Cakes, Samplers and Busy Times

Happy Valentine's Day!  I hope all of you had a wonderful day with those you hold near and dear.

Can you see the hearts in the rocks from my garden?

This past week or so has been very busy.  We celebrated the birthday of our oldest ~ he's a dozen years old now!  Wow, where did that time go?

His cake request this year was my home~made chocolate cake with home~made icing.  Yummy!  Oh, but first we had to have a dinner fit for a preteen....

Yep...that would be potato skins and Filet Mignon.  All washed down with Coca~Cola.

This past week and weekend brought baseball practices, baseball scrimmages, Little League tryouts, and a visit from Grandma and Pappy....phew....

Mother Nature also brought us another round of snow and cold winds!

The snow is all gone now, but so pretty while it lasted!

As you can imagine, not much stitching was going on.  Just enough to finish the Humility Sampler from Heartsting Samplery.

I really enjoyed working on this one.

Now I need to get working on my ornament for February!

I received my exchange package from the Stitched With Love Friendship and Love Exchange.  We are supposed to wait until everyone has their goodies to share, so that will be for another day.  I can say that I love what was stitched for me and all the extras!

What I can share, are two pieces that were stitched by my mom years ago.  I framed them for her this past weekend so she could take them home ~ although, they would have looked just fine in my house too!

And here's the other one:

I don't have the names of the samplers, or the details on fabric and threads.  Mom doesn't keep track of those things, sorry!

Edited to add info about the above sampler in the gold frame:

The second sampler of your Mother's that you showed appeared in Sampler & Antique Needlework Quarterly the first hardcover book. It is called Frances Jewkes Sampler after the little girl who stitched it long ago. Starts on page 34. Maria S.

Thanks Maria for sharing that information!

The craziness will continue this week with the Blue & Gold Scout Dinner and more baseball!

Until next time...

“How do you spell 'love'?" - Piglet
"You don't spell it...you feel it." - Pooh
―A.A. Milne

TUSAL Update and Followers!

Remember this guy? 

Well, I think he looks even colder now after our latest round of ice!

I do hope that everyone who was hit harder than our area is staying warm and safe!  I am more than ready for spring!  Let's hope that  Punxsutawney Phil was right in predicting that an early spring it will be!

Here is my February TUSAL update, along with some Valentine stitches from last year:

Be Mine was from The Sampler Girl.  The other two are from Primitive Betty's.  The older framed piece was stitched in 1991.  I believe it is a Prairie Schooler Design.  Can anyone confirm that?  I know I have it somewhere buried in my stash.  I remember that it was my first attempt on linen and that I stitched it over one!  (Okay, I'll admit that wasn't on purpose, I just didn't know about stitching over two!)  And, if you look closely, you'll see an older picture of my boys and one of me with my husband from many moons ago!

I have been working on more Valentine's things to finish and frame.  I hope to get to them soon and when I do, I'll post some more stitchy pictures.

This weekend, my niece is participating in the Polar Plunge for the Special Olympics.  Please see this post if you want to read more about it:  Polar Plunge  I admire any one that will brave the cold temps and water for such a cause!!  I believe it takes place nationwide on the same weekend.

Finally, in case you didn't notice, I have reached 100 Followers!!  I plan on having some type of give away to celebrate.  But what to do?  Do you prefer a little something made by me, fabrics, threads, scissors, trinkets?  If you would like to help me out, include some of your favorite things in your comments!  When I get some ideas and decide what to do, there will be a special give away post. 

Thanks again for stopping by, for all of your support and for your wonderful comments! 

Edited 2/4/2011

***The design I thought was possibly a PS - well, I was wrong.  It is a Sheepish Designs!!***

Wishing, Waiting and Hoping - No More!

This was such a fun and quick little finish.  I'm not sure yet how I will finish this piece.  But I can honestly say that after the last few days, I am wishing, waiting and hoping  - no more!  Up until now, we have been spared the brunt of all the East coast storms, but our luck ran out!

We were supposed to start yesterday with a rain/sleet mix. Well, imagine our surprise when we woke up to find about 8 inches of snow instead!  Round two came in the evening in the form of some sleet and freezing rain before turning to snow.  Snow that came down hard and fast!  My birds prepared earlier in the day - my feeder is hanging on a hook by the tree, under the dove on the left.

And by about 11:30 my back deck looked like this:

The tree normally doesn't hang that low, but was weighed down with the ice and snow.  It is perking up today as the sun is melting the pretty stuff from the branches.

After some intense shoveling, the kids (along with some friends) decided to build tunnels.  I remember when my brother and I used to do the very same thing - only we would put water on ours at night to make them ice over!

After coming inside to warm up and have lunch, the boys, and some friends, enjoyed a movie followed by an intense game of Nerf Gun Wars!  After picking up all their Nerf darts, they headed back outside for a snowball fight.  Hopefully the boys will be back to school tomorrow.  They have been home three days this week - one inservice day and two snow days!

I have not stitched any on New England Winter since my last post.  I felt the need to work on some Valentine's freebies and managed to get these done:

Aren't they sweet?  Jennifer from Feathers in the Nest designed these (along with some others) and was kind enough to share them on her blog.  Thanks for sharing Jennifer!  I am hoping to get them finished into little pillows/pinkeeps soon - when the boys are in school and I have a good stretch of quiet time!

Here is the Valentine's edition of "Truly Thankful" from Heartstring Samplery.  I am really enjoying this series and can't wait for the St. Patrick's Day edition!

I might hide some initials in this one - mine and my husband's, what do you think?  I plan to settle in this evening and put my needle to work!

Thanks for visiting!  I'm off for another round of drying snow clothes!