Dear friends,

So, it’s been a busy couple of weeks.  
I’ve been stitching, I’ve been traveling and I’ve been shopping.  
This first picture combines stitching (not mine) and shopping.  

I saw this sweatshirt in a shop in Traverse City, Michigan last week and picked it up to buy it because, why wouldn’t I, right?  
It is perfect – the stitching is lovely, the design is pretty.
Yeah, the sweatshirt color itself isn’t one of the prettiest shades of gray (LOL) but the colors pop on it and I could live with it.  
Until.  
Wait for it.  
The price.
Can you see the ticket?
 No?

The sweatshirt was $189.00 US$.  Yes, I'm serious.
I mean, it was a SWEATSHIRT.  Not, a sweater. 
A GRAY sweatshirt.  
The cross stitch was pretty, and I can imagine that some poor girl in a horrible environment got less than $10 (that’s being optimistic) to make it but I couldn’t buy it.  
Would you have bought it?

I finished this sweet, little Santa and reindeer from Plum Street Samplers.

The pattern is Merry One.
The fabric is LL Green Pear and it is much more green than the photo is showing.  
The darker fabric means I had to change some of the fiber colors.
Nothing drastic, just a tad darker in shade and randomly pulled from stash.

I don’t fancy myself a finisher but I’ll give it a go this weekend and maybe, I’ll let you see how it turns out.  Maybe.  

Rob and I took a mini vacay and visited Mackinac Island,
Traverse City, Petoskey and several other small towns and wineries.
Lots of wineries and micro breweries.  There are a lot of them in Northern Michigan.
We visited a few.
Mmm hmmm.

Here are a few pics from our trip for you to gander at.

Some antiques from a beautiful store owned by a beautiful woman from France (is there any other kind?).  A little, wooden piano and baby bank (never seen anything like it),  an antique sampler that was very inexpensive but it wasn't the finest work and the colors are a bit bright and an old game.  

At the Grand Traverse Lighthouse. 

In Petoskey and biking around Mackinac Island.

Stone piles all over the island, in town for dinner, a selfie (you can see why I hate them), and our beautiful room.

We had a grand time.

Have you seen Paulette's  THE SUNDAY MYSTERY SAMPLER?
Paulette is doing another Christmas SAL!  
And, guess what?  

It’s free.
Yep, free.  

And, it’s the 12 days of Christmas.
Twelve, TWELVE little ornies, stitched together or separately, 
all free and all designed by Paulette.

What’s not to love?
I'm so excited!
 Clich HERE for all the details.

I can’t wait to do this one and now I have the perfect thing to hang them on!  You see, a last stop store in Petoskey was having a closing for the season sale.  

This was a display item but I just knew I needed it forSOMEthing so I asked if they'd sell it to me.  The gal working in the store called the owner and she said I could buy it.  For $12.  Score!!!
  

Serendipitous, don’t you think?  
There are 14 little hangers on the tree but I’ll do something to make it work.  
Maybe hang a couple of antique ornaments on it, or something.   
Oh, gosh.  
To make this work, I have to stitch AND finish 12 ornaments.  


Finish them.  
That means sewing.
Uh-oh.

Maybe they’ll all be done in time for next year.

Will you stay tuned? 

Pictures of Petoskey borrowed from Google

Most of the stores in the quaint towns in Northern Michigan, like Petoskey, close for the winter but we got there just before they all closed for the season and between those and the wineries and the lovely dinners, I had a blast.

Can you blame them for closing?  Brrrrr….

Finally, since this IS October.  

This is my kitchen table.  

The two cheese graters were found at an estate sale a couple of weeks ago for a quarter a piece.

I love them and how they glow with a candle.

Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving a note, when you can.

Be well,

Peace,

Terri

Father's ~ Friends ~ Finds

Dear friends!

     If you are in the U.S., it is Father's Day, today.  I know I've mentioned my dad on this blog a few times, he even did a guest post.  I have to tell you, he is the best guy!  I don't know that I know, or will ever know, a better man than he.  My dad did not grow up with an easy life;  his family was poor and his own dad passed away when he was young.  He was raised by his mom and she had few of the extra comforts in life, either for herself, or to give her children.  Many of the things I take for granted as necessities would have been pure luxury to her and my dad and his brothers and sister.  From this humble upbringing, without a dad of his own to model himself after, came this extraordinary man.  He is a retired officer from the U.S. Army, he is a fitness instructor, he is a gardner, an avid reader, a man of God, and a kind hearted and loving man who provided advice and guidance when needed (still does) and is still a great father to me, a father to my husband and the best grandfather, ever!  We are all so lucky to have you in our lives, Dad!  

