Friday Finishes

 Hello friends.

Well I am in Fall mode now.

Been stitching up and finishing some

Fall patterns...with some I started last year

and did not finish until now.

First is Hello Fall.

Instead of black and gray, I chose two

different colors of brown.

Made it into a pillow to display.

The next one I chose to stitch comes from

the Winds of Autumn Book by Blackbird Designs.

This pattern is called Autumn Sound.

I did not have all of the fancy floss for this,

therefore some of the colors were done in DMC

which was called for as well.

I changed the letter "B" to my initial of "J"

Made this sweet little design into another pillow.

Finally I finished Butternut Tavern.

This design was by Stacy Nash. 

This one I chose to frame.

A perfect one in my opinion.

The triangles in the frame mimic the ones

in the pattern somewhat.

Am looking forward to adding this

piece into my Autumn decor.

Have you started decorating for Fall now?

In other news,

my brother is changing up

 mom's house big time.

Not sure if I told you all he is purchasing

mom's house now.

Before mom's passing, the plan was for him

 to move in  because we were unable

to rent or sell it.

Otherwise mom would have lost her  

veterans benefit to stay in her studio apartment.

Well now he is going to purchase the house.

He already painted the bedrooms.

Mom's bedroom went from blue to tan.

Bedroom 1 went from off white to a rosy tan.

Bedroom 2 went from pink to blue.

He also did a drop down molding, so that

the ceiling color of off white comes 

down about 5 inches.

Pretty cool idea I thought.

He also painted the garage. 

My dad never had the garage painted,

which we all thought was odd.

He has to redo the master bath because

mold was found everywhere.

He ordered an island from the Amish for

the kitchen.

He also ordered from the Amish

wood cubbies in the mud room.

Am pretty sure mom would not like

any of these changes...

but this is his choice now. 

He will also be removing all of

 the wall to wall carpeting which was

original to the house being built

in 1991 to wood floor.

Well thats all I have for now.

Hope everyone enjoys their weekend.

I will be decorating and stitching.

Friday Blessings To All!

Janice 

August Starts

Hello friends.

I decided to start two new samplers

for my heritage wall for August. 

I actually started these towards the end of July.

The first one is a little one.

Little Quilt Block Sampler

by From The Heart.

Once completed will add in only initials

of my maternal family members.

For those who know me, these colors

are definitely not me.

However with the kaleidoscope of colors

that are already up on the wall,

this stitch will be a terrific addition 

once it is completed.

Am stitching this on 36ct Winter  Moon

using all the called for DMC floss.

Next up is AB 1816 Quaker Sampler.

I chose to stitch this one as it reminded me

of my paternal gramma's wallpaper

which hung in one of the rooms of her farmhouse.

Even the overall color of this looked just like

her wallpaper...so I had to stitch it.

Am using these DMC colors...

and yes there are only 4 colors.

Also once again not my prim colors.

Stitching this on 32ct Smokey White Belfast.

This was a one day start 

on this latest sampler.

The initials were supposed to be 

the letters AB, however I chose

to change to my initials JA.

In other news,

Bob's aunt and cousin came in from Las Vegas,

so we will be visiting with them today.

His uncle can no longer travel and remained

back at his home.

They are staying at Bob's cousins home

which is a hop, skip and jump from ours.

He lives here while the rest of his family

moved to Vegas and one moved to

St George, UT.

Wednesday we are going to dinner with friends.

It will be nice to catch up with them.

Have to finish up my thank you notes today.

My siblings and I decided to divide these up.

More cards keep coming in, so I needed to

go out and purchase more thank you cards. 

The funeral home would give these to us...

but going up there vs purchasing my own,

is better with the gas prices so high right now. 

Spoke to my former boss last week,

and now a total of nine folks have left.

She is now getting worried.

I do feel bad for my remaining co-workers,

as now all of their jobs may be on the line.

The bank may close one office.

Well off to eat some breakfast and then

do some errands before our visit. 

Monday Blessings To All!

Janice

My Second Favorite Church

Hello friends.

Thank you for all of your heartfelt comments

from my last post.

It meant the world to me.. 

