Give-And-Take

 Hello Friends!

Today's post will be a little give and take.

I am going to give away something...

and some lucky person will take.

Before I announce my giveaway,

I want to show you where Bob and I 

had lunch at last week.

We went to the Raven Cafe.

The entire restaurant is Edgar Allen Poe themed.

Even most of the menu items are named

after Poe's works.

When I worked in Port Huron this was

one of our go spots for lunch.

We went out for lunch every Friday.

My co-workers were the BEST!

We still work together, but unfortunately

no longer at that office.

We all have that long drive to work now. 

 

Anyways, we had hummus with warm pita bread

for an appetizer.

We both had Lobster Bisque.

I was surprised Bob ordered this too.

Usually he gets Chicken Tortilla.

My salad was called the El Dorado.

 A chicken Mexican one with chipotle ranch.

Bob's sandwich was called the Venetian,

which is Poe's The Visionary which 

Venice is mentioned.

His sandwich was herb crusted chicken 

with provolone, red onion, balsamic vinaigrette

on an Italian baguette with roasted red peppers on top.

I only ate half my salad.

Bob and I ate it again that night 

with Italian sausage he grilled.

The lower level was already filled at 11:00am

when we got there.

We sat up here on the second floor.

This entire floor has shelves of books on three walls

 for all to read.

Leather chairs here for anyone to sit.

 A group of folks came in right after I took this pic.

I did not want to take pics of others while there,

as the remainder of this floor was filled,

including the outside patio...

could not believe folks were sitting outside that day.

This is the cafe/ bar area.

Lots of specialty coffee drinks, teas,

frappes and smoothies, along with beer.

They have live music at night when 

the younger crowd comes in.

The owners are in their 40's and this 

business they created is a good one.

They do have outside seating too,

but it was awful hot that day.

The place gets packed every day for lunch,

which is why we like to be there by 11.

It was packed when we left. 

Now for the giveaway.

It's been such a long time since I have had one.

I so appreciate everyone who follows along.

I read all of your comments and sometimes

even more than once.

I may not comment to your blogs daily,

but I do try to when I can.

Maybe once retired, I can post more often....

just too much going on right now.

I made this flag pillow using strips of fabric.

It is rag stuffed to give that lumpy feel.

The back is Onasburg fabric,

along with the front where I attached the other fabric.

Here is a close up.

So if you would like this pillow, here are the rules.

1. You must be a follower.

2. Open to my both my U.S. and Canadian followers.

(Not sure if my Canadian followers 

want a US flag though).

3. Please comment using the words ~

"Stars and Stripes"

4. If for some reason you cannot comment,

you may send me an email at

primsbythewater@yahoo.com

 

I will post the winner on my next post.

Good luck to everyone!

Stars And Stripes Blessings To All!

Janice

Sunday Starts

Happy Sunday.

You know what that means.

Check out what I am working on now.

 

First up is 

Laura Vorgensen 1853.

My parents were married in a church on the hill.

This is why I chose this sampler.

I want to add their names,

the church name and that date they were married.

The church was built in 1854.

My parents were married in 1955.

I still need to finish my great grandfathers one,

but when I mentioned this one to my mom

she was really excited when she saw the pattern.

When I started this,

it began with changing up floss colors.

The letters A and B were to be white.

You could not see them.

I dont mind some ghosting, but not at the beginning.

When I got to the letter E, again not a fan.

As you can see I changed the 

E and F to a lighter shade of blue.

Now am not so sure about these colors either.

I do not want a majority all blue sampler again.

Which version do you like?

Next up is Blueskin.

This was one of George Washington's two horses,

he used in the Revolutionary War.

Blueskin was actually a a blue roan which

looked gray except in the Winter

where his coat turned white.

He is the horse often seen in portraits

of George Washington. 

His other horse was Nelson.

I was able to stitch one branch

of the cherry tree.

Am loving the colors thus far.

Once I finish this one 

will work on Nelson at some point.

Stitching this on 28ct Vellum.

