Christmas Give-A-Way for a Special Stitching Friend

Always Remember Poem

Always remember to forget

the things that made you sad

But never forget to remember

The things that made you glad.

Always remember to forget

The friends that proved untrue.

But don't forget to remember

Those that have stuck by you.

Always remember to forget

The troubles that have passed away.

But never forget to remember

The blessings that come each day.

- Author Unknown

I put much thought into this give-a-way. As far as 3 months ago, I was collecting items to put into a gift. I wish I could give to each and every one of the readers of this blog because you have all been special to me. But, I cannot; however, I do hope that you know I do appreciate you taking time out of your day to visit me here.

This poem Always Remember reminds me to appreciate what really matters. This week has been a very rough one for me. Physically and emotionally. But, I do realize when it all really sifts out, that I'm blessed more than I ever could imagine and I should be more thankful for it. I'm not wealthy by any means, and I've worked very hard for what I do have. But there are so many more people a whole lot less fortunate than me.

Our life is truly a journey through good times and bad. Our lives intersect maybe for only a short moment, or even a month, or year, maybe even longer. For whatever it has been, I do appreciate your input into the support, friendship, good conversation, and sharing stitching fun. Stitching has been part of my life since I was about 5 years old, playing with those old stitching cards. Then, when my best friend from elementary school taught me to cross stitch, I knew I loved it! That was my first Stitch-a long and I didn't even know it! ;)


Our friendship parted my first year of marriage. Not intentionally really at all but when you are in a domestic violence relationship, believe me, friends run fast away. At that time of my life, I didn't know where the next meal was coming from. She got engaged, asked me to be in her wedding and it caused a big misunderstanding of sorts when I couldn't pay for my bridesmaid dress, heck, I couldn't even figure out how to be safe from day to day and get money for groceries. But, over time, she came to realize that and we still keep in touch at Christmas once a year. I do miss her. She was my first cross stitching buddy. She was very happy when I got out of that situation even though it took me 11 years to make the choice.

Through the years as life presented some real challenges, it's always one thing I knew I could go to and just accomplish. I never thought I would meet so many friends from around the world before I started writing in this blog. Most people I've never met in person, but we share a common passion and that is stitching and/ or reading. I love both. It touches my heart so much when you write me and tell me things like, your praying for me, my son. Well, to be honest, it makes me cry, but happy tears.

I picked out a special box that I ordered a while back and it finally came yesterday in the mail. I was so excited to get it so I could finally post this give-a-way! I listened to you and heard that you loved scissors the most and then, secondly, something to store them in. That was the reason for the poll.

The box is special because you can stitch a special piece and put into the top. When you lift the lid it plays "That's What Friends Are For". It winds underneath and when you open it, you can see the little music playing. It has a hardanger pattern with it but you can substitute your own.
It has 2 small openings and you could even put children's pics in it.

I hope you enjoy this Christmas and in some way if I can add to someone a special Christmas this year, I want to. Many Christmas's have passed and I put too much energy into people I feel obligated to buy for and then it's really not what they want.
But, I know you like this if you stitch!
Every time you open the box, remember how much I appreciate your friendship.




The scissors I picked were all Kelmscott scissors. The Love Scissors (I have a pair of those and LOVE THEM!), the new Tudor Rose silver scissors, and the Hilliar Scissors (I want Santa to bring me a pair of those too!)

I also picked up 2 strawberry pin cushions and also 2 stacking boxes, or should I say STASHING BOXES!

I hope you enjoy these scissors.......

And also, put in a beautiful sampler pattern by Tanya Anderson, On Travel With Jane Austen!

I've seen this sampler finished on another blog and it's gorgeous!

The box at the top.

Scissors ready for some lucky winner! And boxes to store the things you fancy the most!

So, if you might be interested in a chance at this Santa package for the stitcher:

1) Post one comment under this posting only.

2) You must be a follower of my blog. If and when you are, post a second comment to say so.

3) For a third chance to be added into the hat, post a third comment telling me that you have posted this give-away on your blog, if you have one.