Mom was a fighter to the end.

We buried her on Monday morning.

This is the church we had the funeral service at.

St Mary's Catholic Church.

They recently just re-painted the starburst mural.

Many years ago the original starburst was 

wallpapered over to remove the cracks in the wall.

Well the wallpaper started peeling away...

so they took up donations to restore it.

It looks wonderful and so glad they 

were able to bring it back to its original glory.

This is the church I attended when 

visiting both grandparents.

My maternal grandparents paid for

one of the stained glass windows....

but I forget which one.

The right side display.

The left side display.

This statue is of St Mary.

Looking up towards the front of the church,

is the choir area.

The organist was already playing when 

I was taking these pictures.

Bob is in the foreground.

I took these pics before mass...

and my mom was lying in state 

to the left of Bob.

Above the organist was another

 stained glass window.

The service was wonderful.

Those who sang the songs we chose

sang like angels.

It was a beautiful service.

Tuesday we cleaned out mom's apartment.

We donated her furniture.

Her church wanted to provide a room

for someone in need on a temporary basis.

When we found this out, we decided

to give it to them.

They received the kitchen table and chairs,

bed with linens, small side tables and lamps.

They were so appreciative.

Wednesday I went to our local bakery

to purchase 2 dozen cookies to the ladies

who assisted with mom's care.

One of the ladies told me that she wished

more families were like ours.

She said that a lot of their residents

dont even get visitors from their family members.

They move them into their apartments,

and alas never go to visit them.

So sad.

Today I am going to lunch with

two former co-workers.

Time for me to relax a bit.

A weight has been lifted.

I will miss my mom tremendously,

 but know she is no longer suffering.

St. Mary Blessings To All!

Janice

An Angel Went To Heaven

Mom left us on Thursday morning

around 11:00am.

My brother arrived to find her deceased,

but she was still warm.

She is with our dad now and her family.

1934-2026

She was 91 one years young.

My mom's engagement announcement

back in 1955.

Back then they placed these 

in their local newspaper.

Mom and dad's wedding photo.

April 23, 1955

Dad's sister on the left sitting.

Dad's brother 2nd to left.

My mom's brother was their ring bearer.

Mom's sister was her maid of honor. 

Mom with her siblings and her mom.

My gramma was in the middle.

Mom on the left.

Her sister and brothers.

Christmas 2017 at my brother's home.

My sister Teresa on left, mom in the middle,

and me on the right. Brother Tom in back.

July 2018 Harsen's Island outing

July 2019 family reunion.

Pictured from left to right ~

mom's sister Louise now deceased,

 my deceased uncle's wife Gerry,

mom's only living brother Leonard,

and my mom on the right.

2020 was taken by her church just before 

covid lockdown.

December 2022 Dinner at the museum

for my 65th birthday.

Bob on the left.

 

May 2025 Mother's Day at Frankenmuth.

At the end of July she fell and broke her shoulder.

She never went back home.

My daughter Michele in back.

Halloween night 2025

My mom and sister.

May 2026

This was taken on Mother's Day.

It was a month later that mom started

having issues and the decline began.

I am numb right now.

We knew it was coming, 

however still so very hard.

We were allowed to see her before

the funeral driver took her away.

She is at peace now,

and I am happy she is in no more 

pain and suffering.

It was hard seeing her go from

a strong woman to a frail one.

Thank you to everyone for

your thoughts and prayers

in this difficult time for me and my family.

Time is so very precious.

In other news,

my mom and I always went on the annual

antique trail which starts south of my house,

and all the way around the Thumb of Michigan.

I was unable to do it last year 

as it was held right after my mom fell.

Unfortunately it was this weekend and once

again am not able to go.

Hopefully next year will be different.

Blessings To All!

Janice

Another Whippy Wednesday

Here is the only WIP I have for July.

A few little items that were carry overs from last year

were also stitched and finished in July.

Those I will show later.

Too much was going on with mom

to work on any other samplers.

 

Started page 5 and added in

the American flag.

Page 5 is now completed.

Half of this pattern is now also complete.

Page 6 had the king's crown.

