Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! I hope you received everything you asked for, if not the store open early tomorrow. lol!

I can't believe it has been so long since I have blogged. I have passed two more college classes though, that much closer to my degree. Yeah!

I have been working on Esther Yeakel, I want to get her finished up before the new year. I changed the colors to red instead of peach.


I started CHS Purity of Heart on 40 ct. pearled barley.
/>a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXopGLnsyzImj6oE0Ft04eaYeixSJf3L9N0S4feI1iq0lxQwUe0CBJ8Asax-ydnSusCg7qjN9k_VLtgFMajFE3f5CeUkb63rbLVqGqfiiTAzgI6xM0yNp6HlzmNjizskKM4qpIq6nenK4/s1600-h/DSCN0619.JPG"> I thought I would share a few of my Christmas decorations. Here are some of my chocolate molds.

I thought I would throw in this cute penguin decoration. My sister and I exchange homemade gifts each and I thought she would like this guy. Merry Christmas, Teena!

Some of my Santas. I found them in a store in Nashville, In. It was a fun store with lots of cool decorations.

Last but not least my sampler plate. I asked for this plate for Christmas just hoping it would show up. I must have a been a good girl because it did! Yay!!

Until next time, merry stitching!!!

Halloween

I thought I had better post my pictures before Halloween is over. I can't believe October is almost over, how fast time seems to pass me by nowadays. My Halloween decorations almost compare to my stash! lol! Mainly, I love October because it is my birthday month and I seem to celebrate all month long instead of just one day.

My sister painted the witch plate for me for my birthday. Her birthday is Oct. 13th and mine is two weeks later so for two weeks we are the same age. She sometimes forgets and calls me old and I have to reminder that we are the same age during this time.

Here I am at the Making Strides Breast Cancer walk. Macho Mike is the motivator guy. He blew me a kiss after I took this photo. He probably danced for an hour before the walk, I was impressed. I thought I could surely make a 5K if this guy could dance for an hour. He had all the latest moves.

I didn't get the memo I was to come in costume but these ladies sure did. Very cute! On a high note, I always get emotional thinking about all the ladies that turn out to walk that are survivors.

It gives you hope. Our team raised the most money and I had my 15 minutes of fame on Channel 13. Did you see me??

I love driving around and checking out all the Halloween decorations. This lady is over the top. Who doesn't want a cementary in the side yard? Hmmm...

Or maybe I just jealous I don't have giant spiders on my porch, or skeletons dining in the side yard. I thought the rat running along the back of the chair was a nice touch.

The Covered Bridge Festival has come and gone for another year. This is Mansfield where most of the vendors are located. It is amazing all the people who turn out for this event. If you have never been you should go at least once. Parke County is known for their covered bridges and I think this is one of twenty-two bridges. I had to park on the other side of the bridge and you walk across it to see all the other vendors. Wear your walking shoes!



You never know what you are going to see or buy either. I was too busy watching this lady I didn't even notice the signs until now. Too funny! These vendors got a lot of business, or maybe a lot of pointing and laughing. Well that is it for now. I was in such a rush to get these pictures posted I forgot to take pictures of my stitching progress. Oh well, I will save that for tomorrow.

Thursday

Hi everyone, I thought it was time to update my blog only I haven't done any stitching to speak of so I thought I would share some pictures. My online classes have taken more of my time than I would have thought. The first picture is of coxcomb it is doing really well this year.

My new old Singer sewing machine that I picked up at the flea market last Saturday for $10. I couldn't pass it up.



I started pulling out my Halloween decorations. This is one of my favorite Halloween pictures. It is from an old Holiday Craft magazine. It was my first time stitching on black. I thought I was to go crossed-eye before I finished it. A black tree that I picked up at the Covered Bridge Festival which is coming up soon, and an old paper mache witch. The ceramic witch I made a few years ago.

Next, I am participating in a cancer walk. If you would like to donate great. Thanks for helping me out and helping reach my goal. No worries if you are not interested.

http://makingstrides.acsevents.org/site/TR/MakingStridesAgainstBreastCancer/MSABCFY10National?px=12767509&pg=personal&fr_id=19846

Thanks for visiting my blog. Hope to share some stitching soon.

TGIF

I am so ready for it to be Friday. It was a very stressful week full of getting teacher contracts out, payroll, posting the budget in the paper and starting night classes.

On a lighter note, today is my girls's birthday. It is hard to believe they turned 22 & 23 today. We use to have big parties with lots of kids here, but like everything else times change. They are out celebrating with friends tonight while I am home baking their cakes. What is wrong with this picture? lol!

BTW, I am working on a needlepunch design and I will post a picture later but for now here are a few pictures of my girls. Poor Mackenzie used to be bald a cue ball until she was four while I was putting up Megan's hair in ponytails when she was one. I know I have million pictures of the girls but the 4-H ones were on the computer. Sorry for the poor quality of the old pictures.