4) Please leave some method of contact information so if you win, Santa will slide down the right chimney! LOL

5) The deadline for this give-a-way is December 15th. This gives me a week before I leave on a trip to get Santa all loaded up to the North Pole! Sometimes I'm slow at going to the post office, I confess.

6) The drawing for this give-away will be sometime on or about December 16th. I'm working full time so I try hard to meet obligations but I can't be exact.

7) The winner will also receive another pair of mystery scissors.

8) Anonymous entries or followers cannot be included because I don't know who you are.

9) International readers are welcome! You are special to Santa too........

Have fun!

Merry Christmas (early) and hope you are full on Turkey and shopped till you dropped this weekend! {{{{{{{giggle}}}}}}

Well, I'm off to finishing another piece.

Christmas decorating today

This ornament is 23 years old. I filled it out for Brandon's first Christmas. I actually have a letter Meghan wrote to Santa the first year BG and I were dating. He answered her on it. Funny. He wrote her back that " she was a good little girl". hehehehehehee Precious.
Then another one of his right here beside it.

The village is done. It's growing alot. When all the lights are off except the village, it's really pretty.

Ren's tree has a new addition. A train that runs by battery around the bottom and boy, does it fly!

He will have to share it with Abbie this year.

New memory card for the camera! Christmas decorating all day long. In between trying to figure out what in the world is wrong with BodyGuard. He never complains of pain. He had to go to the Quick Care this evening. With his symptoms at first I thought he had a virus. But by the afternoon I knew he had a kidney stone. Went to the doc and guess what? Has a kidney stone, it seems. He feels a little better with some nausea meds and pain meds.

But in spite of this, I did get the tree decorated. In fact, the little silver tree in the kitchen is for Abbie and Ren. The village is completed. And for this most of my day was done.

Here's a few pics. Alot of our ornaments are pretty old. Some are new though. I made this ornament for Meghan the first Christmas when she was only 6 months old. 1988. The one behind it, she cross stitched about 8 years ago.

This is right beside Brandon's picture ornament.

Our new Peace ornament. And a little peak of the Silent Night piece from Primitive Betty's I stitched last week.

Next, I have grouped a Christmas Give-A-Way! I do hope you enjoy it and will post it separately. Just a peak of our Saturday.

Assembly required

Some assembly required........LOL
My camera's memory card of course, said "memory card is full" after these pics. I will post the decorated tree pics soon when I get a new card.

Abbie looked hard at the lights and with intensity to the ornies. She has really been the best Christmas present to us.

Here's a blog site that I found with lots of freebies this morning. A French blog too. There is a translation feature as well to help because if you are like me, I know no other language but English.

click here:

http://www.bonheurdebrodeuses.com/100-index.html

I saved a few to my computer, but I have a million Christmas ornies now I could do.

Yesterday I received the Kitty Kringle Pattern Book for Christmas from the Sampler Girl in the mail and also a pair of angel scissors. I will post later as my memory card is full and the one we bought to replace does not fit my camera.

But, indeed visit her webshop for a peak at it. She is also having a sale this weekend. I promise you won't be disappointed with her talent!

Last night I put up the Christmas tree or so Body Guard did while he was in the beginnings of a stomach virus, probably the one I had last weekend. He took loads of Pepto Bismol to get the tree together. This year we had bought a prelit tree to make things simpler. He went to bed sick and I stayed up to decorate it with Ren and Abbie. 3 whole hours to get those ornaments just right. I will get pictures as soon as I figure out the camera card thingie. At first Abbie was afraid of the tree branches as we pulled them out and fluffed them. She clung to me with her ears down. Strange. But when we lit it up, she brightened up and now loves it. Ren almost laid clam to the skirt (a quilt) for napping.

I played a CD of Christmas songs while putting on the ornaments and with it lit at night and with every ornament, I thought of Brandon, where he might be and what he might be doing. I prayed he was warm and safe. I wondered what Meghan was doing. Probably studying or working.

This year on the tree, I grouped their ornaments in one area, Meghan's in one and Brandon's in the other. You wouldn't know it unless I told you but I know it when I look at it.

I added some new ornies this year, some homemade, and some from Wallie World.