This is not a flag, but was added

to represent King George III.

Stitched most of page 6, but not all.

Above the word We is the start of 

the water.

The brown box represents the tea

being tossed off the ship,

for The Boston Tea Prty.

Here I am thus far.

In other news,

mom is still with us.

She is a fighter for sure.

However she is struggling now to eat by herself,

so either we feed her if we are there,

or the aides are.

My sister brought her a shake last evening

and she could not drink it with the straw.

She even let it melt a bit;

mom still could not drink it.

Her breathing is more raspier.

They continue to give her morphine for pain.

She is declining more each day.

How long do we have with her,

is in God's hands.

These days seeing her are precious to me 

as they will no longer exist soon.

For Bob's  birthday we went to our

favorite Italian  restaurant for lunch.

He had chicken parmesan and I had chicken  alfredo. 

Well off to do a few errands and then

going to see mom.

Hope everyone is enjoying their week thus far.

Wednesday blessings To All!

Janice

August CupboardScape

 

Happy August 1st everyone!

For me August meant harvest.

For my new followers,

both my grandparents had dairy farms.

I spent my Summer months on both farms.

My parents would drive up

both my sister and I and it

was the best time ever. 

I did not get involved with harvesting

until I was a teen.

My job was to bale hay.

Crops were very important to a farmer.

They needed them to feed their animals.

Both my grandparents grew wheat.

Once the wheat was thrashed 

the rest of the stalks were dried for straw.

Corn was also grown by both.

My paternal grandparents also grew alfalfa.

Another food source for their animals.

Crops were men's work.

My grandmother's had their own jobs.

Reaping the fruits of their gardens.

Canning vegetables, making sauces,

and jarring up jams. 

August was the time I would also help

my grandmothers get out their Winter quilts,

in the process of switching over their

Summer ones for these warmer ones.

Another job of mine was to beat 

those quilts outside on their clotheslines,

to get the dust out.

Those heavy quilts would not

go through their ringer washing machines

at the time.

Mending was a necessity this time of year.

Socks, clothes and quilts.

My maternal grandparents had 80 acres of land.

They did not have a furnace.

Therefore the woodpile needed to be

filled for the Winter months.

My uncles would go in the back 40...

as I called it and chop the wood.

The back 20 acres of land was filled with trees.

It was important to my maternal grandparents

to be able to heat their stove daily.

Gramma cooked, heated her iron and it

was the source of warmth for that

old farmhouse.

My favorite time of the year on my

grandparents farms though

was months before harvest.

I loved when the crop dusting planes 

came to my grandparents farms.

For those not familiar with crop dusting,

it was the preferred method at the time

for applying pesticides and fertilizer.

It was an important part of farming.

The croppers only came in good weather,

with a very low wind to be effective.

These small planes were so cool to me.

They would come down very, very low

and spray the many acres of crops.

Then when they were near the end,

they would come up fast and turn around.

Row by row, up and down.

I was mesmerized at the pilots precision.

Farming was a hard but rewarding life.

I have always said kids need to work

a farm at least once in their life to see

where they get their food from.

It would be an important lesson for them.

Better than learning about what is being

taught now in our schools.

In other news,

mom's body is failing.

Her breathing is getting heavier.

She still knows who I am at the time,

but forgets that any of us had seen her

when we did.

No one visits her she tells me when I ask.

Yesterday evening she got worse.

She now is sweating more profusely,

plus she has a Kennedy ulcer....

which both are more signs she is failing.

The Kennedy ulcer is a skin sore that will

not heal and a sign that death is close.

My mom always had a high tolerance to pain.

Yesterday her pain level for both her stomach

area (where the mass is) and her lower back

(where the ulcer is) were both at a 10.

My brother called the Hospice nurse

and she is going to start providing

pain medication.

We do not have long now.

I will be leaving here shortly to visit her.

It may be my last time.

I did not sleep well last night.

Our wedding anniversary was Monday.

Neither Bob or I remembered. LOL

He remembered Wednesday night.

We laughed because we both forgot.

I wont forget his birthday though.

It is next Tuesday.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

August Blessings To All!

Janice