Merry Christmas Everyone!

Merry Christmas Everyone! On Dec 16th I had came to realize that Christmas was the following week. Needless to say I had to really get a move on getting ready. I thought I had 2 weeks. Nope!!!
So no needle has been in my hand since then. And I sure miss stitching. BUT - I do have some photos to share with you of our decorations. This year I put up all of my mothers collection of Nostalgic House and Village series of Hallmark that she collected. Most of the ornaments had not seen the daylight since she had bought them. I continued to collect them and stopped after 2013. The Harry Potter tree is still up. That makes 2 Christmas trees. I also displayed some of the Hallmark Sound, Motion and Magic ornaments.
Oh good Lord what I went thru to get them to work. I had to find a older strand of lights to connect a few of them to in order for them to work. After testing and replacing about 4 strand of lights 2 days later I found a brand new set in a box that had never been opened and they worked.

I am have been enjoying every moment getting ready for Christmas. And I have a special story to share with you. The evening after I had finished decorating the tree with all my moms houses - I was thinking of her wondering if she would like the tree. And I was taking out all of the sound/magic ornaments and came across one in particular. It was a cell phone that has a recorded message. WOW! I knew my mom had recorded our son when he was about 3 years old. After getting the batteries in for it ( oh that's a whole story of its self) I played it. I was stunned. It was my mothers voice and my sons. For me it was the greatest most special gift for this Christmas. I know it was my moms way of telling me she does like the tree and was sending us a message.
Hope you have a Merry Christmas and many blessings to you for the New Year!
Oh I will be back before the new year - LOL!!!!

A selfie! I was gifted Queen Elsa and the ornament plays "Let it Go".

Wishing you lots of laughter, happiness and LOVE this holiday. With my love and appreciation - Annette

Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe - 12 Days of Christmas give-aways!

Hello friends! Hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving. We had a fantastic time and lots of food.
It's Dec 1st and......

Nancy of Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe

 has started her. Twelve Days of Christmas give-aways.

to enter visit her blog HERE and be sure to

leave a comment on each day she posts a give-away. 

Have you seen her shop on Ebay! Click HERE to have a peek!

I will be back soon. Oh yes I am stitching, decorating, making gifts and papercrafting. 

Well that's the fun stuff I've been doing - LOL!

With my love and appreciation - Annette

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! I'm grateful for you and prayers for World Peace!
I've been preparing for Thanksgiving dinner. Most of the cooking/baking is all done. Looking forward to enjoying being with family.
Here's a finish "Autumn" by Prairie Schooler. Thank you sweet Carol for sharing your chart with me! I had seen Carol's that she stitched and I went nuts! I had to stitch this.

14ct Black adia, DMC threads

With my love and appreciation - Annette

Baby it's Cold Outside! And I'm smiling:)

Hello friends! Crazy that we're already near the middle of November.  Looking back at October our Halloween was fun. This year we only had about 40 trick or treater's come to the door. Towards the end we handed out 3 pieces of candy to each in order not to be stuck with lots of candy - lol! Thank heavens our weather here is finally cold, in the 60's during the day and in the 30's at night. LOVE IT!

Our friend Mouse has received what I sent her so I can share with you.

"Little Mouse Stitcher" The Tailor of Gloucester

Apple Green Co. - Book 540

Fabric - 28ct Evenweave, DMC threads

Some goodies I included with the stitched piece for Mouse's project.

At the top is a matchbook needle holder I made her. Also sent her some planting seeds but they didn't

make it into the photo but she got them.

 I participated in EMS 2015 Holiday Annual Ornament Exchange. My exchange partner lives in France - Corrine. This is the back side of the ornament I stitched for her.

 "Merry Christmas With Love" by Tempting Tangles Designs

2015 JCS Christmas Ornament Holiday Issue

28ct Lambswool Linen

Some thread changes I used: WDW - Louisiana Hot Sauce, Moss,  & GA - Blue Jay. Remaining threads DMC. I loved how the bicycle turned out. I added a tiny bell and a star cookie cutter mini from a package of buttons. Oh she liked everything I sent her.

For the same EMS Holiday Ornament exchange Jeannine (louison) - who is also in Frances, had my name.
Jeannine stitched me the cute Santa cat, a beautiful skein of thread (from Germany) and pretty post card. Thank you Louison! The ornament is already on my Christmas tree.

 I was so lucky and honored to receive from Alison - beautiful orange colored linen that was her grandmothers. Alison had a giveaway on her blog and I got it! WOOHOO!!!!

Alison also crocheted me a beautiful heart & rose sachet filled with lavender farmed from France. Smells heavenly. And a magnetic lavender bookmark - already in use:)
Thank you so much Alison. My plans for this fabric is to stitch "Midnight Ride" by Blackbird Designs. Plus I have a few other projects in mind.....  Thank you Alison!!!

 Tried to get a better photo up close of this pretty linen. It's gorgeous in person. 

Very deep orange with red undertones. And it was Alison's Grandmother's!!!!

And lastly our carved Halloween pumpkin.