Happy Birthday Megan & Mackenzie!!! I love you to pieces.

CHS Stocking Update

I can't believe it another post in the same week. I wanted to show you progress on my stocking. I bet Annemarie thinks I abandoned ship. I am still here working slow and steady on her.Please excuse the wrinkles.

It is also time for the Indiana State Fair. I am going to take you on a trip down memory lane. I use to sew a lot and enter in the Fashion Show. Here I am with Katelyn, my BF's daughter.It must have been humid that day because most of my makeup is missing and my hair is limp. lol! This is an old picture and I have aged just a teeny tiny bit. I still have the jacket and hat around here somewhere. The pattern is from ThreadBare Designs. It has a cute cat backpack on the back of the jacket that is removable. I made the jeans too. I was so proud of Katelyn, she did an excellent job of modeling my outfit for me. There were 30 other contestants all worthy of winning so I was surprised when I received second place. The lady handing Katelyn the platter is from Archway Cookies. They use to sponsor the event. Thanks for going down memory lane with me.

Sarah Salter

I can't believe how long it has been since I last posted. Egads! That is what happens when change occurs at the workplace. Too many late nights and too many long hours is all I can say.

I was suppose to have this incentive piece finish August 8th. I didn't make it but this is my progress so far. Sarah Salter by Sheepish Designs. The needle books I picked up at the flea market. I think they are cool.

To finish my story about Dillinger. He robbed this bank in Greencastle. Pretty cheeky
since it is adjacent to the Courthourse.

Now here is the story about my family. My aunt Pauline was a night operator above the bank in Roachdale in 1931. You remember when you had to call the operator and she connected you to your party. Probably not, but you see it in the movies like "Road to Perdition." Well her sister Margie was keeping her company that evening when robbers entered the bank with machine guns and dynamite and held them hostage. Scary stuff! and quite something to talk about for a sleepy town of Roachdale. It was speculated that Dillinger did it, some say not. Maybe it was Baby Face Nelson, who knows. The robbers were never caught. Anyway when I was young, I was fascinated by the story. I still am actually.

Another project I am working on is CHS Esther Yeakel. I changed the colors around. Jan helped me convert the colors. Can you tell I like red? I am stitching it on 40ct. Buttercream with NPI.

My last picture is what I am going to do when I get off the Internet. Make salsa and can tomato juice. Yeah! And those bags are full of corn to be cut of the cob. Be still my heart! lol!!! Next until next time- Happy Stitching!

Retirement Party

Here is my weekly CHS stocking post late again. Does anyone have information on the scissors? I paid $5 for them at the flea market. I thought think they are very interesting. They have the center cut out and the ornate rollers on them.
The rollers do not adjust the scissors so I wonder if they are just for decoration purposes, but if you know something about them I would be interested to know. They are marked Howard Cutlery Company, Germany. I also started Esther Yeakel, but not enough to show any real progress.

I traded some of my cherries for raspberries. I can't wait to make a cobbler. Now if I could just trade cherries for cross stitch supplies, that would be awesome! lol!

Friday brought lots of changes to my world. The lady that does payroll at my office resigned. She had a chance to advance to a new position. Although, I will miss her dearly, I am happy for her. She is such a hard worker and made the work place a fun atmosphere with her sense of humor.

On Saturday, the school corporation hosted a retirement party for Mr. Pride and his lovely wife Sara. Mr. Pride has served as superintendent for fifteen years at my school corporation. I have a lot of history with Mr. Pride. We have gone through two embezzlement cases, an IRS audit, not to mention all of the other regulation changes. I wish them both well on their new journeys.

My new boss will start on Wednesday. I am hoping for a smooth transition but with two key people leaving at the same time, I can't help but to feel a little stressed. I will be doing Mendy's job until they find someone else, hopefully it won't take too long.

I have a little teaser for the next post. It has to do with the movie Public Enemies about John Dillinger. I have some family history that involves him. No, we are not related but my aunt was working in one of the banks he robbed. More to come. Until, next time Happy Stitching!

CHS Stocking

I am posting my progress as promised. This is where I finished on Thursday, I have now completed page one. Woohoo! Now on to page two. Hopefully I can have this finished by the end of summer, that is my plan.


Here are a couple of flea market finds that I purchased over the weekend. At this particular flea market, you never know what you are going to find. There can be snakes, a man was walking around with it on his shoulders then there can be antiques. You just never know. It starts at daylight or before and it over usually by 10:30am depending on the crowd. I purchased an old hand turned crock and 3 hooked wool rugs and 2 wool seatcovers for less than $25. I also bought a glass frog to put my scissors in and a pair of scissors marked Howard Cutlery Company Germany.
Until Thursday, happy stitching!

