FFO'd Valentine Cards

I finished making the three valentine squares into cards this morning.  They're not perfect, but it's the first time I've done this.  I hope to do better next time.  These are going to the World of Charity Stitching group to be given to the elderly living in care homes.

WIP Wednesday - 1/24/2018

I'm making good progress on the Ronald McDonald House Sampler.  Here is where it was last Wednesday:

And here it is today:

I did have to frog two hands and the words "Helping Hands" on the upper right and didn't quite get it re-added yet.  I was one stitch off in both directions.  I'm hoping for a Happy Dance by the end of the month!

Happy Dance - Be My Valentine

Started: 1/22/2018

Finished: 1/22/2018

I found this on the Small Town Stitching blog using Pinterest.  It's stitched with DMC 115 on a scrap of white 14-count Aida.

This is the final stitch for the Valentines Day Card SAL for WOCS.  I'm going this afternoon to get stuff to make the cards.

Happy Dance - Swirly Valentine

Started: 1/19/2018

Finished: 1/21/2018

I found this on the Cross Stitch Craze Blog using Pinterest.  It's one of 30 free hearts with various swirls, etc.  I added the "Be My Valentine" instead of enclosing the rest of the heart in backstitch.

It's stitched in DMC Variations (4200) on a scrap of white 14-count Aida.  It will be made into a Valentines Day card and sent to WOCS for their Valentines Card SAL.

Happy Dance - Love Bear

Started: 1/11/2018

Finished: 1/19/2018

This is part of a free chart that I found on Durene Jones Facebook page.  

I only stitched the bear and heart and left off the background of white cloud hearts on a patchwork of blue and green squares.  Other than that, it's stitched as charted on a scrap of white 14-count Aida with DMC floss except for the eyes--I replaced the french knots with cross stitches.

This is going to be sent to WOCS for their Valentines Card Project.  I hope to have a couple more done by next weekend so I can go shopping for stuff to make it into a card.

WIP Wednesday - 01/17/2018

I'm back to my two projects a day again.  One uses my Q-snaps and floor stand, while the other is small enough to stitch in hand.

The one on my Q-snaps right now is the Ronald McDonald House SAL sampler that I'm making for the Family Room at Mission Hospital. 

The second piece I'm working on is called Love Bear, a freebie from Durene Jones and is for the WOCS Valentine SAL.  I hope to do a couple more this month as well.  The bear has a charted background with heart shaped clouds on a patchwork or blue and green squares, but in the interest of time, I've decided to just stitch the bear and the heart.  This one should be finished in a day or two.

October Catch Up Post #4 - Other October Activities

October was a busy month, almost as busy as December.  I already posted about the Pumpkin Patch Palooza, but here's the rest of the month.

On October 1st, Janice and Kyleigh went to a Puberty Tea.   They had tea and goodies and listened to a speaker talk about the changes our bodies go through as we get older.

Janice has been doing Kyleigh's hair in various styles, usually involving a braid or two.  This one's a little different though.

Janice and Kyleigh also attended a craft night at our church and made several crafts.  Here are two of them.

KNO (Kids Night Out) this month was a Glow Party and one of the activities was decorating pumpkins.

Here is this year's school picture:

Finally, Kyleigh spends every other weekend with her dad and other grandma (Nonnie).  They do lots of fun things together.  Just before Halloween, they did some baking and Kyleigh made Ghost Brownies.

October Catch Up Post #3 - Halloween

Every year our church and school host a Fall Festival at the school where the kids can go trick or treating through the cars and play games.  This year in honor of the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's posting his 95 theses on the church door, the children got to do that too.  Kyleigh went with Chad (her father) so this is the only picture I have of her at the festival.

In this picture, she's a Halloween princess, but the costume is actually that of a witch.

On Halloween, Devin, Janice and Kyleigh all get dressed up and go trick or treating.  Kyleigh was a witch.

She has a Next Generation 18-inch doll that is one of her favorite toys.  At one of the boutiques we went to this year, we found a similar Halloween costume for her.  Here she is with the doll.

Devin and Janice did a couple costume this year.  Devin is dressed as Bob Ross, the painter of "happy trees" and Janice is one of his paintings.  Incidentally, she painted the painting on her shirt herself.

October Catch Up Post #2 - The Tractor Show

While Janice and Devin were on their honeymoon, Kyleigh went with us to the Fall Festival at the Antique Gas and Steam Engine Museum in Vista (better known as the Tractor Show).  We go down to both the Fall and Spring Festivals every year to operate the rope braiding machines and sell the jump ropes made on the machine.  Here is Kyleigh with one of the machines.