Finally,

I decided I wanted to do a small stitch

before July 4th comes along

and make this into a pillow.

I wanted something for July 4th since I knew

Patriotic Pinwheel Parade would not get finished. 

This one is Old Glory 

by Little House Needleworks.

I have gotten this far.

Lauren said I must be a fast stitcher...

Well guess that gets me in trouble. LOL

I stitched the flag in red, green and blue. GRR

Yep pulled out a light green and did not

realize it until I was completely done.

Spent an hour frogging and re-stitching

in white like it is suppose to be. 

None of the colors I chose were the called for.

Just trying to use up my stash.

The linen was leftover from my one

stich I did for my Maternal grandparents and

great grandparents.

I forgot the color but it was a 36 ct.

If all goes right I should have this one finished soon.

Not counting my chickens though....

In other news,

Friday night was the fireworks that the First Nation

folks on Walpole Island put on the first

night of Summer each year.

We could walk to our dock and see them,

if it were not for the mosquitos.

We usually drive to a parking lot

which is a hop skip and jump from us 

with an awesome view.

Well a thunderstorm came in on our side  of the river.

We thought for sure they would cancel

them since it was directly across  

the river from us.

Well we went to bed at 10:00pm.

10"05 we heard them go off.

UGH

By the time we would have gotten re-dressed

and drove over there it would have been done.

It seems the storm was just on our side of the river.

Go figure.

Bad storms hit our state once again last week.

This time the entire street my niece lives on

was affected.

Trees and wires down everywhere.

Fortunately for my niece,

the big tree in her yard fell across her driveway.

Others were not so lucky.

Cars and houses were badly damaged.

They declared a state of emergency for her city.

Well off to make French toast and breakfast sausage

for Bob and I.

Hope everyone is staying safe.

Sunday Start Blessings To All!

Janice

Whippy Wednesday

Hello friends,

here is my update on a few of the things

I have been stitching on.

Hope you enjoy.

I sure do enjoy bringing them to life.

 

American Eagle has me wanting to stitch 

as much as I can on this piece.

At first I did not think the house 

would show up on this fabric,

but once the border completed,

you can see it in its glory.

The house is not quite complete yet though.

Bottom right is not stitched here.

I managed to get another bunny completed

on Patriotic Pinwheel Parade.

This will definitely not get finished in July.

I will work a little more on it,

and then put away for next year.

A little more progress on my great grandfathers

stitchery.

Once the letters are complete, will need to add

 the numbers in to be finished.

Plus the addition of my last great grandfather's name. 

At first I thought piece might be boring because

am only using one color, but with 

all of the  letters and different motifs it has not.

My progress on Halloween At Hawk Run Hollow.

Block 8 is completed.

YAY

This block was suppose to be all orange pumpkins.

As you can see I changed things up.

I wanted this block to be more 

Halloween  than Fall. 

So I changed two pumpkins into black ones.

We do have black colored pumpkins here,

along with a blue and green variety.

In keeping with Halloween,

chose black and orange for this block.

While also changing one up

 to be a black jack-o-lantern.

I love the final version of what I did.

How about you?

I am feeling a sense of accomplishment

finally with this piece.

I will also enjoy doing the next block.

At least it is Halloween themed.

Only 4 more blocks to go.

Thanks for following along!

In other news,

It has been extremely hot and humid here.

The air has been on mostly non-stop.

Thankfully for us we have air.

I hope everyone is alright out there that does not.

It was not until Bob and I got married 

that we got air ourselves.

Am so glad we did.

I have the day off today so Bob and I are treating

ourselves to lunch up the river to a cafe that we love.

We love their salads and sandwiches.

I plan on getting their lobster bisque soup.

Bob will probably get chicken tortilla.

They have 5 different soups on their menu.

Looks like we also may get some rain today too.

Hopefully the humidity will go away....

but not today it seems.

Take care everyone.

Whippy Wednesday Blessings To All!

Janice

June CupboardScape

 

Hello my friends!

Today's CupboardScape

is for Father's Day.

