A June update in May

With 3 days left in May, I figured it was time to "finish" June. I found some strawberry material that my Mom gave me awhile back and thought it was a good enough match so I didn't have to go material hunting. This is a pattern by Country Cottage Needleworks. I have September and October left to stitch.

I've been steadily stitching away on "Balcony View of a Villa" by Mystic stitch. Here is where I was when you last saw it.

A few weeks later.....

And then as of last night.....

The bottom 2/3's of the pattern is where all the action is, so I'm assuming that I will be slowing down on this one. That and the fact that I want to work on some other things now.
Our outdoor project has been redoing the landscaping where we redid our sidewalk last fall. Here's a collage of one area (on the left) before during and after and then an overall of before and after.(on the right) It's not really fair since the tree didn't have leaves on it. We spread lots of mulch and 2 tons of rock. We still have some lights to add and some accent boulders on one end to do. But I'd say it's 95% done.

And what blog post is complete without a photo of Amberlyn. She had her first dance recital. They were so darn cute!

And May is my birthday and anniversary month. My husband and I celebrated 32 years together.. I stole this picture idea from Pinterest. Happy Summer all!!!

It's spruce up time

You know, sometimes you just stitch and stitch and when they are completed  they just go in this big pile and nothing happens with them. Some of us have more of those "piles" than others. I can't stand to have too many because if I take the time to stitch them, I want someone to enjoy them!
Here is May, by Country Cottage Needleworks, that I stitched last year, but needed to finish for this month. I finished it April 30. I just love how it updates my calendar my Dad made for me years ago. I found a cute button in my stash that matched the flowers perfectly.

I stitched this one several years ago......I'm ashamed how long it's been in my "need to do something" with pile. I was planning on getting an orange frame, but that would have to be ordered. Obviously I wasn't doing that, so one day I went to visit my Mom and took it with me. Walked in the local Michael's,  picked out a white ready made frame and decided to just mat it, to give it color. This will go to my husband office, who has the Pistons, Red Wings and U of MI pictures already. Guess I need to find a good Lions one and he'll have all the sports covered.

We've been working outside, like most people this time of year. Just by adding new mulch we went from this:

To this:

I've been having fun seeing what color tulips I planted last fall. You can see some of them around the pond, but here are some close ups.

We've been redoing our front walk too, but I'll save before and after photos when we are done. It won't be until after Memorial Day weekend. Still have lots to do and 2 ton of rock being delivered. We probably underestimated what we need!

I'll leave you with my grand daughter doing her favorite thing and with the piece I made for her. Enjoy the warming weather and try and get some stitching time !