remain a free country,

do not vote these Commies in.

They do not mince words.

They straight up tell everyone this is what

they want to do if they take control.

AOC and Bernie Sanders are part of this group.

They fly private jets and own multiple homes.

Drive fancy cars and talk about the oligarchy.

They are rich too...so in my opinion they

are the oligarchy as well.

Hasan Piker is another one.

He dresses just like a Commie.

Don't be fooled. 

They are all rich and want chaos in our country.

35 of these members are running in

seats all over...including in my

state of Michigan.

Abdul El-Sayed even hates 

our Democratic governor.

They are wolves in sheep's clothing. 

Sorry about my rant...but I want our

country to remain free.

Hope everyone enjoys their last week of July.

Making Progress Blessings To All!

Janice

Friday Finish

 Can you believe July is almost over.

It's been almost 4 months since I retired.

A few weeks ago, I called my former boss

to see what she was up to.

She answered her phone with a hello

in the form of a question.

I said hello back and asked 

her how things were going.

She responded "it is you!"

I said well who do you think it was?

She responded by saying she thought

she forgot to change my office phone.

We both laughed.

5 of my co-workers have left

the bank since I retired.

Good people tired of what is going on.

She did not blame them.

She even said I got out at the right time.

I know I did.

Well now that I went off on that tangent,

here is my finish for this month.

Jeny Brimer.

I stitched this in honor of my grandfathers.

I placed it up on my heritage wall.

Well that go me thinking about something

I recently purchased at an antique store.

I measured....and yep it would fit.

So first I put up Mary Jane Kerr.

This one was stitched with 

my grandmother's names.

So now both my grandparents are up on the wall.

This was the piece I purchased.

It is a tin candle holder from the

mid 1700's.

I may move up the piece below a bit now...

but am loving this wall.

To replace Mary Jane Kerr,

I added Margaret Beattie to 

the top of my cabinet for now.

I cannot believe I started this

heritage wall journey back in 2023.

I still have more I want to stitch....

and the good news is now that I 

re-arranged all of the furniture,

I have 2 more walls now.

Yippee

In other news,

we placed mom in Hospice now.

She was moved back to her apartment

on Tuesday via ambulance.

She will be monitored by the staff

every 2 hours, while the nurse will

visit daily.

She will be given soft food to eat...

and whatever she wants to drink.

However it will need to be in moderation

so she does not aspirate.

I wont be visiting her today,

but will go see her tomorrow.

I so appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers

as my family goes through 

this very difficult time.

You all are the BEST!

Friday Blessings To All!

Janice

Our New Trellis

 

Hello friends.

Three years ago our old trellis

fell and broke apart in a severe storm.

This was the former trellis that met it's

demise in 2023.

Bob made it with 2 vintage doors he had,

while using wood he had on hand for the top.

Finally Bob made us a new one using

some more of that 200 year old wood he

stashed away.

He did waterproof this and added chicken wire

so my vines can grow back up again. 

This side is the Kiwi vine.

This side is the Honeysuckle.

These were the petunias I chose

to add to both pots this year.

We had to replace our wonderful

Butterfly Bush that died.

The new one is starting to bloom.

Next year it should reach maturity.

My Hydrangeas are just starting to bloom.

Sitting on the bench this is the view

of our wagon and front garden.

This year I hung a patriotic banner to it.

The Autumn Joy Sedum is also getting

ready to bloom their pink color.

We had a Sparrow nest in our birdhouse this year.

Normally it has always been a wren,

so not sure what happened this year.

In other news,

mom took a turn for the worse.

The stent no longer is working.

She is now under comfort care.

She cannot eat solid food no longer

as she almost drowned (aspirated)

while the nurse was feeding her pudding.

The hospital called my brother

Saturday evening and told us to come up there.

She did not know any of us.

I was expecting a phone early Sunday morning.

However Sunday morning when I walked 

into her room she was her old self.

Said my name and answered every

question I posed to her.

She was very alert...even when 

my sister came in an hour later.

We have come to terms she will not get better.

We just do not want her to be in any pain,

or suffer any way.

We have a DNR in place and the nurses

will give her anything she request

within her limits.

It is just a matter of time now.

So sad.

Day 6 of smoke coming from 

the Canadian Wildfires.

Saturday we had some storms roll in.

That helped a bit.

Two towns to the North of us got

hit bad.

It looked like a war zone when I drove through.

Trees and wires down all over.

The annual Port Huron to Mackinac Island

sailboat race started Saturday morning.

I felt bad for the racers with the smoke

and storms coming in.

 There  were 203 racers who started

up this year.

