Let the summer begin.....

Yes you heard right. We haven't been able to do a whole lot yet this summer, but that is about to change. We have been taking care of 3 houses (2 to get ready to people to move into) and it has consumed our time! But now that our daughter has moved out of one and into the other and we have new renters in our other house, we can just concentrate on OUR house!!! Seems like every evening and weekend we were tied down to one of them.
I haven't updated since May and June was really a blur. But first off my Dad is doing well and seems to have stumped the Drs. again. Thanks for all of your thoughts, prayers and concern.

As far as stitching goes....I got the 2nd page finished on my Mystic and then I put it away for awhile. I did finally get to just a little bit of green. I finished the 3rd square on Carolyn's RR before I mailed it on. It was a nice change of pace using one color thread while I was also working on my Mystic. But my big event was my finish of Amberlyn's stocking!! I already have someone to finish it for me. I can do most finishing techniques, but a stocking with the lining and all?? I'm going to pass the buck on that one and pay to have it done.

It was Amberlyn's 1st birthday in June and here she is with her birthday outfit and a couple more just because she's so darn cute! She's loving going in the pool so I hope that continues as she gets older.

Hoping to get some time on the motorcycle now that we have some time and definitely more stitching or having Amberlyn over. We haven't been able to do much of that either since we were working on houses.
Thanks for the comments and taking time to read my posts. I know how busy everyone is and it's nice to know you take the time.

A month of ups and downs

Since my last post a few things have changed around here!

1st- my daughter found a schnauzer in the Wal-Mart parking lot, brought it home to me since she knew I wanted one. Well after 2 days I found the owners (not with any effort on their part). I was a little bummed when I found the owner....and Carl knew it. So before I got home from telling him he had emailed me another dog on Petfinder. This was from a different rescue and they approved my application! So now I am the proud owner of a 5 year old mini Schnauzer -Cheyenne. She is just about as perfect as a dog can be. She is so friendly with everyone and she gets along great with Amberlyn. She has been with us for 4 weeks now. This rescue was even willing to drive to Indianapolis to pick her up from the foster home and deliver her to me! Enough dog story...

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2nd- with the housing market being so good to find homes we decided that we would look for a house for our daughter to buy. The one she is in now is really just our rental and not really good for a family to live in. It's pretty small. We looked for just a couple weeks and we found one, made an offer and the bank accepted. It's over 2000 sq feet and just needs some work on one of the bathrooms and some paint before they can move in. I found some great deals on appliances on Craigslist, so now they have everything they need.

3rd- It was my 50th birthday on the 25th. I told Carl I didn't want any big surprise party, that's just not me. Well he thought he had to think of something that would be a surprise that I liked. So since February he has been planning my surprise. He was having Carolyn and Natalie come for the weekend to surprise me and then on Saturday he was having a catered dinner in our basement for 16 people. All family except for 4. Well unfortunately on the day before Carolyn and Natalie were to get here my Dad was admitted to the hospital. He had to tell me all he had planned so that we could make the decision of what to do. All the plans had to be cancelled and instead I had cake, and a birthday toast in the hospital with my Dad. After our little party in the hospital the rest of the family met us at a restaurant for dinner. We had 25 people there instead of 16. Of course it was disappointing for Carl to have so much planning done only to have to tell me about it, but he was a trooper and he knows how much I appreciated all he did to try and make it happen. I hope that one day Carolyn, Natalie and others will be able to visit here! My Dad is out of the hospital and we are taking one day at a time. And I am enjoying any extra time I have to share with him. I got some wonderful gifts from my stitching friends. Anita gave me a GC to Wasatch Needlecraft, Shawn gave me some fabric and thread, Natalie and Karen gave me some "special" floss, and Stephanie, Karen and Natalie stitched a wonderful piece for me that is perfect and then Carolyn made a wonderful box and put great goodies in it.....all the gifts can be seen HERE (9 new photos)They are all so special to me and I thank them from the bottom of my heart.

My work had a birthday party for me and dressed up in the 60's attire. They bought a huge cake for all our patients to share and put up decorations and signs. We had a good time and it was just what I needed.

So needless to say not much stitching has been going on around here. And if you are still reading this you are dedicated!!!! But since it has been more than a month.....there's probably more than what I think. I did finish the ornament. The details on this are what draw them to me, but boy they take time to finish!!!

