Winter Wonderland Christmas Exchange

Everyone that participated in the Winter Wonderland Christmas Exchange on the Stitched With Love Exchanges has received their packages and we are now able to post our goodies. 

This is what I received from Lisa at Black Flies and Snow Flies. 

Look at all those goodies!  Thanks to my boys, the chocolates didn't last long.

 

Isn't this so pretty!?!

And look at how cute the back is with the tiny jingle bells, the made with love charm, the tree, her initials and the year.



 And wow, did she spoil me with extras!  I can't thank you enough Lisa.  I love everything and already have plans on how I will use it all!

Lisa just started her blog, so if you get a chance pop on over and give her a big welcome.  Her stitching and finishing are

 bea-u-ti-ful and I now have a new friend in the blogging world!

I was excited to find that I was the secret Santa for Myra at Gr8dame's Place.  For those of you who don't know her, Myra is another wonderful stitcher and her sewing/finishing skills are incredible.  I can say this, because I am lucky enough to have a few things made by Miss Myra.  Here are the goodies that I put together for her.

 

This is the first time I finished an ornament like this and I love how it turned out.  I see more of these types of finishes in my future.

You may notice the cardinal and the red theme.  I know that Myra loves cardinals and she also likes samplers/ornaments that are stitched all in red.  So, there is a variety or red threads for her to have fun with, a cardinal ornament, a pattern with cardinals, a cardinal tote bag, a needle minder and some fabric. 

I managed to take part in all but one of the exchanges this past year.  I enjoyed gathering things together to send, meeting some new friends, and hopefully surprising some old ones.  Although I think Myra figured me out!  ;) 

 I can't wait to see what themes Lainey and Colleen come up with for next year!

I have some other goodies I need to post about and want to show my finish of "Sing We Merrily", but will save those for the next post when the sun comes out long enough for me to get some better photos. 

Only a couple more days until Christmas!!  Is everybody ready? 

Here's our smaller tree with our Hallmark ornaments.

Thanks for stopping by!



The Goodness of Others

The month of December has been moving along pretty fast around here!  All of our normal activities, combined with those of the holidays, have not left any spare time for stitching lately. 

This weekend we headed to my parent's home for my mom's annual Christmas Ornament dinner.  Every year, she gives the grandchildren a new ornament to hang on the tree.  There is always a lot of food and much laughter, with the day passing too quickly.  Here are the kids toasting with their sparkling grape juice!

After dinner, my youngest went outside to help out his pappy by starting to stack wood, while the others played a game of football.

It was getting dark, but he did stack quite a bit of the wood by the time he was done.

I did find a frame for the Peace piece from the other week.  I gave this to my mom yesterday as and early present.

Later in the evening, we had a laugh when she picked up the ornament issues of JCS that had this piece on the cover.  It was so different than mine!  Theirs was stitched on blue, but that wasn't all!  I forgot to add the snowflakes falling all around.  Oops!  Luckily, mom loved it just the way it was.

 

I have been very spoiled lately by some of my fellow stitchers.  First up is Teresa from Teresa's Heartfelt Stitches.  Teresa had quite the journey traveling to and from, and attending the retreat at the Shaker Village in New Hampshire way back in October.  She was kind enough to share some of the goodies from her travels with myself and one other stitcher in a surprise giveaway.  I was amazed at all that she sent me!

 

And, she told me that anything I could not use, I was free to pass on to another stitcher.  There are a couple of patterns that I probably won't stitch, but have some people in mind for them!

Thank you Teresa for your kindness, I truly was shocked when I saw all that was in your box!

Next up are some fall patterns from Gaby of Einschies kreatives Chaos.  They are so cute, and I hope to stitch them in time to display next fall!

And isn't that card she sent great!  I love the looks on their faces.  This is now part of a group of cards that I display yearly.  Thanks again Gaby!