My husband and son carved it 1 week before Halloween. On the morning of Halloween we had to toss the pumpkin out. Yep there's a very good reason why the pumpkins are NOT to be carved more than a few days ahead of time!!!  

With my Love and Appreciation - Annette

Happy October!

Hello lovely friends! Wow mid-October already. Not long till Halloween. We been having heat again. Hope it will cool off this week. So ready for cool Fall weather! Speaking of October last weekend was my birthday. Friday night I attended Ladies Night at our church. That's when we gather and work on craft stuff. I took my Sojourner to stitch. And lots of food, goodies and visiting - LOL! We had a great time!
Saturday morning I went to a baby shower came home & found a surprise awaiting for me!

 My friend Jill from Washington surprised me. Festive Birthday flowers with blow horns, and streamers greeted & surprised  me. The vase even had painted birthday candles. So pretty, Thank you Jill!

Then the morning of my birthday I waited to open my gift from Lee. Lee made me a gorgeous hand beaded mauve/pink silk dupoini covered box. Oh its so beautiful in person. I tried to get a good photo. The inside is lined with a pretty navy tiny floral print fabric. Love it so much - Thank you Lee!

 I love looking at all the different beads, metal flowers, hand stitched bullion roses, heart buttons, silk ribbon roses topped with tiny beads, cloisonne flower, beaded crystal balls, leaves, tiny sequins stitched on top of metal flowers, and a beautiful bee charm. I can't imagine how long it took Lee to stitch all the embellishments on the box. A work of love for sure! This is spectacular and I cherish it!

Thank you Thank you Thank you - Lee!

 I had a beautiful birthday. Was spoiled through out the whole day. No cooking for me:))) 

With my birthday money I ordered a new chart. I know it was early but Haven and Earth Designs had a sale on their website. I got "Gingerbread House" by Aimee Stewart. I ordered the large print, hard copy, 89 colors (not the one with 236 colors) chart. Now this is my very first HAED. 

I have gathered all the threads for page 1 of 120.......YEP! Crazy me!!!! 

Here's a close up! HAED "Gingerbread House" by Amiee Stewart

I cannot tell you how much I love this! I have a thing for Gingerbread!

Progress as of Sept 28th

Current progress

Been stitching on the left floral border side working my way down.

Pumpkin display!

Hope you are enjoying October and are stitching lots of pretties! I stitched & mailed off a package to Mouse! It's a square for her 50th memory quilt project. And I did remember to take photos before I wrapped it - LOL! With my love and appreciation - Annette

Harry Potter tree & Sojourner

Hello Friends! It's crazy that's its the end of September. It gets darker earlier and so far we are still having HOT weather. Hope it changes soon. But I knew to get a jump on and decorate - our Halloween/Fall tree is up.  First I am sharing with you my progress on Sojourner sampler.

This top I'm sharing with you for a reason. Back in the late 1970's my parents took our family to Mexico. My mom bought me this blouse. I loved it for all the embroidered flowers stitched in different colors. This was my inspiration for my next band on Sojourner.

 I finished the last band. This is a traditional Mexican band with Satin stitches & Rhodes stitch details.
It was charted in green and white. But for me I wanted more color. Took me forever to think.... and then it hit me. I remembered the beautiful top mom had bought me.

 I'm so happy how it turned out. Both my parents are gone. This is a special meaning to me so when I look at this I instantly think of the fun vacation with my family from waaaaay back when.

 There is still lots of this sampler to be stitched. Like the strawberries (Queen stitches) and more satin stitches that will fill in the saw tooth border all around the bands. Now I'm stitching the left side of the floral's.

 Harry Potter Tree - for Halloween & Fall. 

I finally put up the Harry Potter tree. I know I have talked about it before in the past and now its up.

Our son had been a fan of the Harry Potter books since the very first one came out. Then as the years went by HP products came out. I saved lots of stuff and many many shopping trips collecting ornaments. 

In the first HP movie there's a scene where in the great hall it shows floating candles and pumpkins for their Halloween feast. SO I have added pumpkins to the tree. 

 There's Harry's trunk that I filled with large jewels (remember the houses were tallied with jewels), Bettie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Hedwig, Hogwarts Castle that plays the movies theme song, sleds that were in the film used for students in the Winter time.

 No matter where you look at the tree there are lots of different ornaments to see.

 I love Harry with his Chocolate Frogs! 

 Do you see Ron and Hermoine?

There's also Harry flying on his Nimbus 2000 broom, Gringott's bank, the Mirror of Erased, Harry and his invisible cloak and candles that flicker on and off. At night the tree is really beautiful all lit up.

I have a new stitching project that I will be starting tomorrow for our sweet friend Mouse. She will be making a Memory Quilt and asked if anyone would like to stitch a block for her. I said YES right away. So off to study some charts. If you would like to learn more of her project you can read it on her post HERE.
Thank you for stopping by!
With my love and appreciation - Annette

Sweet token gift & The Top Five

Hello lovely friends! Our weather was very hot since last week and over the weekend. Today we had a bit of rain but our windows and door has been open the whole time - humid! Have been praying for all the people who lost their homes and for the firefighters. I was told by my aunt that my cousins godfather lost his home in the fire. He and his family lived right there in Cobb. Just horrible. He, his wife and their dog had just gotten in their truck and drove away & in his review mirror saw his 2 propane tanks explode along with their home. They had just barely made it out. The fire is still not all contained. Asking for your prayers please!

