Ornaments of Christmas

This is an ornament a long time friend made for me. Her mother-in-law is in the Sampler Guild and knows I like anything with bees. So, she told my friend she had to make this for me. Wasn't that nice. It's sweet.

This is the ornament I got in the exchange at our guild Christmas party. It goes perfectly on my tree in the sunroom that has bird, gardening and natural themed ornaments. It's delicate looking. The fabric on the back has teeny tiny doves on it.

This is the ornament I got from my secret stitcher in the guild. Isn't it sweet? She knew I really like purses.

These are some of the fun things, Janice, my secret stitcher gave to me through out the year. It was a lot of fun and I loved everything.

Only a couple more days 'til Christmas. This year I have to work Christmas evening so, we will be celebrating on Christmas Eve. Everything is wrapped! That took hours and hours but now I'm all ready.

This was one of my grandmother's ornaments and the crocheted snowflake behind it was done by a friend who died a few years ago. Most of my ornaments have lots of memories.

Shared birthdays

Dana celebrated her 25th birthday on Tuesday! What a beautiful daughter she is. We didn't get to see her on her big day so we delivered her present last night. A new Vera Bradley tote that she seems to really like. My other pictures would have been awesome but I had my camera set on macro for stitchery picture taking and I couldn't figure out why they were fuzzy. Silly me.

Dana and Clark share their birthday days. Clark turned 6! When we were picking out our puppy we knew he was meant to be ours 'cause he had the same birthday as Dana. Here's his post birthday celebration picture. He had a haircut yesterday and is looking spiffy in his December bandana. Have a great day!

And the Winner Is...........

The winner of my first giveaway is ............................. Barbara of Mainely Stitching!http://mainelystitching.wordpress.com/ Congratulations! Hope it gets to you in time for some fun Christmas stitching.

Ornies and Give away

I've been busy getting my Christmas ornaments stitched and put together for our guild's Christmas party. They are hung on trees at the party. Here's a picture from last year's party:

If you participate in the secret stitcher program for the year, it is ended with an ornament exchange also. You give your ornament to the person you sent gifts to all year and that's how they find out who their secret stitcher 'gifter' is. It's a lot of fun. I had started a scissor keeper for my secret stitcher but I don't think the colors are right for her. I'll finish it later for myself or my new secret stitcher for next year. These are the two ornaments I finished for this year's exchanges.

They are a Hands to Work pattern. I did the smaller of the two over one. Both were done on linen scraps using NPI silks. A silk ribbon and button finish them off. The larger is open so I can put something inside of it but the little one I fused shut. It was giving me fits to try and finish open so I quit fussing with it. Love steam a seam. Here is a picture of each separately.

I took a class from Ellen Chester (With My Needle) and learned quite a few stitches. They will be incorporated into a needlebook. The needlebook goes with a Huswife but I want to do it as a framed piece instead. My queen stitch started off wonky but ended up pretty nice. I decided to keep the wonky parts in as it is a learning piece for me and will show me where I started. So, here's the start of that and what the finished piece will look like.

OK, you've stuck with me this far in the post so, now is the fun

part. I am going to give away a Stacy Nash Christmas booklet, 'A Simply Early Christmas'. Welcome to Stacy Nash Primitives

I ordered it for myself but it's just not my cup of tea even though

I like her work. I'm sure someone would love to have it all to themselves and make things from it. If that would be you, please leave a comment on this post. I will draw a name on the 1st of December. Be sure I have your email address so I can let you know you won.

Last pretty days of fall

Halloween was a beautiful day and evening. Here's Evan, my grandson, dressed as Ironman.

This is his family's pumpkin display - isn't it cute?!

Here's Ryan, my son, scaring small children when they tried to get candy. Poor little children. Actually, he always lifted his mask and spoke to them.

Guess what I did today?

Yeah, that's a lot of bulbs. I'm sure glad the weather is still warm. I was sweating by the end of it all. The best part will be next spring when they are all in bloom.

Only 3 weeks to Thanksgiving. Hope you're enjoying a beautiful fall too.

Fun at the pumpkin farm

Rich, Dana, Evan and I went to Blooms and Berries to enjoy a fall weekend. It was hard to say which was the most fun. The big vat of shelled corn,

the hayride in Scarecrow Woods,

Picking a pumpkin,

Sliding down the huge corrugated slide,
or, just fooling around.
Happy Halloween everyone!

Scaredy Cat

We had a chance to celebrate this weekend. Sunday night to be specific. Rich participated in the Columbus, Ohio marathon. He set a new personal record for himself. He finished in under 4 hours! 3 hours 59 minutes and 8 seconds, at an average pace of just over 9 minute miles. What an accomplishment. I made a pineapple sage pound cake to celebrate. Pineapple sage is one of the last plants to bloom in the garden - always right before the first frost. Their flower are perfect for hummingbirds, red and tubular. I was thinking that I should bring in the hummingbird feeders since I hadn't seen a hummer all week. While I was out picking the blooms and leaves for the cake, who showed up right in front of me - a hummingbird. So, from plant to cake here are some pictures.

While Rich was driving to Columbus to spend the night, I made some Halloween cards to send to my family.

In between chores, I finished a small Halloween stitch by Sisters and Best Friends - 'CAT'. He's cute and fits in between the bat and pumpkin on my kitchen shelf.