New Additions

Grandgirl - February 2017

Fun in the kitchen

Our Oklahoma Puggle July 2014

Goofball

Harley Quinn - rescue kitten 2016

PSS - Scary One

Barbara Ana Designs

With Thy Needle & Thread

Plum Street Samplers

Hello Again!

It has taken me since the last post to figure out how to get pictures onto this blog! It is so difficult from my iPad, not sure why. Trying it from the laptop seems to be easier. Getting back into the swing of things is a bit harder than originally planned, but hopefully it will get easier.

If you follow me on IG or FB, most of the posted pictures will not be new to you...but just trying to catch up here...

Our granddaughter was born in March of 2014, making us Mimi and Poppy finally! She is amazingly smart, gorgeous and funny and the light of our lives! She loves the doggies (esp. Copper, she says "Copper is my BEST friend"!) and helping me in the kitchen. She also loves Peppa Pig, Masha & the Bear and Shopkins!

Copper is our newest doggie addition. My friend Tobie helped us to adopt him from a shelter in Oklahoma, and in July of 2014 we drove up to get him. He is a Puggle, although he has very long legs and people say he looks part Boxer. Who knows, but he is a great dog and we've been so blessed by him, he makes us laugh every day.
On one of our vet visits for shots or whatever, the vet tech had just gotten a kitten down from a tree outside of the clinic (which is on a very busy street)...well, guess who ended up with her? US! Welcome to the ZOO Harley! She's a bit over a year old now, I'll try and post newer pics next time. She's a great cat, funny and loving. Aren't rescued animals the best?!

Astro and Muttley are doing well, although Astro is not too fond of one addition.

Oblivious

In the last year, we had to say goodbye to the original PUG, Scooby, who was 16, our bunny Tober, who was 11, and a kitty we had rescued, Benny. Bruce, the little Chihuahua, also left us after being in heart failure for a year. Astro has had diabetes for almost 3 years, but is doing well. He had cataract surgery 2 years ago and has vision in his right eye (the other one was not a good candidate for the procedure). It was all very expensive and the reason we cannot have nice things, haha! Just joking, but seriously, we'd give up everything for our babies, as most animal lovers would, right?

Stitching wise I am all over the place. Some of the most recent finishes are posted above. It's bad that I cannot recall the names of the patterns, but my brain is pretty fried this week from work deadlines.
Will try and edit later when the names come to me.

Thank you all for the comments, I tried to respond to most of them when time allowed me....I am happy there are some nice people and old friends out there still reading. Due to my work schedule, I most likely will have much shorter posts than this one, aren't you glad?!

Until next time...Be happy and stitch much!

Some finishes and edits

Here are a couple more finishes I've managed over the past month or so...

Peter & Peep by With Thy Needle and Thread

Stitched on 40 ct. St. Valentine's Blend by R&R with called for over-dyed threads.

And then this one, which has been in my stash forever and a day...

Praise God by La D Da

Stitched on 40 ct. " Who Knows What, It's Been In the Stash Too Long To Remember" with GA Sampler and WDW threads.

And about the edits....I couldn't leave my posts about the finisher up any longer. Just don't want to look at it anymore. I will not apologize for what was said, as it was/is the truth, and I'll never understand this person or her actions, but it's all history now and I'm done with it.

Here's something far more important...

Heart shaped beards on pugs :-)

New Additions - Part 2 (Finally!)

Gosh, it's been almost forever since I've been in this space known as my blog. My sweet friend Patti keeps asking me if I'm going to give up on it, and truth is, my life has been so full of stuff that I have considered it.
But, my friend told me "you don't have to say much, just post some stitching pictures", which seems like a good idea to me. So today I'll try and catch my readers up a bit, and for the future, it'll just be mostly pictures and few words. Maybe that way I can post more regularly.

OK, so besides the new kitty (see last post), we also adopted a sweet little boy doggy from a good friend, his name was Zuess, but we renamed him Bruce. You know, Bruce Almighty, cause he's so big and all ;-)

He's also weird. Very weird. Cute, tough, funny, loving, weird little dude. Love him.