I finished my part on Karen's RR and mailed it on. I got my groove going on a new Mystic stitch, Seasonal Collide.It's not too exciting to look at yet. I'm almost done with one page.

And I've got 2 blocks done so far on Carolyn's RR.No entry is complete without Amberlyn with her favorite Grandpa and my husband of 29 years now (yes our anniversary was the 23rd!)......she is ALL over everything now and practically running already. Her 1st birthday is June 6th.

Time to catch up

Do you really want to catch up with what I've been up to?? If not, no reason to read on. LOL
I finally returned to "normal" the day before leaving on vacation!!!! Thank goodness!! We flew to Florida and stayed in Cape Coral. Ever heard of it? Me neither. I wasn't in charge of getting the rental house, someone else was. We went with 6 other people, they all drove (they are nuts!!!!) Here is my first picture....yep, it's known for the highest foreclosure rate in the country and they have tours to prove it! We had a pretty busy week down there, a tour of the Edison/ Ford Winter homes, a Tiger Spring training game, a day at the beach, a day in Key West and then one day to relax a bit. On a weird Facebook story, while I was down there a husband of a high school friend of mine wanted to "friend" me. Long story short, we met for drinks the night before flying home!!!! If he hadn't contacted me on FB, it would of never happened. It had been over 20 years since I had seen him. I had 3 days home before heading to Chicago for work. Of course while in Chicago it was cold and rainy (thank goodness we spent the day indoors). We had great Chicago pizza and also went to a wonderful Tapas restaurant where we ordered 12 different things and ALL of them were great. Of course we had to get world famous Garrett's Chicago mix (caramel and cheese) popcorn.Well because of the past events...my stitching is really just about nil. I did start and finish a little zipper case while on the airplane and the boat ride to Key West. I gave it to my daughter. Before I left on vacation I did a little more on Fairies. And I've been working on Karen's RR. I also started another ornament from the kit that Shawn gave me (boy those are stitching intense) and I won't show you that until it's finished.
On another note, some of you know that I have been looking for a rescue Schnauzer to adopt. I have been on petfinder.com for several months now (starting back in Jan). I wasn't getting very good communication from any of the organizations I was contacting. Finally I did, and found a dog and they approved me.....only one thing, they couldn't hold her until I got back from vacation. Which I totally understood. Well when I got back, she was gone. I had several emails today from another organization and they told me I would never be approved for a rescue because even though we are an adult couple with no kids at home. We have a baby visit frequently and they can't guarantee they will get along. So since I don't want a puppy, I'm giving up on the idea for right now and have already threatened Carl I better not be getting a puppy for my birthday! Speaking of which, I purchase my own gift...LOL After being at a hotel with a light up swivel magnifying makeup mirror I decided to get on Amazon and check them out. I ordered one so now I will be able to see when I am applying my mascara. What else could a soon to be 50 yr old want???
Last but not least, Amberlyn is walking!!! 10 mos is too young!!! She is just so darn cute I can't help but smile when I see her. Those are supposed to be capri pants. They just look like short pants right now! We also let her in the hot tub for the first time and she splashed up a storm!

Happy ending!

I won't go into details but after 3 weeks and 2 different sickness's, I think I am over the hump and the happy ending is what was in the mail today! I got a surprise from Chris thanking me for sending her some qsnap huggie business. It really was very innocent and a thank-you wasn't necessary, but greatly appreciated!! And much needed after 48 hours on the couch and bathroom!My stitching update includes: Fairy Garden, can't get in a groove and seem to be putting stitches in here and there.Castles in the Air:Karen's RR:I also had a start and finish this weekend, but I don't want to share it until it's actually finished. Hopefully that won't be too far off.
The weather this month has been awesome. 2 weeks of sun and some days in the 60's! All the snow is gone and snow crocus's are up and daffodils are peeking now too.
An update of Amberlyn at almost 9 months. She's crawling everywhere and when her mom says NO, she crawls even faster towards the NO object! LOL

And the winner of the wolves is......

Linda K, please send me your snail mail address and it will go out this week! Congrats!