Finally, June, from Butterfly Wings sent me a sweet Christmas surprise.  A packet of monthly bookmarks - perfect as we recently started a neighborhood monthly book club!  A fantastic smelling soap made in Devon.  Don't you wish that you could share good smells through your computer screen? And a beautiful card depicting a scene from the Moors.  When I saw this, I knew I needed to find a frame and place it with a picture similar in style that a friend brought back from Ireland for me last year.  When I find a frame, I'll show you a picture of the two together.  Thanks again June for thinking of me!

 

I do have one other group of fabulous goodies to share from the Stitched with Love Christmas Exchange, as soon as everyone receives their packages, we'll be able to reveal.  I can't wait to confirm who my secret Santa was - I was truly spoiled!

Thanks again to each and every one of you, Teresa, Gaby, and June for your generosity!

And thanks to everyone else for stopping by - I hope December is allowing you some stitching time!

Catching Up and a TUSAL

Crazy busy...that's what my life has been like the past week or so.  The boys had half days starting the Friday before Thanksgiving and don't go back to school until Tuesday!  What have we been doing?  Well, I mentioned the trip to my parent's house in the last quick post.  The boys had a blast!  Here they are with one of their cousins exploring the roots of a tree while on a hike with pappy.

 

The boys and their cousins on grandma and pappy's back steps.

We did some clean up in the gardens, cleaning of the house, ate some turkey and some pies, and finally, we started decking the halls.

The boys also had down time to just be.  The little one took his old car seat and pretended the back of daddy's truck was a space ship!

There has been little stitching.  I managed to finish gathering up the goodies for the exchange and will be sending those out to their new home tomorrow.  I did put in a few, a very few, stitches on We Sing Thee Merrily.  I've got to get back in the groove if I want this finished for Christmas!  You'll also see the latest additions to my TUSAL in the corner.

Speaking of the TUSAL, if you wish to join in the fun for next year, it's time to sign up! 

Just click here! 

Thanks for stopping by!



Weekend and Winner!

Just a real quick post.  Friday night, my oldest son had his last fall baseball game.  From there we traveled up to the mountains to visit my parents for the weekend.  It was a weekend of flea markets, hikes in the woods, playing with cousins, fire hall craft shows and food, shopping and just being together.  We just came home this afternoon and now I have to get my household ready for family that is coming for Thanksgiving at our house.

I picked a winner for the giveaway ~ Calamaty Jr.!   Congratulations!  If you remember, I want to tailor the goodies to the winner, so even I don't know what I'm going to send yet!  I have emailed for a list of likes and wishes, from which I will put something together.  Once it is received, I'll share with everyone.  Thanks to all who participated and for following me through my first year! 

Congratulations also go out to my oldest two boys.  They tried out and were picked for teams at the All Star Baseball Academy!  Practices start in a couple of weeks!  I am very proud of both of them!

I hope to do another post soon with some pictures.  I'm still working on "We Sing Thee Merrily" and have to finish my exchange piece and get that package in the mail.

Thanks for stopping by!

One Year.....

After our crazy snowstorm, we did have a fairly mild night for Halloween.

The little guy scraping and scraping.  We also had to harvest the seeds and roast them per his request.

We reused, borrowed and made our own costumes.  Anakin from Star Wars, a devil, and just a plain old box.  As for the box, his head was outside of the box, thus he wrote on the sides of the box, "Think Outside the Box".  Creative and not an expensive costume (unless you count the things I ordered from Kohls in order to get a box).  I told him he should introduce himself as Jack.  Jack in the Box.  He didn't think that was funny. 

We only did one Jack-O-Lantern this year.  Each of the boys drew a face and we picked what we all liked best from each picture.   

I've done some stitching, some I can show and some I can't (it's for an exchange).  The first one is from an older JCS ornament issue.  Thanks to Ranae, I was able to get this picture turned around!

And here is another look at Heartstring Samplery's "Sing We Merrily".  I'm really enjoying this one.

Now to the title of my post.  It was one year ago yesterday, the 6th, that I started this journey.  I want to have a giveaway, and I want to make it personal for the winner.  So, if you'd like a chance at something - not sure exactly what yet - let me know in your comments.  I'll pick a winner on the 20th. 

Thanks for stopping by and welcome to my newest followers!