Christmas in July but Thanksgiving???

Hello Everyone! Warning another long post - so please grab something to drink and enjoy.
Amazing what all that can happen in 1 week since my last post. All good stuff! First of all I bet your all familiar with Christmas in July - but have any of you celebrated Thanksgiving in July? We did. That was a first for us this year. More on that later down in my post.

Congratulations to Linda of Stitching With My Furbabies Blog

Winner of Birthday Bunny Chart/kit. 

Please send me your address Linda so I can mail your kit.

On to stitching progress for the last week. I finished my project from last year - Gingerbread Street. And I framed it myself, so we are talking of a complete finish.

 This was the last gingerbread house completed in a row of 4 houses.

Since this a BIG finish for me, I am sharing lots of photos with you.

 On the very bottom I stitched my name, date and city & state. This will not be seen framed. 

But its there. I have learned from other stitcher's it's nice to include this.

 I did add a layer of batting between the sampler and foam board.

 This frame I had bought at a Thrift store for $8.00, I had brought a list of measurements with me to the store and was lucky to find this frame with a mat already cut.

 At the time I purchased the frame, I had no idea if the mat would fit over the houses but I think it looks good. Close call though. Of course the fabric shifted on me even though I had tons of little straight pins all around the foam board and yes I did lace the backside too. I was in a hurry to get this framed so I just grabbed a table cloth for the background and didn't iron it (sorry for the wrinkles).

 All done and framed. This time I left the glass on the frame to protect the sampler.

"Gingerbread Street" - Sue Hillis Designs

28ct Pink/Silver Sparkle Evenweave Fabric   by Fabric Flair

I am pleased with the end result. In person you can see all the sparkle of the stitching 

but not so in the photos. So this was my Christmas in July finish:)

I was the lucky recipient of Anne's (Dolls Musings blog) of her giveaway -

"Life's a Stitch" chart and added goodies. Thank you Anne! I will be stitching this very soon:) 

Thanksgiving in July? Yes! Our son has a friend Christine and her boyfriend is visiting from Scotland. We had had them over for dinner. It was the first time Graeme (Christine's boyfriend) had ever had corn bread. He loved it. So I got to thinking the day after that I would put on a Thanksgiving dinner. Last Saturday I prepared: Roasted Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing with chopped celery & apples, cranberry sauce, salad, sweet corn cake (it's really good) and for dessert (since it's still summer) Angel Food cake with Watermelon Sorbet! What a great meal we had. I pulled out the china and our son Nicholas had found the decorated pumpkin at Micheal's. Yes Micheal's already has Fall decor for sale - crazy but its true! And each plate had wrapped presents awaiting for each guest. I had set the table the night before. Too much to be done cooking on the day of our dinner. Graeme was so happy and touched. Christine had been in France the year before during the holidays for school (that's when she met Graeme). She said that this dinner meant alot to her because she felt she had missed out last year. We even each took a turn saying what we were grateful for, just like we do on Thanksgiving day. I have to tell you that I could listen to Graeme speak all day long - love his accent:) Oh - I told everyone to come dressed casually - it was 97 degrees that day.

Dinner was a success.

My husband wasn't present (had to work) so I had Nicholas invite another friend. From left to right is: Nicole (my sister), Nicholas (our son), Red (Nicholas's friend), Al (Christine's dad), Christine (Nicholas's friend) and really our guest of Honor from Scotland - Graeme (Christine's boy friend). I'm taking the photo:) The gifts were already opened, but Al was holding some of his up. Graeme had gotten lots of school supplies including a really nice zippered binder. We loved getting to meet him and hope he'll get to come back to USA to visit again. See all the food? What a Great time we all had.

 And my progress for this weeks Monday SAL Bothy Threads, Fairy Hill complete with a Tinkerbell:)

I forgot last week to include one of her. Thank you Debbie for the reminder - lol.

I am now on page 3 of 12. Added the bee hive and some more grass, the shower head, 

and some pink background.

Whew...What a long post. Thank you so very much for your visit. Hope you are enjoying the summer.

With my Love and Appreciation - Annette