I pulled together some of my 

colonial items that our forefathers

may have used in their time.

Hope you enjoy.

In other news,

I believe Summer has already arrived.

Temps in the 90's with no relief in sight.

Next week the humidity will accompany the heat.

Tundra does his business and wants in.

He hates the hot weather too.

I finished up my July 4th decor.

I did not do as much this year.

Only the living room, keeping room,

 hall and cabinet in the room my mom stays in.

I laughed at Lauren's response to me not moving

any more furniture around.

I am trying not too, as it is so hard for Bob

lately to move it.

He is not even buying much furniture

as far as  our antique store goes.

Hope all the father's out there enjoy their day!

June Blessings To All!

Janice

My Next Project

 

Hello friends!

Wanted to share with you all

my next project.

 

 

 I use to have had my bucket bench here.

Decided to move that in the kitchen 

while swapping out my pine cupboard here.

I just felt it would look better in this room.

It is not that heavy so Bob was not mad at me.

Plus I told him I am done moving furniture after this.

 

Now I have another project.

What to add on the walls and top.

As you can see I also need to hide the timer.

I did that by moving my chair here in the corner

Adding in some textiles.

One of my antique splint baskets

on the bottom.

So far am liking this.

Grabbed one of my benches and added

a flag inside my stoneware jug.

I can do so much more with this cabinet here.

Now I need to decide how to decorate this part 

of our keeping room.

Any suggestions on this?

I know for now it will remain a blank slate.

Just hope it wont take me years to decide. LOL

We might go antiquing next month.

Maybe I might find something that 

will need to come home....maybe.

In other news,

Am so tired of getting spam calls.

I am on the do not call list

and I must get at least 10 calls per day.

I don't answer them and send them to voicemail.

One yesterday wanted to tell me they have

my loan docs ready and they just

 needed some more information....yeah right.

Last week we had another tornado

where a 2 year old boy died.

This was 2 blocks from where my boss lives.

I called her the next day just to make sure 

she was ok as I was on my mini vacation.

So sad.

Well speaking of bosses,

you know where I am headed now.

Have a wonderful day my friends.

My Next Project Blessings To All!

Janice

Friday Finish

 Hello friends!

No cross stitch finish this month,

but I do have an FFO (fully finished object).

For those who have been following for awhile,

knew that I had finished hooking

Woman On Horseback.

Well she is FINALLY finished.

I so loved the colors I chose for this one.

Saundra has wonderful patterns that she will

draw up for you in whatever size rug you want.

She did this one for me.

 I also purchased another 

one from her called Potted Plant that I am slowly

hooking at a snails pace.

Hopefully I will get back to it soon.

Any hoot, when I finally finished it,

I knew it had to be hung here.

The colors mimic each other and I simply

love it here now.

Don't you love how a plan goes together?

Taking my time with this wall really helped.

Although the displays on top will change,

the rug and picture and cupboard will remain now.

Currently on top is a 18th century bowl

filled with stone fruit.

A stoneware pitcher filled with turkey feathers.

Plus my pewter candlestick with its beeswax candle.

A side view.

I did move the burgandy candles.

Just noticed the candle on top is crooked.

Will need to fix that. LOL

All decked out now in Patriotic Pride.

Most definitely now we need to paint 

those switch plates.

In other news,

Yesterday I had the day off.

Bob and I decided to go out for breakfast

at this new restaurant near us.

It was good and we never eat out for breakfast,

so this was a treat for us.

Then we went grocery shopping.

Came back home, unloaded

and put everything away.

Then we were off again.

This time with  Tundra

We took a half hour drive to this 

meat market that was having 

a  June meat special.

We love their meat!

I also have today off. 

Today am going to do laundry and clean

then hopefully get some hooking and stitching in.

I actually took three days off as a mini vacation.

Will also be making some banana bread

using up some bananas which were overipe...

which makes the BEST bread.

Then this weekend, also going to bake

some strawberry rhubarb bread and a

strawberry pie.

What will your plans be for this weekend?

Friday Finish Blessings To All!

Janice