I promise to take a pic soon. We had to do some rearranging but not too much. I did put it up in the dining room. I took a leaf out of the table and put where another little table use to be, then put that table on my back porch. It really opened up the room. I then turned the sofa facing more to the fireplace and my little red bench is by the front door.

Well, the BG stayed up to 4am with the upset stomach and now took more medicine and back to bed. I'm up drinking a tall coffee cup of decaf Peppermint Chocolate Cafe mocha this morning.

I have a small silver tree and other things to find in the attic today. But that will have to wait till BG is feeling better.

Leftovers anyone?

Abbie said that Ren's food tastes much better! Ren eats the same dogfood now, as long as it's wet like hers.......a little competition maybe?

And the sheer joy of finding mom's robe tie is exhilarating........

But still the Chicken Wingie Dingie chews are her favorite. She wants to know if they come in Turkey flavor too........

Christmas Jar interview with author

Mail goodies and other sundries

Well, the turkey day is over. We did have turkey last night, cooked by the Bodyguard, along with mashed potatoes, stir-fried mushrooms, gravy, crusty bread, and carrots. For dessert, we had pumpkin pie.
Ren, Raven, Ruby, and Tom all got a share of their turkey and gravy. Ren ate dogfood last night first, then ate turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes and then pumpkin pie with me and he was so full that he almost burst but he was happy as can be. He waddled, and I mean waddled ,over to his dry blanket and within seconds he was snoring loudly till this morning.
It was quite humerous!
Abbie, oh Abbie, I wanted to make sure she stays with dog food but Body Guard confessed right before bedtme that he did sprinkle some turkey gravy on her night time feeding.
We played with her late last night until she tired out like Ren.
Tom was so proud of his turkey that he purred endlessly.
Ruby and Raven ate till they were stuffed and tucked in their doghouse on top of each other to keep warm in their hay.
This morning, I slept late while BG got up at 5am to get to Lowe's for their sale. It's a man thing. Lowe's that is.
A couple of years ago we both went to Walmart at 5am and joined the crowds but that was when we still did Santa for the kids. This year, sleep is important.
Such a role reversal for him to be the one out at the sales this morning! :0
I woke up and made coffee, turned on a Christmas CD and sipped my coffee with a peppermint stick while shopping a little online. It's so much easier that way.

I didn't even open my mail for the week until last night, and I have to show you that the Vicki Clayton silks came in for A Tulip for My Love. Also the pattern.

I lit up a candle from Bessie Mae's, my fave primitive store with Body Guard's favorite fragrance, pine. This is Cabin Pine. It's smelling mighty good right now.

Don't you love silk floss? I think color is therapy for me. Honestly. The touch of softness and the color palette just lifted my spirits.

I ordered 2 packs because I tend to use more floss than recommended.

Thus, 2 of each color. My favorite of course is this blue on the right.

One little problem is that the pattern calls for 35 count Fieldstone linen. I googled and looked on all websites that I possibly could, plus ebay and still didn't find Fieldstone. I have some other linen so I may use it instead.

I'm excited to start this piece. But I have a few others now to work on for the holidays so I will package neatly for later.

The Christmas Jar

Thank goodness Thanksgiving Day is almost over!

Let's see, I slept 12 hours last night. That was good.

I'm eating salt and vinegar potatoe chips with a drink in bed by 3pm....that's not so good.

I've got plenty of laundry to do. Woohooo! Maybe later when I eat the turkey it will seem something like a Thanksgiving.

My daughter decided it wasn't worth her effort to come home. She's stressed because she has to work and go to school. Welcome to my world sweetie!

My parents decided they wished they had terminated their pregnancy when I was conceived. But, oops, too late now.......

My brother and his wife....well, they never cared anyway.

I'm looking ahead at the sales. You know stress is certainly well-managed with shopping. LOL

And one thing I'm thankful for is that by the time I'm 46 years old, I figured out that Christmas will be different this year. No more unappreciated gifts and begging mom and dad to act normal.

No more watching children throw their Bose sound systems and cameras and clothes aside and give you the F word. No more spending large sums of money on credit cards for kids to mock at. No more.

