What Can I Get Into Today

Well, Miss Abbie has been a very good girl. She sleeps through the night. No barking or whining and ate her breakfast well this morning. She has done well with her potty papers.
We play with her after she eats and she loves it. She is teething though and her little needle-like teeth hurt so we have to keep her some chew toys around.
We hold Ren and love him too. He is back to no dogfood, just human food, so chili and potatoe for him last night from Wendy's made him happy!

The sun is out today. Yesterday and today, the weather has been absolutely beautiful! I think the high yesterday was 68 and no clouds at all.
There are a trillion leaves on the ground though and BG is working with the leaf blower right now pushing them back into the woods. I know alot of people burn leaves but I have a big fear of fire so he patiently just uses the leafblower for the enormous amount of leaves we have.

I have been craving cinnamon lately. This morning made some cinnamon and brown sugar/buttered toast and also cheese toast with our coffee.


I'm in the mood today for baking. Maybe some pumpkin bread or pumpkin pies or who knows?
A trip to town is also in store so I'm making my list from the pantry.

Last week when I was at Walmart (one out of town) they had the best Christmas shop ever with all kinds of baking papers to wrap up gifts in. Very handy stuff if you know alot of folks to give to.

I know it's early but like I said last night, I want to pull out my Christmas/winter village and put it together. It's almost like playing with a dollhouse to me. I got some more bags of snow last week and this year I''m adding a dog kennel, a man cutting wood, and a small round train track.
The town is growing each year!!!! ;) I usually put it all together by mid-November through 1st week of January. At night when we turn the lights down and see the lit-up village, it's really pretty.

Here's hoping your Saturday is fun-filled!

Jennifer

Progress on Christmas Ornies

I put my items together on this freebie from The Sampler Girl. I picked out some red buttons.

I have alot of red buttons!

Aren't they pretty and shiney. Found them all in a one bag at a thrift store.

These next two pics do not show the beautiful pink color that I've been stitching on today. Believe me, it's much brighter and pretty. Its 28 ct Jobalen in Raspberry. Stitching 2 over 2 with DMC colors.

I got down to the last vine and then I will sew it up in a pillow-keep.

And then there's the Be Still and Know by the Sampler Girl that is finished but when I get my machine out to finish these 2, then I'll do that one at that time. So, 3 pretties this week.

This weekend I'm getting out my Christmas Village. This usually takes more time than decorating a tree and it's beautiful. I close up my baby grand piano and make a top for all the snow and mountains and village houses. I'll show you what I added to it this year.

This for sure, we will do because we have so much fun with it and have not missed a Christmas since we met. So, it's a tradition for us.

Well, nite, nite.

Friday the 13th in Afghanistan

Click here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120314837


This is an audio from NPR. There are also pictures at that site for this audio that are just so absolutely horrible that I cannot understand why Obama is still not at least sending enough people to help the ones we have over there while he "decides" on his strategy. I just heard on CNN that about 70% of America is not supportive of this war. Also the top headlines read over and over today that the morale of the army is at the lowest ever in Afghanistan. They have 1 counselor per 700 soldiers. One counselor.
And families over here do not get the help they need either. Period.

A very nice counselor (honestly) came to a unit meeting (monthly family support) and told us back in July that she would love to help at any time and to please call her but she was the only counselor assigned for the entire northern part of Georgia for the National Guard and she kindly said to please call her but it would be at least a month before she could even return our call. However, she would love to discuss things with us.

The military has a ways to go with mental health. Just keeping it real here.

I will have to say that the pictures were very upsetting at the NPR site but to hear the audio really is shivering. But, we as Americans cannot blindly go and brush things under the rug. I'm still amazed at people I run across with from day to day who still think that Afghanistan is safer than Iraq right now.

NPR site is really good for news. It's better updates and pictures than we get from the unit monthly newsletter........much better information.
I'm very frustrated with Obama today. Very frustrated.
One of the top headlines also talks about his trip to Asia this week. I thought it was all political. Nope. It's a family visit with his half-brother and wife who live in China. So, I guess this is another "working" vacation for him while we all sit and wait patiently for his decision.

Two in a Tango

I had to show you this today. This morning Abbie was zooming around like a Energizer bunny after her breakfast. I barely had a cup of coffee yet. She went over to Ren's potty paper and did her business. So, then Ren had to go over and do his and he then went back into his condo! They have a little competition in that area going on.........I digress....

Miss Abbie, just went in for a visit and a play. She hasn't figured out quite yet that Ren is blind and old. I picked her up and separated them now because Ren had that look of "Get this chick off of me, man!". He has never once growled at her and they do socialize well but this pic with that tongue hanging out in desparation was a hoot! LOL

A New Pattern That Caught my Eye this morning

Somebody please help me not order this but it's so fitting for me.