85 of them returned back and gave up.

They train all year for this and just sad

so many came back.

This sailboat race has been going on

for 102 years now.

Well I hope everyone has a great week.

Will be headed to the hospital to see mom.

Summer Blessings To All!

Janice

This Changed Everything

 

Well almost everything.

Just before Bob traded in the van,

He asked me to look at a goat sled 

he thought I would want to keep.

Well the sled was way too big for the house...

very primitive, and if I had a covered porch,

I would have kept it.

However I also spotted this table.

I asked him "where did this come from?"

He tells me he just got it out of our storage unit

and was going to use it for a display.

I immediately said it was coming in the house.  

Well then I had to re-arrange furniture

in our keeping room to fit it in.

Moved the tv where the couch was.

Placed the couch where the tv was.

Moved the hanging cabinet to the end.

Having a dog while trying to move things,

is like having a child around.

He was always getting in the way...

wondering what we were doing. 

This cabinet was next to the tv.

Finally this cabinet was moved under 

one of the windows so the cabinet above would fit.

The white cabinet remained the same,

but just turned on the other wall.

Finally the new table on this end.

We did have to take down our screen door

for this to fit...but it was unfortunately

ruined by Tundra going through 

the bottom of it one time when we

tried to keep him in this room.

So it had already been damaged when 

taking it down.

All that moving, but now I have

another table to decorate. :-)

In other news,

mom had to have emergency surgery

on Tuesday afternoon to place

a stent in her kidneys.

The mass she has was pushing on

her kidneys too much and it was

determined she needed this right away...

otherwise they would not be able to

continue with her meds in the IV.

It was my mom's decision to go ahead

with this surgery.

When the doctor called me and told me

about it, I was floored because I thought

we had to give consent.

My brother was the closest to the hospital

at the time and immediately went to put

the kibash on it, but my mom was alert

and told him she wanted to do it.

Well she made it through surgery...

and yesterday when I visited her,

all of her vitals were at normal levels.

None of us can believe this.

Also yesterday we were affected

by the smoke from the wildfires way up

North in Canada.

The smoke and haze was HORRIBLE.

It was like driving in fog in the daylight.

The sun was red in color.

It unfortunately is sticking around today too.

I can already see the haze outside. UGH

So not only do we have to contend with

the hot humid weather...

also now the smoke in the air....

and "Smoke On The Water" [Deep Purple]

There really is smoke on our river.

It's like a fog.

Everything Changes Blesssings To All!

Janice

Christmas in July

 

While yearning for Autumn.

I decided to switch gears a bit and stitch

a bit of both Christmas and Autumn.

First for Christmas these Prairie Schooler

Blackwork Angels.

However am using brown instead of black.

Stitching these on 32ct Smoky White linen.

Using Aussie Gold from Dinky Dyes

and DMC 3781 for the brown.

Am loving these little angels.

For the Autumn piece I decided

to start this Stacy Nash pattern

called Butternut Tavern.

The first half of this pattern does not

have much heavy stitching and I was able

to stitch this in one evening.

Stitching this on 36 count

Scotch Bonnet by Weeks.

Using all the called for floss...

except for  the orange.

Am using DMC 3826 for that,

Three nights of stitching and now

have the entire flower border

at the top finished and the first 

row of the alphabet.

Some of the letters will be ghosted...

meaning they are so light they look

like you are seeing a shadow or a ghost.

Notice Stacy omitted the letter "J"

in this pattern.

In the 18th century the letter "J"

was not used in samplers although

this letter came to be in the 1500's.

The reason being was that school aged girls

who were taught to embroider were 

barred from using words that started 

with this letter, therefore it was omitted

from their samplers....however

by the 1820's the letter began to appear.

In other news,

we had a consultation with Hospice

for my mom on Friday.

Now they are saying she has a possible 

kidney stone, but will not be able

 do anything for that either.

We are waiting for the test result for that.

They have  managed to control her blood pressure,

however only with aggressive meds via her IV.

She only weighs 90 pounds now.

We have asked for therapy to come in

to see if it is feasible for her to have some

since she has been bedridden

 for almost two weeks now.

We will make the difficult decision

for Hospice next week I think.

My daughter Michele and granddaughter

Mikayla saw her now.

However she could not remember

who Mikayla was. 

Just sad.

 

My  sister has changed since this fall

happened to my mom...

 not someone I want to be around anymore,

which is another sad situation.

That's all I am going to say.

Well I hope everyone is enjoying their

weekend thus far.

Another heat wave is moving in soon for us. UGH

Christmas  In July Blessings To All!

Janice