Five on Friday: Five Smiles

Linking Up With Amy at Love Made My Home

It's been a long week with a sick teen and a teething toddler. But, as always, I am wonderfully blessed and am always looking for reasons to smile. I find a lot! Here are five from this week:

1. It's been two short months since we bought Alex her first pair of shoes. On Sunday, we discovered they don't fit her anymore! These are her new ones. My baby's growing up!

 2. I received my second order from Mo's Sale. I wasn't going to buy anything but floss, but this gorgeous purple fabric jumped out at me. A bit of a splurge at $14, but it's so pretty. I'm trying now to find a pattern worthy to stitch on it. The floss colors from left to right are Sheldon, Emerald, Bubbles, and Peach.

3. I am so blessed to have so many wonderful blog friends. My friend, Linda, and I talk almost every day, and I truly cherish her friendship. She's already gifted me so many wonderful charts, and this week she sent me more! I am blown away by her generosity. Thank you so much, Linda!

4. Charts aren't the only thing Linda sent. We're working on some secret crochet projects right now, so she sent me a small sampling of 80 of her gorgeous variegated yarns! I'm having so much fun crocheting with new colors. Thank you, thank you, Linda!

5. I've thrown my hat into the Flosstube ring. This is a very basic video and not very long (10 minutes). I had a really fun time making it and am absolutely blown away by the fact that, so far, it's been watched 59 times! And I have 37 subscribers already! Crazy! Thank you for indulging me :-)

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Come back tomorrow to see who won my giveaway (you can still enter today) and how many WIPs/starts I really have!

Thanks for reading and looking.

Blessings :-)

Tickled Thursday

Who, me?

I'm a good boy.

I haven't spent the last twenty minutes tearing through the house like it's a racetrack,

pouncing on the other cats

and hearing mom say, "Stop it!" every two seconds.

Nope.

Not me.

I'm innocent.

You gotta love cats.

Photo Credit

Photo Credit

Thanks for reading and looking.

Blessings :-)

P.S. You still have time to enter my giveaway for a chance to win the summer issue of Cross Stitch and Needlework magazine. The winner will be chosen on Saturday, August 1.

Smalls SAL and Pretty Little New York

It's the last Wednesday of the month, so it's time for the Smalls SAL check-in, hosted by Heather of Stitching Lotus.

I had grand ideas of getting my stitching finished into an ornament this month, but it didn't happen. Oh, well; at least I got the stitching done! 

Noel Jingle by Lizzie Kate

The little peppermint candies are my favorite!

I also finally made some progress on Pretty Little New York from Satsuma Street. This is a Tuesday SAL I do with Jo and Linda. 

Where I was last time:

 Where I am now:

Thanks for reading and looking.

Blessings :-)

P.S. Don't forget! If you'd like a chance to win the Summer issue of Cross Stitch and Needlework magazine, you have until Friday to enter my giveaway!

 

Cross Stitch Giveaway

Due to the very undependable mail service where I live and the wonderful customer service of Cross Stitch and Needlework Magazine, I have an extra copy of the summer issue. So, I want to bless one of you with it!
There are some gorgeous projects in this magazine:

I have cats and dogs, so I need to stitch both of these.

Gorgeous! Never stitched on perforated paper, but now I want to try!

One of my favorite designers, Jody Rice, from Satsuma Street on Etsy

I wanted to do a giveaway but wasn't sure how to do it fairly. Linda has used this idea in the past with great success.

Answer this question:

How many cross stitch WIPs/starts do I have?

Most of you know I'm a serial starter, so there are quite a few. But how many? The person who comes up with the closest number wins! 

You'll have until Saturday, August 1, to guess. And, to make it fair, I'm going by today's number. Anything I start this week will not count for the total. 

Good luck!

P.S. Linda, since you already know the answer, you can't guess :-)

Five on Friday: Five Random Things

I'm linking up Five Random Things From My Week with Five on Friday hosted by Amy of Love Made My Home.

1. My super-talented artist daughter, Hope, drew me as a My Little Pony. She incorporated my hair and eyes (brown), my three favorite colors (purple, red, and blue), and one of my favorite hobbies (crochet). And, of course, my name is the same as my favorite brand of yarn, Red Heart. 

2. Twenty ounce Cokes have names on them lately. I saw this one and had to buy it. Not that I want to share my soda with a 14-month-old! 

3. I received my first order of hand-dyed floss from Mo's Sale! Isn't it pretty?? From left to right, I have Dory, Kristoff, Nemo, Pride, and Tagada (already in use on a project, it would be on a bobbin right now but I'm currently out). I'm very happy with it and plan to order more.

4. I'm curious: how big is a bag of sugar where you live? In Florida, sugar is sold in five pound bags. In Ohio, where my dad lives, and here in Texas, sugar is sold in four pound bags. One of those things in life that make you say, "Hmmm."