Here' s the link:

http://withthyneedleandthread.blogspot.com/2009/11/new-samplers.html

Love this Feather Your Nest new pattern! I almost put the pic in here for you to see but didn't want to be arrested for a misdemeanor today......LOL

The colors in the piece are just so pretty! It has tulips, red roofed houses and a bird and nest. Now, don't you think I need this piece?????

She also has some silver pretties on her site as well. I"m drawn to the Sheriff's heart and the Dutch Tulips charms.

So pop over to With My Needle and Thread Blogspot and enjoy looking at her beautiful things!

Cinnamon Coffee.....Yummy!

Finally started finishing some ornies tonight after supper. No cooking tonight. We had great barbeque pork, cole slaw, fries and beans from a local restaurant. So, more time to play with my sewing machine.

I knew that this would be my backing material but I had the idea to put some whole cinammon sticks into the pinkeep after I sewed on the backing for a great scent. I wanted to grundge up the appearance. So, I just popped open my coffee maker and reached in for some leftover coffee grounds and I rubbed them in the fabric randomly. As I rinsed, I remembered in a fleeting moment that I substituted the vase color in a Crescent Color thread which is not color-fast, so I continued on and it didn't run into the fabric.......well, let's say I got a little agressive with the grounds. Some of my threads are mushed from ironing. I think I ironed a bit much.

Freebie design from The Sampler Girl's Blog for November

DMC and Crescent Color threads

fabric 30 ct Vintage Examplar, coffee-stained by me

At first I planned to put a bunch of cinnamon sticks into the pinkeep but, this turned out too bumpy looking so I just put the stuffing and then put 3-4 sticks inside and with the coffee smell and then the cinnamon, it was yummy!

Here's the backing fabric.

So, onward now to finishing another ornie. I did find out that my new Singer machine goes at the speed of light. :0

I'm sure there is a place to slow it down but I have to find it. I'm loving the auto thread part of the machine! With this machine, it was zip, zip, zip and it was done!

I'm already dreaming about cinnamon rolls for breakfast tomorrow~~~~~

Disclaimer

Expressing myself in blogging, especially the LOL has been a topic of discussion today in an email evidently for this blog. I don't put disclaimers on this blog because it's really my expressions of life, stitching, family, current events. I can understand bloggers who are offended easily by my political expressions, Afghanistan opinions, etc. However, up until this day I have had no negative comments on the topic. I know everyone has their own opinions and I do appreciate you reading and listening and putting up with me talking about the war.

But I do not understand how my inserting the term "LOL" into my blog is annoying unless you expect me to be without emotions and this dear friend, is impossible. How you express yourselves are well.......up to you.


But just for verification and to relieve the minds of Monica and her friends, I will disclaim that when I insert the term LOL into my blog, you can be rest assured that I am not telling you to laugh as I know you can do that at your own will. I insert the term LOL when I am laughing myself and sharing humor when I post. And right now, I need to laugh.

Other ways LOL could be interpreted are Little Old Lady, and on and on. I won't go into all the other blogging etiquette issues.

I'm not an expert writer, blogger or publisher and I do not take offense to this criticism; however, I felt that since it was important enough to one individual and her needlework group to discuss at their meeting last night, then I must clarify here and make a disclaimer:

I write to share my life and my stitching as a journey. If it does not appeal to you or particularly if you are annoyed with it, simply do not click on my blog's site.


I understand I may lose all my readers but I reserve the right to laugh and to express my emotions in my journal of blogging.

But this was the email I got this morning:

Hi Jennifer – I love your blog and your puppies – Miss Abbey is like a little pocketful of sugar – so tiny, white and sweet. I just wanted to email you instead of putting this on your blog, which I thought would be a little rude. I was with my ANG group last night and we all visit your blog and something was mentioned that I had been thinking and yet was surprised that others felt it, too. That is, the constant insertion of the LOL telling us when to laugh is a little bit annoying in your blogs. We know you are being comical and we enjoy your humor and irony but the LOL is way overused and we know you are laughing and want us to laugh and we get it. so I thought I would just drop you a line in case it was off-putting to others, too. You have a fun blog and, unlike some, you update frequently and that makes it even more fun to visit regularly so I hope you don’t mind this little word. Not meant to offend, just to share what may be a helpful criticism. Of course, you can just tell me to MYOB and I respect that! thanks for listening and have a great day!

So my disclaimer today will include that if I use abbreviations, it's not to tell you to do something, its' simply my expressions. Oops, one more disclaimer. When I use the word "Body Guard" or BG, this is not a personal body guard. This is my husband whose identity will remain anonymous.