Didn't think I had much to say or show, but WOW!!! (every photo is clickable)

When trying to think of what I needed to write about more and more things were coming to mind, so this will be picture heavy!!
First, I saw Vonna's blog and her pictures of her stitching chest. I went searching ebay and found one, sent the link to Carl as a suggestion for my birthday this year (not for months) and low and behold he bought it and didn't save it for Feb 14, Mother's day, Anniv or birthday and gave it to me the day it arrived!!! I don't have a place next to my stitching area like Vonna has, but it has a home in my craft room and I love it. Thanks Sweetie!!!! And I have a full drawer still not used!

Second, I was in a Valentine Exchange and Carolyn sent me the neatest tin!!! She put so much thought into the whole Valentine theme putting it together for me, don't you just love it??? More photos of the whole exchange can be seen here
Third, I sent out my Valentine exchange to Anita. It's my 2nd finish for the year. It wasn't Valentine themed, but it was in her favorite colors!









Fourth, I had my son's old girlfriend over with her new baby and gave her my 3rd finish of the year. Her husband is in Iraq now and we had a good time with Lauren, her and the 2 babies!
5th -I worked a bit more on Snowflakes:
6th-Jodie's RR:
7th-
My focus piece has been Fairy Garden. Since the corrected pattern was released I was itching to get back to it. I spent most of the time on the first holly hock, which is tons of confetti!! I got to the outer left border and found out there were mistakes in the original that I stitched. Apparently this was discussed in the group, but I don't remember it. I had to rip it out and redo. I think that is the only part so I'm good to go now. I just had to start my first fairy too! My progress photos and overall can be followed in this album




And lastly when I visited Stephanie last month she wanted to throw away (yes I said THROW away) a kit she had started. I told her to give it to me and I'm sure I would have some takers who would be willing to give it a good home and hopefully finish it. Leave me a comment that you want it and if there are several requests I'll draw a name on Sunday.





To end my post, a photo of Amberlyn in a slightly too small of an outfit, but it's all I had to dress her in. Yes, it's supposed to be long pants, and I didn't have it snapped up the back either! Poor thing, and yes, I have requested some clothes that fit from her Mom and we can dress her appropriately now.

Another month, another update

Another month gone by......how can I recap? I traveled another 500 miles to meet another friend, Stephanie in Ky, had a great weekend and Natalie was there for a school conference so I was able to see her again! We organized Stephanie's long neglected floss. It took the 3 of us 6 hours to do, but it was worth it and it was the best thing we could do for a working Dr. with limited time off!!! I gave Stephanie one of the scissors keeps that I had also made for everyone at Jubilee. This one was personalized with the colors both she and Lori loved and I used the Lavender floss Lori gave me for Christmas in the design.
In other stitching progress, I decided to get out my long neglected HAED and finish a page. I took this with me to KY to get their opinions. I think it is stitching much darker than the photo of it and wasnt' real happy. They told me to stitch the page under where I am now instead of going across and have assured me it will look fine in the end. Here is the album link so you can see the photo of the design. So let the debating begin......
On the 23rd of each month, we are doing a remembrance stitching in honor of our friend who passed. For now I will be doing a design that she was also working on. In Jan that piece was Castles in the Air.
I put a little more time in my current RR of Jodie's.
And since none of my stitching was thrilling me much I decided to start something new. I was helped out in that department by receiving a package in the mail from my friend Gabi. She sent me a LNH pattern "snowflakes" that I had admired on her blog. So in the midst of the worst snow of the season I am working on that!!!
One day last week I received a large box in the mail and to my surprise it was filled with finishing supplies!! Lyne sent them to me hoping that they would be used instead of taking up space at her house. I think I can put them to good use!
One more thing I would like to mention is my frustration with Chatelaine designs. I have been unhappy in the Fairy Garden group about having to wait for a corrected chart that I had paid for back in June. She kept promising the correction and I kept waiting. Well finally last night I decided to send a post. Low and behold the new file just happened to be uploaded!!! My disappointment now was that not ONE person wrote that they agreed with me! Once she has your money you apparently aren't as important as pumping out new patterns every couple of weeks (which are also probably filled with mistakes). Off my soap box now.
And since no post is complete with an Amberlyn update, here she is! Now mobile in this world too! Watch out! And yes that's a bruise on her head, from being mobile! Thought I'd show her mom too!