There's certainly one thing I'm thankful for and that's the people who truly have the integrity to appreciate giving. I love it when people can appreciate home made gifts. There's a few still out there beyond our stitching circle of friends, but alot of folks don't realize how many hours it takes to make stitching pieces.

I heard something on the satelite radio last night on the way home from work that touched me.

It was on the Glen Beck show on Fox news channel. He talked about the Christmas Jar which is a book but he really talked of the tradition that he and his family had for the past 5 years.

Did anyone hear him last evening?

Anways, I really think that Christmas for me will be this way in the future. I'm collecting change in a jar and hopefully 2 or 3 jars next year. Pocket change.

And at Christmas, you get in your car around midnight and leave the jar full of change on a family's doorstep quietly and run, run! :0

I want to do this. I want to contribute to someone's life in a special way.

I've been there when you didn't know where grocery money was coming from. It's not pleasant, to say the least.

I know what it's like to have 2 kids, and 2 jobs and full time school all at the same time while trying to keep their level of living the same. Trying to make sure they don't suffer for someone's mistake.

I did something sort of like this last year.

When I get to work, there is a man who is very crippled who limps over to our large practice to Chick-Filet and he gets coffee. He is dressed to a T even though he is obviously very disabled.

I've chatted with him a few mornings and last year I anonymously gave the Chick-Filet lady some money for him to get free biscuits. I didn't want him to know I did it.

I didn't want credit for it. I just wanted him to know he is special.

That's what real Christmas is about.

When I heard last night about the Christmas Jar book, first, I knew I had to read it from the bookstore, and two, I knew my years of lavish spending on ungrateful family had halted.

You know they say you know who your friends are when people have a death in the family.

Well, I think that can apply to gift-giving. You know who your real family are when you stop spending ungodly amounts of money on them.

Even though we didn't have a whole lot growing up, my mom thought that just buying something would make up for her "white lies" she told me about. When I was a wee little girl she gave me the lesson on white lies and I will never forget it. I forgive her. She didn't know any better but her half century of white-lieing has really had it's effect. She thinks now that her daily attendance in church will cancel the hypocrisy of her words. I think that is so sad for her.

But, without boring you to a T on this Thanksgiving day and without further adieu.......

I challenge you to find a jar and collect the change and make this a tradition. To give to the ones who really need and appreciate it.

Have fun tomorrow with your shopping and stay safe!!!!!!

Jennifer

The Irony of Afghanistan at Christmas

The Irony of Christmas 2009 ---Afghanistan

The holidays are humming,

everywhere you go.

Christmas sales are beaming

from every store and more.

Online, and in person,

you can stand in line at 4

while people run aimlessly

through the storefront doors.

Don't forget to remember

the irony of it all

Christmas is simply the birthday

of the King of the World.

In this day and time our lives are filled

with rush and with pain

But always remember that there are those

that never stand to gain

A single chance where freedom is normal

and love will always remain.

Our country is in a crisis

where no one really understands

the ins and outs of what we are doing

in the other lands.

Our President is such a dissapointment

in supporting our military men
And proves that even with expert advise,

he refuses to bend.

To support our troops and our land
that we fought so long to defend.
At first, it's to be expected

to think long and hard.....but when?

Why do we have our men over there

and not in our own regards?
To what we strive to protect our freedoms

long and hard we powered.
While it only takes one president

to make it all turn sour.

Sadly we watch for 87 days
and no response to our General

I have to say, dear friends, we are in the end

because it's just so similar

to what is predicted so long ago

in a land very far away

The Holy land ,where Jesus was born

and gave us life to stay.

So, the irony of it all

is really a joke for me.

My son is over there fighting
for freedom and liberty

While Christmas is here full of presents we buy
with our money we make

Don't forget to remember the best gift of all,
the lives that our President will take.

While he makes a decision
that really is not so hard
Either get in or get out, it's simple
just don't make it that hard.

While he flaunts his wife's latest fashions

and talks about his children's grades
Our sons are over there burying their friends
in their own bloody graves.