Ok, on to the rest of my day.........a glass of wine early today may be in store..........

There are good days and then there are not so good days

There are good days and bad days and with PTSD, the bad days can sometimes be worse than you can ever imagine. I'm not sure if watching this endlessly or

approaching the holidays or if it's the continual gray rainy days ( until today!) that got me to this point. But, I really felt the burdens that have been put upon me lately and very hard. I'm trying to make sense of things that will never be made sense of, realign my life so that my journey is not futile, and try to count my blessings. It's hard with parents who wish you were dead and children who are so brutally cruel. But we keep going because we know that our hearts are in the right place and we have done nothing to deserve this cruel behavior.
Being the scapegoat of a family is hard enough. I came to the realization that nothing, not even God can fill the hole left by the abuse of family. Not shopping, not other people, not eating....nothing.

I think the holidays are the worst times for me because I always try to make it work, like a Norman Rockwell painting and it doesn't. For me, Christmas shopping was fun. I enjoyed picking out my kids gifts and only the best and most would do. I liked seeing their faces when they opened them. Most of them were tossed to the side with the tags still on them. I knew that and each year kept buying. I'm burned out. Totally burned out as being the giver. Giver of time, energy, gifts, conversations, reassurances, advice, etc. Tired of being the one blamed for everything.
Luckily I have off these next few days and I definitely need it. Because I have some serious things to consider. I have never wondered if there really was a God until yesterday when I drove home. Feeling guilty that I even considered this thought, I can't help but think it. I have no answers to prayer. I've been told this kind of thinking was normal coming from a home where one is shunned and pushed to the side as a reject. A problem, something that shouldn't have even existed. How can one look to God, the Father, when your own father deserts you ?

But, even through this, I have picked up here and there some holiday items this past week. I really have spent way too much on Christmas ornament-making for really, no reason. I've been too engrossed in work and stress to figure my sewing machine out but today I have started looking at the CD that came with it. Sitching I can do but then finishing always puts me in a place where I feel it's never good enough. My sewing is not that good but I want to finish them so bad!

I flex back and forth from, having a Christmas, to not having a Christmas. The only thing I know for sure is that we will be going to Chicago the end of December for a week visit with my in-laws which will be happy and fun-filled. Driving for 13 hours.......well that part may be pretty long but again, I will have my stitching frame ready to go. I'm super lucky to have a good hubbie that will stop whenever I need a stretch or if I see a stitching store too. So, this is something I look forward to.

On one of my more hopeful days this past week, I found these tinsel candy canes all grouped together and tied with a ribbon in a thrift store. I couldn't resist them. I've put them in here temporarily until I find another place for them. They were ultra cheap and oh so cute!


I also got this in the mail. Mother of pearl, heart thread rings. Ten of them. I've never made my own needle roll but one day.....yeppers, one day........I will put these little rings in my needle roll. Until then they will be lovely for holding my threads.

Kelmscott designs but ordered from The Sampler Girl webshop

I love hearts. Always have.

And while I'm moping in my robe this morning (or at lunch whatever time it is) I had to put this in my pocket to get some chores down. She is loving the pocket thing here.

She promises to behave while I get back to stitching and sewing.

Gentle Reminder of Giveaway Deadline November 14th at Midnight

Just a quick reminder that the give-a-way of this pattern by The Sampler Girl will end at midnight on November 14th. I will draw a name on the 15th and announce.
This sampler is the Sense and Sensibility Sampler and it's gorgeous!
If you are interested in a chance please refer to the post prior to this and put a comment with a way to contact you. Thanks.

Midnight Dog show-off's.....yes, this is a stitching blog still LOL

Auntie Parsley wants to see Ren's sweater so I got him up, took off his T-shirt and put his new sweater on. Isn't he handsome? a bit disoriented but handsome.

Where am I?

This is the back of Abbie. She has alot of hair. I did crop out my honey's PJ bottoms. He was quite appreciative of that. Nobody can see his reindeer flannel PJ's yet, until after Thanksgiving........hehehhehhee

Ren says when is this show over?

Abbie says when is the show starting? She wants to play and it's midnight. Not good.......LOL

The good thing about this week is I'm off Thurs-Sunday so maybe I will get back to my stitching routine. Thanks for your patience!!!

Ren says Nite nite............

Look what the stork brought~

Today after work, and after dropping off drycleaning (blah), went by the quilt shop to get DMC floss I needed for some ornies. Now, I thought I had EVERY single color by DMC but nope, the ones I needed for the Christmas ornies were not in my box so....here are the precious, and I mean precious DMC skeins. They charge 3 times Michael's so I'm thinking about doing inventory and doing a one day trip to Michaels or Hobby Lobby and stocking up instead of these uh oh moments. This is the closest place that carries DMC to my house and that's a 50 mile round trip.