Dutch Strawberries

I do have a finish TGH Dutch Strawberries on 40ct. Creme Brulee and NPI. I forgot to take a picture of my stocking. I will do that tomorrow. A lot going on here this week. It is cherry season in Indiana and I have three trees. My girls threaten to cut them down every year. Last year we picked and put away over 20 gallons. I kinda feel like the hen in story who will help me make the bread because no one likes to pick cherries but they don't have any problem eating the pies or jam. I don't mind picking, it is the pitting I don't like. I happened to find this handy dandy gizmo at the hardware store. Now it goes a lot faster with it. It can pit as faster as you can work the plunger.

We also had a bad storm roll through here Friday night. My patio furniture ended up in the side yard while I took cover in the basement. My neighbor had a huge tree blow over by the strong winds. DH had an outside fire going on and I heard the wind pick up and decided to look out. On the other side of the house I saw hot ashes in the air. Not good! I am not sure which would have been worse the house burning down or a tornado. Luckily, neither happened.

While I was out taking pictures of the damage. Tuffy thought he would visit the geese. Funny thing, they don't like Tuffy. He wanted them to come out and play duck, duck, goose and they were not up for games. In fact, I am pretty sure they would like to have held him under the water with all the hissing they were doing.

I promise to post an update on my stocking but until next time, Happy Stitching!

Mermaid Bird Bath

Not to much to report this week. I did finish Love Letters. It is such a sweet design.
Here is my weekly CHS stocking SAL update.
This is a picture of sweet Sidney. She is my 5 years old pomeranian and my protector. She has a great personality. You can tell it was a hot and humid day here with her tongue hanging out.

I heart the Home Goods Store. They have such cool things. Over the weekend, I found this Mermaid birdbath that I had to have. My dh is a masonry contractor, in the background, you see an old black hodcarrier. He thought it was the perfect place to set my birdhouse. Wasn't exactly what I was going for but it will work for now.

Thanks for stopping by and leaving comments. Until next time, happy stitching!

1800 Love Letters

I started a new design this week. The Primitive Needle's 1800 Love Letters. I am using 36ct. PTP Heritage and recommended threads. I think it is a very cute design and appropriate for my anniversary. George & I will be married 28 years this Saturday.



Now for my weekly CHS Progress.

Thank you for your prayers for George. George's MRI results showed he had a stroke 20 years ago but not on race day. Thank goodness. All of George's other tests came back negative. The doctor thinks George was drugged. He drank from an open container from the people sitting behind him, then twenty minutes later he was slurring his words and collapsed. You can't trust anyone these days. He is doing fine and back to work. I wanted to thank you for thinking of us. It could have been a lot worse.

Until next time, Keep stitching!

Blessings

This has been one unforgettable week. I had planned on stitching until my arm fell off but God had other plans. Here is my weekly progress.



I was asked if I bought anything on my road trip. I wish I had that much will power. Here is a portion of what I purchased.

I missed posting on Memorial Day and I wanted to show you my patriotic plate. I travel to see my sister every other year out to San Diego. We try to take a painting class when I am there. Here is what I painted at the all day seminar.

When it rains it pours. Saturday, we moved Megan back home . Of course nothing can be simple. We were moving Megan's furniture out to the lawn, so when DH showed up we could just throw it on the back of the truck. I am talking college furniture here, nothing valuable. Sounds pretty simple, unless you are Megan carrying a glass desktop and hit the corner of it on the cement sidewalk, shattering it. Megan cut her leg pretty good. She thought she needed stitches, I thought we could butterfly it. After scrambling around, we came up with some band aids to butterfly it. I don't want to sound like a bad mom here, but it really wasn't deep enough for stitches after we cleaned the cut.

Now here is where life throws you a curve ball. I received a phone call from one of George's "friends" (using this term loosely)that he had passed out at the Indy 500. I needed to get to the ER asap. He collapsed on lap 158. One minute he was talking, the next he was slurring his words, then collapsed. Now common sense would say something is wrong, they let him lay there until the race was over, 40 minutes. He could have died, in fact he quit breathing. A good Samaritan called the EMTs into the bleachers to get him. They rushed him to the ER, did a Cat-scan couldn't find any thing wrong.

They later transferred him to ICU. When they allowed me into the ICU, I warned the nurse that George could and would be a real pistol when he woke up. She assured me she could hand him, Nurse Ratched as she referred to herself. The girls & I were talking amongst ourselves how she didn't know George.

On Monday morning, they let the sedation wear off. He woke up wondering why he was tied to a bed and had a tube down his throat. After they removed the breathing tube, he wanted to know who won the race. He must have given her a really hard time, because when he wanted to call me the nurse told him I was busy reading over his life insurance policy. lol!

They later released him, but he had to promise to get an MRI. He is doing fine now, but probably aged me 10 years. In fact, he went to work on Tuesday. He is scheduled to have an MRI tomorrow. Hopefully, this will shed some light on what caused him to collapse. You can imagine why I am counting my blessings, this could have turn out completely different. Thank goodness for the angel looking out for him. I will keep you posted on the results.

Thanks for all your comments. Until next time, keep stitching!