Sunday Starts

Hello all of my dear friends!

This latest project

started back on February 4th.

This one is called Patriotic Pinwheel Parade.

A perfect stitch for July 4th decor.

Perfect also for a bunny lover like me!

I plan on doing this one the 4th of each month.

Hopefully it will be completed by July 4th.

My first day progress.

February 4th.

Almost completed a quarter of the flag banner

at the top.

March 4th flag progress.

Its gonna be a long one...

Once I get to the bunnies it will be 

fun stitching on this one,

since I so love bunnies.

Stitching this one on 36 ct Cream & Sugar

from Fiber on a Whim.

Using most of the called for colors.

Swapped out the orangey red for Red Licorice.

Who wants orange for July 4th?

Not me.

Also changed the white to White Lighting.

Both Weeks Dye Works.

The other colors are DMC.

My next attempt is this one.

This is my next sampler for my heritage wall.

It's called 

"A Little Quakeresque"

but for me it has been nothing but

"A Big Headache"

I think I told Lauren there were 4 motifs stitched.

I lied. Only 3.

I thought this would be a fun pattern.

A no brainer with only one color floss.

These little motifs seem easy, but are a pain to me.

Every one thus far I have had to frog. Grrr

I really have to count these motifs.

There are 81 of them....this is going to be a long stitch.

Even though I love blue, may get bored with one color.

I will not be stitching the four corner border.

When finished this will have all four

of my great grand fathers names/ dates.

Hopefully it will look as nice once completed

as my other family sampler.

Using only one color of floss.

Classic Colorworks Blue Corn.

Again this should be easy because there are 

no color changes to deal with.

Again GRRR.

In other news,

my mom loved the tribute sampler I stitched

in memory of her parents & grandparents.

Her eyes lit up when she looked at it.

I was so glad my first one was for her family. 

She even wondered what glass it was.

She also told me she now found out her

paternal grandfathers birth year.

All we had was his death year.

We now know he passed 

when he was just 34 years old.

Other than he died from pneumonia,

we know nothing else about him.

I will include his birth date

in this current sampler.

Larry's 100th birthday party was a success,

even though it was a rainy day.

He told us the story of him going into the army

at 18 years old in World War II.

He was wounded in the leg and spent 4 months

in a Paris hospital before returning back to his

regiment in Germany.

In the final days of the war, many gathered

in the arena that Hitler used for his speeches.

There remained a Nazi swastika hanging.

At the beginning of the celebration,

they covered the swastika with the American flag,

amid heavy cheers from the crowd.

It was here that Audie Murphy (the actor)

was honored for his bravery.

At this time we thanked Larry for his service

with a round of applause by all.

He spent 27 months fighting for our country.

Thank you again Larry for your service.

Thank you again to those who sent in cards.

Well I best get ready for Easter Brunch.

We always have our dinner at noon.

Ham and fixins.

Cannoli and strawberry rhubarb pies for dessert.

Hope everyone enjoys their Easter who celebrate.

Sunday Start Blessings To All!

Janice

 

Whippy Wednesday

Hello my friends.

Today I have a few WIP's to share.

First up is Love Always.

This is my daily lunch project now.

I really would like to get this one finished,

even though it will be put away until next

Valentine's Day.

I sure do need to get some projects completed. LOL

 

As you know am not a fan of pink,

but the rosy pinks in this piece I am loving.

I hate putting it down every day.

I thought there would be lots of frogging

in this one with the right side of the house,

but surprisingly I had none.

Was debating on whether to keep the kitty

gray or change to brown.

Bob said keep it gray for our Shadow kitty.

Not finished though.

Here is pattern cover.

So glad the called for floss colors are more muted.

Next up is Spring Gathering.

I decided to stay with the called for floss

for the bunny.

Sometimes you just have to trust the designer.

I may do an outline around his tail though,

since it is hard to see with my linen choice.

Alas this one did not get done in time for 

my Spring displays.

I worked on this one for a few hours last Saturday.

So many projects I want to do...

so little time to do them all.

Here is the Spring Gathering pattern.