It's getting together. Here are the floss colors for the pretty pink ornie, Little Women by The Sampler Girl. The stork scissors are helping me. I thought that was pretty appropriate for the week. LOL I think I got way too much fabric but maybe I'll make two.

Because Miss Abbie is very playful after work. She is in motion alot! She has yodeling in her kitty cubicle down to a patent. She's so soft to hold.

She's tired right now. I played with her for 2 hours and held her 1 hour. She just won't give it up and go to sleep. She's afraid she will miss something.

I had some emails about what type dog she is. She is a long-haired Chihuahau puppy. White with light brown markings (real light). Her mommy's name was Ashby Rose and her daddy Stormin Norman.........registered Chi's. Tiny right now and probably will be 3-4 lbs at maturity. She has ALOT of hair. I have bathed her twice and her hair is wavy when wet. She loves the blow dryer on warm setting as long as her head is tucked under my arms.

Her pink ears are so cute....

Went by Walmart today to find some ribbon. I found everything but the particular ribbon I needed. Way too much. The whole store smelled of cinnamon.

They had bags of cinnamon pine cones which so got me in the mood for Christmas!

I went into the Christmas shop and had to peak at their Christmas village stuff. I had a piece or two each year. I'll have to take a pic of the "dog kennel" and wooden picket fence and tree I got to add to the village.

I got Mr. Ren a sweater, navy blue, quite stoic actually! LOL

Speaking of the village, it's time to put it up soon, real soon. I spend more time on the Christmas village than I do the tree. I have been collecting for 15 years and it's quite a spread now.

We both love it!

Bye now!

A Busy Monday

I zipped over to Pet Smart at lunch and found the gate pen thingie we needed for Abbie. It will make a rectangle for days when we have to work (and we want to keep our house from being chewed up)
Also got these:

a pink patent tiny collar
a charm for her collar
a tiny red velvet dress with a few sequins for Christmas
a pet carrier, of course pink---she is going with us to Chicago in December. Her Uncle Paul already has her treats, home-made.
a Gingerbread man squeekie toy

She is taking well right now to a kitty cubicle for her sleeping space. She likes it alot. It's lined in fleece and her cozy spot.
Ren is doing well, doesn't mind her at all. I think he might not know the difference between her and a squeek toy.

I'm in search for any dog clothes sewing patterns if you know of anyone that would like to sell theirs let me know!
I'm not a professional seamstress but I think I might could make her some things. Probably 3 outfits a fat quarter! !LOL

Now, that I have her set up, I will definitely be back to stitching tonight.

My new sewing machine is computerized and of course I can't get it to sew a straight line, I can get the numbers for zigzags and all other sorts, so review of the CD will be in order tonight for sure. I know, DUH!!!!!

I just heard we are going to be getting floods sometime tonight around 1am and tomorrow will be bad, bad weather with all the flooding. Gosh, this is weird weather!

Gotta run.....
Jennifer

World Peace

At one point in time tonight, at the same time....... I had 2 Labs howling on the front porch in tune with sirens on the highway, 1 senile Chichi whining at the stove waiting for dinner, 1 baby, baby Chichi yodeling because I was vacuuming and not paying attention to her. It was a real riot.


But, now, we have peace.....in our home. Watching the world news tonight and the interviews of our political and war situations demonstrate that the chaos is growing though. The Fort Hood tragedy this week is causing more awareness of the mental strain in the military. If you watch TV, you think the military takes care of all family members but the truth is they have about 1 counselor for a hundred people or more and parents aren't included in much of anything. It's an area they really need to work on.

I'm not getting any stitching done today as I thought. After Abbie finishes chewing the computer cord, I guess I will get to stitching...LOL

Trying to Get the Christmas Spirit

I'm loving these chenille candy canes I got in the mail this week from The Sampler Girl. I put one in each of my glasses but of course these two are our wedding glasses. It adds a great touch.

Yesterday, went by The Dogwood Patch to get some Raspberry Jobelan to make a Christmas ornie. I got these buttons but not sure yet if I will put them with the ribbon or not.

Don't let this crate fool ya! This puppy slept with me last night and I only got up with her once. But as long as she sees me in this crate and the door is open then she is fine. Otherwise she will sing you a song that you have never heard before.

She moved alot last night, slept mostly across my throat. When it was time for her to potty, she backed up back and forth and pawed my face to wake up. I'm like, "ok, ok, I get it Abbie!!!" LOL

Here is part of the spread of backing material on my dining room table.....(didn't I make a sewing area downstairs ?" LOL

I've got to get busy finishing these because it is well into November now. I can't believe it.

Time for more coffee now..........