Of course, demonstrating rope braiding can be boring, so Kyleigh finds other things to do.  Here she is jump roping with a very large rope.

 

 The rope braiding machines are located in the Weavers' Barn and sometimes she visits the other exhibitors, mostly weavers and tatters.  Here she's learning to tat.

 And here's a closeup.

 There are other things to do as well: a schoolhouse, a farmhouse, a model train display where you can do a scavenger hunt and a playground.  There's also a parade and one of the highlights of the show for Kyleigh is riding in the parade.  This is her Saturday ride

 

 And here's her Sunday ride.

October Catch Up Post #1 - The Wedding

Janice and Devin finally decided to make their relationship legal on the fifth anniversary of their meeting in person for the first time.  They were married at the Old Court House in Santa Ana with just the immediate families present.  It was a casual wedding with the bride and groom dressed in jeans.  However, the maid of honor insisted on wearing a pretty dress!

It was a beautiful ceremony.  The judge wore her robes and talked to Devin and Janice a few minutes ahead of time to get a feel for their personalities.  They have a couple of rooms decorated up for a wedding and there were pews set up for the guests.  (I wish I'd known about this when David and I were married.)

During the Ceremony

First Kiss as Husband and Wife

The "New" Family

The Judge with Devin's Family

The Two Families (the judge took the picture for us.)

 Kyleigh "stole" my camera to take selfies.

Kyleigh & Devin

Kyleigh & Grandpa

Kyleigh and Janice

After the ceremony, we all went to Lucille's for a celebratory meal and then Janice and Devin headed off on their honeymoon to the Cliff House between Santa Barbara and Ventura.  Kyleigh went with us to the tractor show in Vista.

Happy Dance - Christmas Sweater #1

Started: 12/12/2018

Finished: 1/10/2018

This is from Cross Stitch Card Shop #98 and was designed by Rhona Norrie.  There are six Christmas sweater charts and I plan on doing at least three more before the end of the year. 

It's stitched as called for with DMC floss on 14-count white plastic canvas.  I plan on making it into an ornament and attaching it to a card.

Happy Dance - Haunted Mansion

Started: 12/16/2017

Finished: 1/1/2018

This is from the Petal Pusher  shop (Barbara Tingley) on Etsy, one of several designs of Disneyland attractions.  I have three more in my stash.

I stitched this as charted on pewter 14-count Aida with the called for DMC.  It was a fairly easy stitch, especially after all the troubles I had with Santa's Secret.

It is a birthday present for my son-in-law, Devin whose birthday is tomorrow.

Happy New Year!

We spent New Years Eve at home, snacking on chips and dip and watching Star Trek Voyager reruns.  Our friends Dunstan and Miranda called at 9:00 to wish us a Happy New Year and catch up on the past year.  They used to call every year at midnight, but because we're all getting older, they now call at 9:00 (midnight on the east coast).  We had a long conversation with them and are planning to meet for lunch sometime soon.  We were in bed, but still awake at midnight when the fireworks at Disneyland celebrated the new year.  I don't remember them being so long and loud though.

Today has been pretty much a normal day.  I did go grocery shopping since we were out of milk and low on eggs, bread, etc.  We've taped the Rose Parade, but so far have only watched the Preview and Countdown shows.  We'll probably watch the parade tomorrow.

I've just finished reading "Thursdays at Eight" by Debbie Macomber.  It's about a year in the lives of four women at various stages in their lives who meet for breakfast every Thursday morning.  One thing they did was choose a word to describe what they wanted their year to be.  Their choices were faithfulness, time, gratefulness and acceptance.  After thinking about it for awhile, I chose accomplishment to be my word for this year.

What do I want to accomplish?  Lots of things: lose weight, get my blood sugar under control, declutter my house and the motorhome, get control of my finances and lots of cross stitching among other things.  I also have some health issues that need to be addressed.  Will I accomplish any of these things?  I don't know, but I'm going to try. 

That being said, I haven't made any resolutions or other plans for this year.  That's not entirely true, because I have made some stitching plans.  I am rejoining the Christmas Ornie SAL and am planning to stitch a sampler for the Ronald McDonald House SAL and Santa's Quintet for the Dimensions Kit SAL on Cross Stitch Frog Busters..  I'm also going to continue stitching for WOCS.  Other than that, we'll just have to wait and see.