I love you.

Happy Father's Day!!!

My dad and me at the Grand Canyon.  Believe it or not, he may be more fit now than he was back then!  I love you, Dad!

Friends!

I am blessed to have many good friends in my life and one of them just sent me the most wonderful package.  Marilyn and I have corresponded quite a bit and have gotten to know each other through our mutual love of stitching.  We are stitching the Adam and Eve Reproduction Sampler from the May 2009 edition of Cross Stitch and Needlework magazine.  I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to show you what I've gotten done as well as the treasures she sent me.

Have a look:

You can click to enlarge a little bit, if you'd like.

Yes!  Your eyes are not deceiving you!  Look at all the Sajou beauties Marilyn sent me.

Petite scissors, a barrel tape measure, beautiful pearl top pins and the most wonderful thread winders.  Not only are the products beautiful but look at the pretty boxes the scissors and tape measure came in.  I could not have been more surprised or delighted by such a generous and loving gift!  Thank you so much, Marilyn, you did too much!

xoxoxo

As you can see, my stitching is progressing.  I am absolutely loving working on this piece.  I think the reason is two-fold.  First, I love the colors - beautiful pinks and greens just look so pretty together.  Secondly, the idea that three of us are stitching it together, is so fun!   Check out Marilyn and Faye's blogs for their updates. I am probably a weird stitcher though.  I will stitch for an evening or two and then I have to unroll the whole thing to look at it.  Do you ever do that?  I know some people that work on scroll rods may not peak until the whole thing is done.  I just can't do it ~especially when I'm so enjoying stitching something.  

I did decide to put my own initials in this piece and I dated it in the lower left corner.  What?  You can't see  the date?  

Here, look closer; it's a little hard to make out:

Stitched over one so it would blend with the border.

A few more pics of my goodies and the sampler:

Not sure if I'll finish by the next update or not.  That over one is tedious and the constant color changes are a real pain.  But, I will persevere!  If you're interested, we will post the color conversion when all done.

Finds!

Not sure if I've shown you this little treasure or not and honestly, I'm too lazy to go searching thru my blog.  I'm really bad about labeling my entries so finding something from an old post is sometimes challenging.

I found this lovely little pin cushion at an estate sale.  Isn't it sweet?

Small, delicate and dainty.  The ribbon is a little worse for wear but it's a beautiful piece that I would imagine was made by hand.  Maybe the shells came from Nantucket (one of my favorite places).

That's it for today, friends.  As always, thank you so much for stopping by.  

I hope you've all had a good weekend and that you have a wonderful week, too!  

Happy Father's Day!

Be well,

Peace!

Terri

 

A day Late and a Little Short!

I am a day late in posting my SAL progress with FAYE and MARILYN  and a few days behind in stitching!  

I went to my friend Julie's house on Friday to help her with some graduation party decorations.  

Silly me, I thought I might get a little time to stitch that evening, but I did not and when I left her house, I left my stitching, too.  Julie lives about an hours drive from my house so I didn't want to drive all the way over there just to pick it up.   She brought it to work today so hence, the late posting and little stitching progress.  

I am SURE that if I'd had it this weekend, my progress would be much more impressive!  

Rather than gardening, I would have stitched a BUNCH on Saturday and Sunday.  

YOU KNOW I WOULD!!

Anyway... this is called the Adam and Eve Reproduction Sampler from the May 2009 Cross Stitch and Needlework Magazine.  I am stitching it on 36 count, Lakeside Magnolia with a conversion of threads.

This is where I left off on Friday afternoon:  

The over one on 36 count is not my favorite but I love how over one looks when done.  

I'm also not crazy about the constant color changes in the words but I'm not going to change it at this point.  Over one on 36 count is not my idea of fun stitching.

In other exciting news..... Matt turned 21 in early May and here's a pic of he and Rob enjoying his

first beer.   

Okay, you and I both know it's not his first beer but it was his first legal beer, with his dad.

Matt was born right around Mother's Day and it's always a special treat when his b-day falls on Mother's Day.   It didn't this year, but both days were extra special because of him turning 21.  Amazing.  Not amazing that he's 21.  Amazing that I'M 21 years older.  

Golly.  That makes me.... oh, never mind that.  

Focus, Terri, Focus.  It's about Matt, not you!