Our son got married over the summer, that was exciting. And exhausting. So we also have a wonderful new daughter in our family, along with her adorable four year old daughter, so instant grandparents are us! It was a beautiful wedding.....lots of pics, but I'm not really comfortable posting a bunch of them without their permission, so here's just a fun one from the reception. My son is front left, the bride next to him and her daughter is the little one in front of her.  They were all doing a family dance that is tradition in the bride's family, it was a lot of fun.

We also adopted another bunny, but no pictures yet. We didn't actually plan on getting another, but she was in desperate need of a home, so what could we do. Now the critter count around here is four dogs (three pugs and BRUCE, lol), two bunny rabbits and one kitty cat, Jenny Bean. All are doing well.

Now, what you probably came here for....some stitching. I've gotten so much finished/framed and have been so bad at blogging or keeping up with posting them, there's no order to anything. Just posting and hoping nothing gets posted twice.

This is Valentine Holiday by Birds of a Feather.

Stitched long ago and just recently framed, I can't really recall the fabric/threads used.

And here's my Mystery Sampler, by With Thy Needle & Thread

Stitched on 35 ct. Confederate Grey by WDW, with whatever over-dyed threads the chart called for.

This is my Mary Gibson 1824 Sampler, which I loved stitching. I used 36 ct Vintage Buttercream and my own silk conversion.

Also finished up Charlotte Clayton....

Stitched on 36 ct. Vintage Sand Dune with Needlepoint silks.

Well, that's all for now my dear readers. Thanks for visiting my blog. More pictures of stitching soon. Be well, and be happy!

framed finish

Hello there,

Anyone still reading? I did not forget this blog of mine, no dears, my friend Patti would not let me ;-)! Lots of things going on, I will try to be brief and list them here:

*tennis elbow which hurts so bad one considers chopping their arm off.
*contemplation of why one would take such drastic measures, maybe reconsider.
*health problems with pugs, one in a cone (again!) for months on end, the other having one problem after another, the last being a tumor and it's removal.
*serious freak out over pug health problems, not to mention husband having issues at the same time.
*work related issues
*too busy stitching with my free time and having no desire to be on computer posting to blog (sorry, just keeping it real!)

Could probably come up with more excuses, but enough of that, here's my recent framing finish!

This design is from The Scarlett Letter chart called "And All Was For An Appil"



stitched on 40 count Natural linen with DMC thread. The last two photos were taken outside, and the true linen color shows better in them.
I could've sworn I took pictures of the bottom half of this, but can't seem to find them!

That's all for now. I will leave you with a picture of the boys sitting with their Dad, one showing his backside, where the tumor was removed and the other, happy to finally be cone free, after seeing a specialist for his eye problems and finally getting some results.

And I'll also leave you with the promise of posting more often....tootles for now!
xoxo

Finishes

Next time I decide to go off and take a bloggin' break, someone please take a switch to my backside! Uploading pics to blogger is taking forever today. That'll teach me!

So, in no particular order, here are some projects that were completed during my blogging absence (all pics are clickable)....

First up, Trudy's Flower by Elizabeth's Garden (daughter of Kathy Barrick)



This one I started, oh gosh, who knows how long ago, and I just couldn't get into that much. Finally decided it was because I was using one strand of DMC over two, and the coverage was "meh" at best. Thankfully, one of my daughters enjoys frogging (she takes after her father, go figure), so she ripped out all I'd done (which was about a quarter of it, so I could start over on that piece of fabric.

So, with TWO strands of DMC, over two on the 36 ct. Barn Owl, it was much better.
Dated 2009 because that's the date it had on it before daughter ripped it out.



Next, Dainty Housewren by Carriage House Samplings
Stitched on 40 ct. Ink Spot Black with Needlepoint Silk.

I left off the beads because they just seemed HUGE and too busy on this piece.

This one is Snow Day, from With they Needle & Thread

Stitched on 35 ct. Confederate Gray linen by WDW, with two strands of DMC over two.





A very fun stitch!



