A Soul Vacation.

Dear friends!

  Are you there?  

Hello?  

Anyone out there?  

I wouldn't be surprised if you aren't.  

Because, I've been well, less than enthusiastic about stitching or blogging for the past few months.  Nope, nothing wrong, really.  Just sluggish, I guess.   I have been busy doing all sorts of things, most of which would not interest most of you so I won't bore you with the details.  

  Over the summer, Julie and I stitched "Soar" by Brenda Gervais of "With Thy Needle and Thread".  We stitched it for my dear friend Sheila who turned 50 in October.  When I showed Sheila the pattern she just loved it and it turned out to be a great 50th b-day present.  I stitched the 1/2 on the left, Julie the right side.  Sheila and her DD Meghan watched the Decorah Eagles last year with great interest and the sampler was the perfect remembrance for a milestone year.  

Stitched on 32 count black linen with the called for fibers.

The only other thing I've worked on since last we met is Mary Gibson's 1824 Sampler from the good folks at the Haslemere Educational Museum, which I found on the Needleprint blog.  I am stitching her on 36 count linen with various and sundry silk flosses.  Some of the silks I had in my stash, others I purchased.  As in the sampler I previously stitched from Haslemere, Marianne Wenn, I did not like the DMC colors they charted.  So... a picking I did go. 

Here's how she looks so far.  

Isn't that tomato cute?  I found it at a little antique mall and had never seen one with a built in tape measure.  It's a sweet addition to my ever growing collection.  Uh, back to Mary....  I don't know why she's taking so long except that the 36 count linen is not as easy to work on (for me - I do not know how all you 40 count fabric folks do it!) AND the upper 1/3rd of the sampler is kind of boring.  All those different colored letters - blech!  I do like how she's looking though and think she'll be a beauty when she's done.   I am almost done with the top third and I think it will go faster as I move towards the bottom.   I will post my conversion, if you're interested, but will hold off till I get to the bottom because I think I may change my mind on the silks I selected for the houses.  We'll see.  

     Besides this minimal amount of stitching over the last several months, the other thing I've done is hit estate sales.  Yeah baby.  Retail therapy.  I have found a lot of treasures but then, I go to a lot of sales.  You really do, as the saying goes, have to kiss a lot of frogs.  Believe me when I tell you that I have gone into some houses that should rightly be condemned.  They were filthy, and stinky and just plain gross.  Nothing to be had at those.  Anyway, here are a few of my recent finds:

The Martha Washington sewing cabinet was not acquired at an estate sale but from a man at work whose wife had passed away.  I was lucky enough to purchase this, fully loaded for $75.  This is, by far, my most expensive purchase but also one of the prettiest.  

Oh, how about that spinning wheel lamp?!  Isn't it adorable?  Kitchy and cute, I think and perfect for a craft room.  I know, the shade is hideous but I'll find, or repurpose something.  In the meantime, both things keep me company in my craft room.  I had never seen a spinning wheel lamp that works and just had to bring it home.

I found these cute, little pinkeeps and what-not box at various sales.  I love the mirror pinkeep.  I have never seen one like it and thought it was fabulous.  The back is very plain but the front is really detailed and interesting.  They are all very small, as you can likely tell by the pins in the mirror.

The clam shell pinkeep is a soft suede type fabric with a drawn, or painted floral design on it.  The little box to the left is a floral, tent stitched box.

The next couple of pics are of one of my favorite areas in my home.  My parents gave me, for Christmas, this fantastic spool cabinet sitting below my samplers.  It's made of oak and is in fantastic condition.  The base was made at some later time to allow it to be used as a small table. Actually, my mom and I found it in our travels to Savannah and she kept it until Christmas when they came to visit.  It's a treasure!  The big cabinet to the left of that houses the vintage quilts I found this summer and some other goodies I've accumulated, as well.  I will show you those goodies another time.  

If you click on either of the pictures, you'll be able to see an antique salesman's sample, sewing table.  I was so giddy when I found that I could hardly stand it.  Again, not something I had ever seen before.  I really do need to learn how to sew.  I mean really sew; not just a straight seam but really understand sewing and how to put things together.  Who said that?  I must have had an aneurism just now....  Oh, I'm back to reality now.  At the same sale in which I found the little sewing table sample, I also found these two beauties!  Aren't they fantastic?  The little one was, I think $8 and the big one was $12 or $15.  I have no idea what the holes on the bottom of the big one are for so I stuck some scissors in it.  The big one resides in the cabinet pictured above and the smaller one is still in my craft room.

The only other thing I have to show you today is some fobby things I made.  I saw some very much like this on Pinterest and thought I should have a go at it.  I love how they turned out.  I thought I might use one as a necklace but that didn't really work for me so I'm using it as a scissor fob.  A petite French dictionary, some old buttons and charms (the shoe is from a Monopoly game), an old thread spool and some wire, a little Mod Podge and Ta-da!  Pretty cute, I think.  I have given a couple of them away and have a few more to make as gifts.  

Soon.  Very.  Very.  Soon.  

Are you on Pinterest?  If not, check it out - it's pretty addicting.

It has been a very mild winter this year and I couldn't be happier!  We finally got a bit of snow today and Rob and Sophie went for a walk.   I have to admit, it was kind of nice seeing the white stuff come down.  For a while, the flakes were huge and looked so pretty.

Sophie went out to play in it again after a couple of inches had fallen.  Princess that she is, Gracie chose to stay inside where it's warm.  She takes after me.

Thank you, dear friends for stopping by.  Thank you to all that wrote to me, sent me emails etc. wondering where I was.  As you can see, all is well.  I will try not to be gone so long next time.  I have a lot more goodies to show you; some estate sale finds, some gifts but all fantabulous!   

When I got on line to do this post today it was about 11:30 A.M. and I got somewhat distracted because I started visiting blogs rather than writing a blog post.  That is, for now, remedied.  For those of you that I missed, I'll see you soon!  

Be well.

Peace!

Terri