Using all the called for floss,

even though my eggs are not pink.

Also the bunny's chest is white in the pic too,

whereas more of a cream in the called for floss

This is also fine by me.

Sometimes these patterns pics are not the colors at all.

Finally Block 5 of

Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow.

This baby was almost a full coverage block.

It took me 16 evenings and 2 Saturdays to complete.

Was not a fan of this one from the get go.

To me this did not SCREAM Halloween.

If not for the 2 bats and 2 skulls in the water,

to me this was just an under water scene.

Also the larger necklace above the skull was suppose

to be completed in all French knots.

I chose to do cross stitches....

did not want to do that many knots.

The next block will actually be 2 blocks in 1.

I will start on the left side first.

Do you want me to show you 

my progress next month?

Or should I wait & show in 2 months?

Hopefully I will finish by then...

Let me know.

At least I will enjoy doing this next one.

Yaya will love it too!

Blocks 1, 2 and 5.

Blocks 3 and 4.

Smell my feet and little pear were kept

in the cabinet this month.

Too much time spent on this big project.

In other news,

The workers who took out my daughters dishwasher,

did something with the waterline.

Now she has a leak....

She is running on empty.

She works full time.

She has to take my granddaughter 

to school and back since she cannot walk now.

She continues to go to the house for inspections.

She continues with her back therapy.

She still has her charity planning event weekly.

She was so tired the other day, she fell asleep

at her jobs parking lot when she arrived for work.

So glad she did not fall asleep at the wheel. 

My mom will be coming on Thursday.

I will see if she can bring her roll recipe.

Will share for those who wanted it.

Also thank you to those who sent cards for Larry.

You know who you are.

I will give them to him on Saturday.

Whippy Wednesday Blessings To All!

Janice

March CupboardScape

Hello friends.

Mother Nature got mad at us.

We had almost 5 inches of snow yesterday.

The Robins are flying back South....

at least I would if I was them.

Today's cupboardscape is all about bunnies,

mixed in with a few other items.

Most of the bun buns I made. 

 

I did hook the egg, just like I hooked the mat from

my last post.

This wood bunny basket is special

because my dad made this one.

He made tons of these in all colors and sold them

 at craft shows in the late 80's.

This is a very old wood egg crate.

The crocks are both cake crocks.

These would have been placed in the coals

to make your cake.

Not much going on right now.

Will spend my weekend doing

the normal chores and getting in some stitching.

We will go to the grocery store 

for all of  the Easter fixins.

I am hosting.

What will you be doing this weekend?

March CupBoardScape Blessings To All!

Janice

Spring Is Here

Spring is here,

although we had snow off and on yesterday.

Here are some snippets of my Spring displays.

I know Robin will be drooling at the last pic.

Saundra and Lauren may like my mat.

For those who like bunnies like me, will like this too.

 

So this bunny mold was something Bob brought

home a few weeks ago.

A customer came to the store and just gave it to him.

She would not take any money for it...

and because Bob still has short term memory loss,

he does not remember who gave it to him.

When he showed it to me, I was in shock.

This is a $500 antique mold.

This treasure will be loved forever by me.

I could never imagine spending 

this kind of money for this piece. 

(which is why I never had one)

There was a lady from Germany whose blog I followed.

She stopped blogging now.

Each Easter she showed her antique bunny molds.

I always drooled looking at them all.

Thank you, thank you to the customer

who gave this to Bob.

You have no idea what this means to me.

In other news,

Chatty Crone asked me what museum glass is.

It is a glass that is non- reflective while being

super clear. 

In other words, 

it will not have a glare like normal glass.

My daughter and kiddos stayed at a hotel

over the weekend, and now will be temporarily

housed in an apartment near them until

the house is fully cleaned..

It will take approximately three months.

They will need to remove everything from

her house, then determine what can be saved

or what needs to replaced.

She took what she wanted and also took pics

of everything just in case something comes

up missing.

One of my co-workers who had fought cancer,

has passed away the other day at only 46.

She has 4 school aged children.

She went on disability about seven years

 ago to spend more quality time with 

her family.

At that time she was only given a year to live.