This message is not written

to bring sadness or refrain.
It's to motivate the public

to stand up for what we gained

When we as a nation, founded this land

upon freedom, liberty and trust

We really need to be aware

of what is governing us.

I do not know the answer

when you have no leadership in front
for the men that defend our nation
and depend on answers they can trust.

So, what will you do, friend at Christmas

when all the presents we buy
Enjoy them while you can

because there's always mothers who cry.
Their best and most favorite gift
of all in life is gone.

And our president is acting

as if they are no gifts at all.
I wonder if he would change his mind
if his own were over there?
I wonder if he really could know
who he hurts over here?

I cannot bear to watch the news
that flaunts him and his wife,

While we have our soldiers in the line of fire

even into the night.

His priorities must change
this nation will see
That all our work for freedom

was a just a mockery.

Jennifer

While this may sound very cynical, I have to say, that every person I come in contact with willingly is in distress at the war and the indecision, the crudeness, the narcisism of this man we call our President. Presidents need respect but I think there comes a time when he is abusing his right to flaunt himself first before our country.

Every week we watch and wait on the news to tell us a decision to at least send enough people to help the ones over there in Afghanistan. Every day, it's announced he is sure it's the next week.

I think he is a smart man. I think he is purposely doing this now after a 3 month request from the General for help. Our men are dying over there because they can't get any air support form wounded soldiers for at least 1-2 hours. It's a vast land. It's a rough terrain. It's not Iraq. It's worse.

Tonight we shouted at the TV like it was a football game. Nope, not a game. Just Obama smiling and saying that one more week he will think he can make a decision.

Fact: he is not a leader.

He is an embarrassment at this point to the country. What can we do as Amercicans but sit and wait at his mercy. It's ridiculous, crass, cruel, and other words I can't say on a public domain.

And we have 3 more years of this? OMG!

Thanksgiving Coloring Pages for the Young Artists!

http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/turkey.pdf

http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/Pilgrim_and_indian.pdf

http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/comical_turkey.pdf

http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/pdfs/thanksgiving_coloring_page_2.pdf

http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/pdfs/harvest-festival-colouring-page.pdf

Happened upon these coloring pages for younguns'. :)

I think you just have to click and print and these should be some entertainment for readers with young children......oh, I even like to color still! Especially Thanksgiving Turkeys!

I loved coloring books. I wished they had internet when I was little and when my kids were little to print like this. Both my kids loved to color.

Enjoy!

I'm Trying to Keep it Simple

I found this pretty, bright shiney red Christmas ornament at Walmart last week. It's sitting in my kitchen waiting for the tree. I love it! It's metal, shiney and has Peace written all the way around it a couple of times with zigzag cutout trees in between. I know this will look good by the fireplace at night.

Miss Abbie is vouching for peace too. Her first thing in the morning sweet look.

We almost have a regular kennel going here now!

Please ignore the safety manuals and the qsnap frame on the floor in the background! :0

But, anyway, we don't keep this kitty cubicle in the middle of the floor but tonight she played

Hide and Seek with her daddy with it. She looks like a rabbit and prounces all over the place.

AAABBBIIIEEEEE?

He says, ok, mama's wired and Abbie's wired. Or either he's saying, I've fallen and I can't get up.....one or the other.....LOL

Oh how I'm trying to keep it simple.....that is the holidays, but caught up in the after-work Walmart-experience tonight, I picked up the few (ok, maybe, more than that) items for the rest of our week. My sweet simple menu is planned. We will be carving and carbing as well!

I got drawn into the Christmas area again at Walmart. It's like I have a magnet on my shoes and I just slip right over there dreamily (is that a word?) looking at each and every ornament and visualizing it on different trees. Strange, but the ornaments are hypnotizing to me.

I'm ready now to put the tree up. Or I should say my kitchen island is ready, because it's full of stuff I've collected to go on the tree! ;)

After dreaming at the ornament section at Walmart, then I drifted to the magazine rack and looked through all the decorating magazines and quilt magazines.........oh, I guess for about an hour. Yep, that's put one in the mood for Christmas decorating really quick.