5. Our oldest church member, Miss Goodwyn, passed away a couple of weeks ago. She was 94! I hadn't known her very long, but she was always happy to see us, and she loved kids. She also loved bluebonnets, the state flower of Texas, and had a four acre field of them on her property. At her memorial last week, everyone took home this bookmark; the little heart is full of bluebonnet seeds! I thought that was the neatest way to remember a sweet lady.

Thanks for reading and looking.

Blessings :-)

Finished Blanket

I finished the blanket for my nephew, Cameron, last night.

I used this pattern from Dly's Hooks and Yarns for the squares and joined them with the flat braid joining method. 

The colors are Cafe Latte, Frosty Green, and Aran, and I used a J hook. The border is two single crochets in each chain three space with a single crochet, chain two, single crochet in each corner. 

They're doing much better. Cindy is home now; she's able to walk again, and her vision has returned to normal. Cameron is eating well and gaining weight, and he's breathing on his own. No word yet on when he can come home.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

Blessings :-)

I'm linking this up with the Stashbuster Link Party at Linda's Crafty Corner.

 

Five on Friday: Five BIG Things

We have had some major life things going on in the last couple weeks and one coming up, so that's my focus today for Five on Friday hosted by Amy of Love Made My Home.

 1. and 2.

This involves two people so it counts for two. Last week, my sister-in-law, Cindy, began to feel very ill. She went to the hospital and was diagnosed with preeclampsia. By this time, she had lost her sight and her ability to walk. They did an emergency C-section, and Cameron Lee Lantry was brought into the world two months before he was supposed to be here. But God is good! Although Cameron will have to stay in the NICU for awhile, he is healthy. And Cindy's sight is returning and she's starting to walk again. We're waiting to hear more news from them about when they'll be able to come home.

3. Not as major, but my dad was also in the hospital last week. He had his gallbladder removed. I had mine taken out 13 years ago; I wonder now if gallstones are hereditary. He's doing good, resting at home. He should be back to work in a couple weeks.

4. Alex took her first step!!! Everyone keeps telling me not to worry because she's not walking yet at almost 14 months, but of course I worry; that's what I do! She cruises very fast holding onto the furniture, and she can stand very well without holding onto anything. But she finally took some wobbly steps on her own. It won't be long now, and I won't be able to catch her!

5. Hope is going to church camp next week. She's very excited but very nervous, too. She's been to day camps many times but never an overnight camp. She'll be gone for four days. I know she'll have a wonderful time and make a lot of new friends. And, yes, I will worry about her a lot!

Thanks for reading.

Blessings :-)

TUSAL and Tickled Thursday

New moon = TUSAL! It's Totally Useless Stichalong, hosted by Sharon of It's Daffycat. We save our orts (ends) in a container and post a pic. Why? Because it's fun!

My thread orts haven't changed much; my stitchy bug seems to be on vacation. Lately, I've been doing more crocheting, so my yarn orts are leaking out of the top of the jar. No, you haven't missed seeing my crochet progress; it's a secret for now :-) I do have a couple of projects I can show you, but not today.

In honor of my crochet bug returning, I have some fiber funnies for you. Enjoy!

Photo Credit

Photo Credit

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to any of these pictures. I find them on Pinterest. When there is a link associated with any picture, I add it for credit reasons.

Thanks for reading and looking.

Blessings :-)

Gifted Gorgeousness July

I'm back! Oh, we had such a wonderful time at Rally! We got to see all our friends from Florida, heard wonderful speakers, and thoroughly enjoyed a Mandisa concert. The new jewelry is gorgeous, too, the best I've ever seen (I say that every year!).

I haven't been doing too much stitching the last couple weeks, but I have a little progress to show for Gifted Gorgeousness, hosted by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching. Both of these charts were gifted to me by Linda.

First up, Santa's 12 Days of Christmas Day 1:

Second, Noel Jingle by Lizzie Kate.

Thanks for reading and looking.

Blessings :-)

Rally Time!

I'm at the annual convention for the jewelry company I work for this week. 8000 people, early mornings and late nights and I love it! Just miss my girls.

Take care and I'll be back in blogland next week!

Five on Friday: Five Random Thoughts

I forgot to do this last week, so I'm squeezing this in late in the afternoon, and I'm linking up with Amy at Love Made My Home.

My five random thoughts of the week:

1. We ate at Chick-fil-A for lunch today. I love their food, but I wish they were open on Sundays. But at the same time, I love their reasons for being closed on Sundays and really admire them for it.

2. Same goes for Hobby Lobby.

3. When it comes to crocheting, I much prefer to do piece-work when making blankets rather than making one big blanket. I don't like to whipstitch, but I love to join-as-you go.

4. I think I'm ready to expand my horizons with cross stitching. I'd like to try beading, working with floss other than DMC, and stitching on evenweave.

5. I'm bummed we didn't have a peach harvest this year. I blame the rain.

Thanks for reading!

Blessings :-)