Well this post is inspired by our friend Vickie! Vickie surprised me with a card and darling envelope letter fob. I LOVE it! I have it on my planner where I get to see it all the time:)
Thank you for your Thank you sweet Vickie!

Vickie had shared her top five ornaments from this years JCS 2015 Ornament Magazine.
There are so many  cute and beautiful ornaments that I can see myself stitching.  Hope you can share also what your top 5 are:)
Here are mine:

 "Hope" by Lone Elm Lane #1

"Merry Christmas With Love" by Tempting Tangles Designs #7. Now I can see different variations of this ornament stitched by changing the fabric color & threads. I just think this is very cute.

 "Gingerbread Quilt" by The Victoria Sampler #3. This ornament is a quilt done on Gingerbread fabric to match her new Gingerbread Quilters cottage which hasn't been released yet.

 "Plenty" by Hands on Design #8.
and "Merry Christmas" by Samplers Not Forgotten #10.  Okay there's five right there but......

 "Joyful Santa" by Homespun Elegance #4.  I need a Santa for this years tree!
SO there are my top 6 but there are soooo many more pretty ornaments in this years magazine.

Progress on Sojourner - Finished several more bands.
- The Chinese band is in recognition of the thousands of Chinese who traveled East across the Pacific Ocean to find their fortune in California Gold. This Chinese band was charted all in red motifs and black accents. I made a few of the motifs to gold.
- Between the Chinese and Russian band is a dividing band all done in Montenegrin stitches - Chester's Blue Classic Colorworks silk.
- The Russian band (with the birds) - is a band commonly found in Russian folk art garments. I alternated two blue threads for the motifs in this band, Presidential Blue Sampler threads GA & Pacific Blue by Gloriana silk.
- another dividing band under the Russian band is done in Montenegrin stitches - Chester's Blue Classic Colorworks silk.

Well that's it for now. Hope our weather gets cooler. Right now they really need rain where there are fighting fires. I'm ready for Fall! I have noticed that it's getting darker much earlier now.
With my Love and Appreciation - Annette

Sojourner & Veggie seeds haul!

Hello lovely friends! I'm here! At first I thought it was only 2 weeks ago since I posted. Had a look at my blog and was so surprised. August has been a HOT, cold, HOT temps for us. But I am taking advantage and have been enjoying the last of Summer. Well our temps are still high time will tell.I have taken advantage of doing outside yard work when it wasn't triple digits. Lots got done. Always more to do.

So sad that Sampler and Antique Needlework Quarterly magazine has ceased publication with their latest issue. I have a subscription and have just received the latest Fall issue. Have no idea what will happen with prepaid issues I have left on my subscription with them. Will learn soon enough.

So what have I been doing & stitching? I actually finished stitching a beautiful piece& completed it. As it's a gift will get back to you to share with you in November with this.
On a stitching note - I worked on Sojourner.

Strawberry band - the strawberries and leaves are all done in Queens Stitch. I will work on the them little by little but I wanted to stitch other parts of the sampler.
I completed 4 more bands. Two black & white bands separate the larger motif bands.
The pansy band is done in backstitch & reflects Great Britain, Irish, English, Welsh and Scottish peoples who came to America seeking a new life. The floral rope reflects the nautical history of San Francisco as a major sea port.

 "Sojourner" by Theresa Baird for Heart's Ease Examplar Workes

40ct Expresso Linen by R & R Rerpductions

 Everything on this table was a grand price of $9.86. WOW Talk about a great find. Dollar General had their seeds 90% off. Now let me back up here a moment. Back in February or some time around there I went looking for seeds to plant. Everything was high. I had found one box of seeds for almost $9 and didn't make shopping for seeds fun. I had no idea that Dollar General store even had seeds priced at 2 for $1 and 4 for $1. If I had I would have stocked up on them. My son had learned of this sale on Facebook a group called "The Rusted Garden: All about Vegetables". So off I went. You might want to check out your store to see if they still have seeds. If they do I bet they are still on clearance.

 Packets of seeds were .02 cents and .05 cents each. What a deal!!!

We had planted some green beans & tomatoes earlier around April or May. All didn't make it due to the heat we've had. Plus what was planted was not from seeds they were plants. 

 Those boxed seeds - .20cents, the pots that you plant into the ground .15 cents each which have 8 pots in one stack, tray of tomatoes - .30cents and the herb tray with 3 different herbs - .60 cents.

Nicholas has grouped his packets and placed them in a freezer bag so they are air tight. He learned they will keep till he's ready to plant. This is all his gig- LOL! Hopefully something will grow.
Thank you for stopping by and I am looking forward to decorating for Fall. Just need the heat waves to leave.  With my love and appreciation - Annette