She frequented the University of Michigan

hospital for all of her treatments.

Which is hard, because it is almost a three

hour drive from us here.

Please say a wee prayer for her family.

Her husband's father and my father were cousins.

It is a small world out there. 

Well have to get my butt in gear to drive to work.

Hope everyone enjoys their first day of Spring.

Stop and smell the flowers.

Or in my case, stop and count the robins.

There were over 25 robins on the lawn 

yesterday at work. I did stop to count them.

The most in one area I have ever seen.

Spring Has Arrived Blessings To All!

(at least on paper now)

Janice

 

A Friday Finish

 Hello dear friends.

Well today I am proud to say I have

my first finish.

I started this sampler in October of last year.

Finished in late February this year.

This will be my first in a series of samplers

where I want to add my ancestors names to.

This one is homage to my maternal

 grandparents and their parents (my great grandparents)

I chose this black frame.

Although it does not really show here,

it does have some red in it.

It compliments the red in the sampler.

We do not have any local framers in our small town,

so I travelled a half hour to or nearest

Hobby Lobby to have this framed.

I was a bit hesitant on taking it to them.

After all it took me 4 months to complete this.

However the lady who waited on me was very patient.

She even told me I did not have to pay for it

until I absolutely loved it.

Well I loved it at first sight. 

I did choose also to have museum glass. 

It was a bit more, but well worth it.

When I got it home,

I added my index card to the back

with all of pertinent information;

ie: pattern name, linen color, floss used,

date I started and finished, plus

all of the information 0n 

my grandparents and great-grandparents

on the back side.

Using the same letters  and numbers

in the sampler pattern,

I took graph paper and added my names

and dates for placement on this piece.

Stitched these using a green and red floss 

for my grandmother and her parents, 

while using gold/ brown

for my grandfather and his parents. 

We could not find a birthdate 

for my one great grandfather,

so the one on the bottom just has the date

he passed way.

He died very young of pneumonia,

and my mom never knew him.

Back in September when I first told my mom

 I wanted to do this,

she was tickled to help me in the research.

We travelled to all of the cemeteries all over the area

 so I could get the pertinent info I needed.

She will be here for Easter and I cannot wait

to show her...and I know she will be pleased.

Eventually this will be hung on one of my blank walls

in our keeping room.

I am going to call this my Heritage wall.

For now it will reside on my cabinet

until I get more samplers completed.

I already have my next one 

planned and started.

This next one will probably take me longer

than 4 months. 

It already is giving me problems....grrr,

but I am bound and determined to get this done.

In other news,

my daughter will be checking into a hotel

so that her house can be cleaned.

She did put in a claim for the fire.

We offered for her to come stay with us,

but she chose the hotel as it is closer to

her work and Mikayla's.

We had a few thunderstorms roll in yesterday,

but mostly it rained all day.

Cold and damp though.

It's Friday.

YAY

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

More cleaning for me...

what will you be doing?

Friday Blessings To All!

Janice

Spring Fling

 

Today's post is all about Spring.

Don't know about you,

but I am ready for it.

So is our store.

Without further ado,

lots of store pics for you viewing pleasure.

Bob had a much larger fireplace mantle

stuffed away somewhere.

He always amazes me.

He placed it in the middle.

Painted it an off white with a black insert,

like our keeping room.

Then he built bookcases on either side.

Slat board on top.

It fits our new space well.

Hope you enjoyed my first pics of Spring.

In other news,

Saturday I did more Spring cleaning.

This time the living room.

Also did laundry, swept the floors,

and found 2 more dogs. (dog hair) LOL

Then stitched a bit.

Made dinner which was a stuffed pepper casserole.

Had it again last night as I made too much,

but still good.

Counting the days until the Soo Locks open.

Which is March 22nd this year.

The St Lawrence Seaway also opens same day.

Then we will see the freighters more.

Not many coming through this Winter,

even though there was no ice this year.

Guess the economy is hitting them as well.

We had an inch of snow overnight into the morning,

but by evening was gone.

Take care everyone.

Off to work.

Spring Fling Blessings To All!

Janice