This one, I've done before, for an exchange I was in. Liked it so much that I had to do it again






The design is from Chartmakers, and is called Christmas Night.
Stitched with DMC and WDW threads, on 32 ct. black Belfast, over two.

I'm thinking it would be nice to get it made into a bag like before. My friend Patti did the previous one. Maybe Tobie can help me out this time ;)


That's all for now. Oh wait....pugs!! As requested by MaryLou :)

Someone stole Mom's stitchin' chair....





and promptly got kicked out and put next to his brother ;)



They really cannot stand it when they can't sit right beside me. We got them that big pillow you see in the second picture, which I would pull up right beside me in the sun room, but they'll have NO part of it, thankyouverymuch. Astro says "You wasted your money Dad! We'd all be much happier with a bigger stitching chair" :)

Happy weekend y'all. Stay tuned for more finishes...will post next week :)

October!

"I love fall!
Fall is exciting.
It's apples and cider.
It's an airborne spider.
It's pumpkins in bins.
It's burrs on dog's chins.
It's wind blowing leaves.
It's chilly red knees.
It's nuts on the ground.
It's a crisp dry sound.
It's green leaves turning.
And the smell of them burning.
It's clouds in the sky.
It's fall.
That's why...
I love fall."~Author Unknown

I'd like to share with you my Blackbird Designs Autumn Song box. It was finished earlier this year, but it didn't seem the right time to share it then...

I had some help finishing it. Meaning, I tried to do it, messed it up, and ended up sending it to a friend for finishing ;)




Fall stitching is really my favorite :)

Here's my current WIP, Good Huswife's Hooked Rabbit Pincushion...which is a gift for a friend for Christmas. It's being stitched on 36 ct Vintage Pearled Barley with two strands WDW. Lots of solid stitching!



Muttley Pie got his stitches out Tuesday! And the ulcer is healed! Yippee!! He's got a little scar there now (you can make it out if you look closely, the right eye), but he's on medication to minimize that. The other eye is still a bit inflamed and gunky, but all in all, he's doing better....



He has to wear the cone for two more weeks though! I'm beginning to think he won't know how to act when it's finally off. He gets around with it like a pro now!
We'd like to say thank you for all of your good thoughts and prayers...I've shed a lot of tears of worry over this pug while all this was going on. A sweet friend on Facebook reminded me to just have faith that it would all be ok...it was a reminder I really needed....sometimes (well, most times), I have a tendency to expect the worse...so when/if it happens, I'm prepared to deal with it. Turns out...it takes about the same amount of energy (maybe even less!) to think positively as it does to worry about the worst case scenario! Who would've thought it ;-)

Happy Fall Y'all! Take good care!

stash giveaway

Hello again! How are you this week? So far things are just peachy here at Cone Headquarters. Mr. Muttley had a checkup on Tuesday and all is going well. So far. One more week to go, then another recheck and hopefully the stitches can come out and the eye will be ok. The vet did say if she thinks it needs another week under the patch, she'll sew it back up. Oh boy!
Astro is still not happy about the cone, and steers a w i d e path around it, even though I think in his heart, he'd like to play. Muttley says he's tired of feeling like a reject!



Meanwhile, I'm clearing out my stash and wanted to share some goodies with my faithful readers in the process. There will be two winners, one for "lot A" as seen here:




The contents will include:
Little House Needleworks Acorns & Pines, with the fabric
Lizzie Kate Snippet - Wanted! with fabric and buttons
Heart in Hand Grand Old Flag
& Lizzie Kate Fall Crazy #131

And another winner for "lot B" as pictured below:



which will include:

Whitman's Tin Sewing Set chart and Whitman's tin
BrightNeedle Can You Spy? with fabric and Anchor threads called for
Threads of Gold Heart to Heart (Christmas ornament)
Homespun Elegance Tiny Stuff Noel Noah Pin/Ornament with fabric and embellishment.

If you'd like a chance to win, please let me know in the comments below this post. I will draw two names next Thursday, Sept. 23. Be sure to let me know which group you'd like, should you win!