Geesh... conversations with myself in writing.  Wonder what that means?

Anyway, Matt is a great kid and he is considerate and kind and smart and I love him dearly.  

I got beautiful tulips for my Mother's Day flowers and when they opened up, this is what they looked like.  The light was coming thru the window the next morning and I thought the flower looked so pretty.   I love how they looked in my Desert Rose water pitcher.  

The colors were perfect!

And finally, I found this little sewing table at a recent estate sale.  

They had marked it $75.  Always having been a bargain shopper, I asked if they'd take something less.  The lady working the checkout area said she'd "let it go" for $55.  Not quite a good enough bargain for me.  I asked if things would be 1/2 price the next day and she said they would so I told her I'd just come back tomorrow and take my chances.  As I was checking out with a $3 purchase, I asked if they'd hold the table for me tomorrow if it didn't sell that day.  Another worker overheard me and said, "Oh, for gosh sakes, give it to her for 1/2 price."  

She did!  So, I got the table for $37.50 when not more than 10 minutes prior, I was asked to pay $55!  So glad I didn't take her $55 offer!  As you can see, it needs a little work but that's okay!  

It's a darling table and I'm tickled with it.    Being a Leo, I LOVE the lion head pulls!  

What do you think?  Worth $37.50?

I am behind in answering some emails but I will get to it.  I am super busy at work this week and will catch up when I can, in the evenings.

Thank you so much for coming by and for your kind notes!  They make my finding time to blog worthwhile and I appreciate them a great deal!

Have a wonderful week, I'll see you again in two unless something earth shattering happens. 

Be well,

Peace!

Terri 

Stitching Along and Other Tidbits, too!

Good evening, friends!

     Today is the day!  

This is the day that Marilyn, Faye and I are supposed to post our SAL progress.

Be sure to check their beautiful blogs to see their progress!  

As you can see, my progress is somewhat minimal.   

Honestly, I have frogged more than I've gotten acceptably stitched.  

I'm not kidding.  

First, I stitched the darker green part of the border going across.:

 I got almost to the end and, "Uh-oh!", not enough fabric.  So, rather than frog (rippit-rippit), I flipped the fabric end to end and started over, but not until I had done a grid line to make sure I had it right this time (pics are clickable).  

Geesh!

Then, I stitched about 2 of the strawberries with the light pink color I had converted.  Blech!  It didn't show up AT ALL.  

So, I frogged those and began again with another color which I thought looked okay and then decided it also looked BLECH, so I frogged EVERY SINGLE STRAWBERRY you see stitched.  

Okay, it was only the lightest pink color I had to frog, but still... GRRRR!  

THEN, I re-stitched all the strawberry tops in the pale pink color you see now.  

It's staying. 

We are not even going to discuss the over one verse!  Seriously, I've frogged every stitch that you see, at least once.  

Basically, I have stitched every part that is now complete at least twice, in some cases three times.  

What is wrong with me?

Don't answer that!

Anyway, this is my progress to date:

I hope that progress will pick up now that I finished the SB Eve's Garden Sampler (one project at a time, for the most part)!

I'm also really hoping that the frogs, which way overstayed their welcome, have moved on.  I hope they don't come to your house but that they go out in the yard and eat some bugs and flies. 

I picked up Mary Gibson from Jo-Ann's today.

This is one big sampler and I'm not sure where I'm going to hang her yet, 

but I'll find a spot.

I was worried after I had picked out the frame that I wouldn't like it but I think it works.  The sampler is BIG so I wanted the moulding to be big, as well.  

The black and red in the frame work well with the sampler.  

I think.  I hope.

Finally, I was looking out into the backyard the other day and I spotted a baby (I think) cardinal and a baby robin, both splashing around in the bird bath together!

Unfortunately, by the time I found my camera, the cardinal had flown away.  

The robin hung out for a while though so I did get some shots of him 

splishin' and a splashin'!

  A few minutes after the robin finished his little bath the cardinal came back.  

I guess they must have decided they didn't like bathing together.

 I'm sure it's my glittery and sparkly wind chime that drew them in!

Thank you all so much for the supportive and sweet comments on my SB finish and my bitch session!

It would appear that I am not alone in my opinions.

Thank you so much for visiting and for being so generous in your comments!  

Welcome to my new friends.  I'm glad you're here and hope you'll come back, soon!

Have a wonderful week, dear friends!

Life has been a roller coaster lately but then, it always is...

Be well,

Peace!

Terri