Counting sheep before I sleep

As I say my prayers to sleep

I think of all the samplers we keep

I think of all the history within

Each motif and how they blend.

Unto our life in some small way

Just as it did in vintage days

Our needles and threads have a rhythm all their own

Like a fingerprint that defines our very soul

Our hearts and lives feel complete

when needle and thread meet.

It's one part of our life we have control

Because we choose what we might hold

in our needles and threads, stitching in and out

of special linens we couldn't do without

So, as you hold your needle and thread

remember that  you are special indeed

for what you stitch reflects your heart

and what your heart reflects is thee

written by Jennifer, counting sheep...........nite.....

Started new sampler--With My Needle

With My Needle Progress, design by Heartstring Samplery, Beth Twist

Love this color I'm working with, DMC 300. I'm using R &R Creekside brown a perfect remnant piece I had in my stash from finishing LHN Heart of America this past year.

Scissors and threadholder I got in the mail yesterday from Jennifer H!

The messy desk I put it upon for a picture.......my very own. Whoever said a messy desk is the sign of a creative mind means I'm one creative spirit.

And for Thrifty Thursday which I missed yesterday on Midrin and Phenergan, I would have put this item on if I rememberd. Found it last week.

I got.....50 inch x 56 inch wool fabric in a beautifull teal, beige and gold, for one dollar....yep one dollar.

I got this fringe for something else and honestly have never sewn fringe like this on material before so I figured I could try it on this material and if I'm lucky, I may have a throw for a bedroom.....if not.....well, Abbie will have a nice new blankie....LOL

Honestly, I asked the lady, "Are you sure all of this fabric is 1.00?" She said "yep". So I picked it up right away.

My first attempt at making/ personalizing a piece of jewelry, an 18 inch necklace, silvertone.

I did this diddy tonight after work and it was much easier than I thought.

I picked out the beads and spacers from a place on our last road trip and kept putting it off to put together but I like how it looks!

Whatcha think?

My hands never stay idle. But never, say never.  I'll say,  most of the time. ;)

Fourteen years

Reasons for this cake:

May 1996--first date with Body Guard, a confirmed bachelor of 39 years at the time! : P

Green icing ?  his favorite color

Pink glitter frosting icing in writing?  my favorite color.

The craziness of the decorating frenzy?  just playing with color

I think I will stick with my daytime job.......LOL

A Very Beautiful Stitched Box of Goodies!

A couple of weeks back I won a give away at this blog   http://www.serialstarter.blogspot.com/
This is Jennifer H's blog!

And it came in the mail today!!!!  I'm still jumping with excitement! VVVVVVVV

She packaged it beautifully and I opened each one like it was Christmas morning. I will treasure this special box she made forever. Look how pretty! This is a design by Blackbird Designs.

A stunning box especially with my initial on it.

I only wish I could finish a box this beautiful. The fabric on it looks perfect.

I wish you were all here to see it!  :0

 

A beautiful note included.  Yes, mam, I will certainly enjoy every single thing in this box!!

All for a new project, including Lakeside Linen 32 ct in Meadow Rue, Belle Soie silk Blue Lagoon, and Bluebird by Blackbird Designs

And Kelmscott The Love Scissors and a mother-of-pearl heart thread keep!

All neatly put in this box!

I think I said OMG< OMG several times after BG brought the mail inside and  "you have a package".

As soon as I saw her name, the screaming began because I couldn't believe I was lucky enough to win this giveaway and how many stitching goodies she included. Me and my hubbie stood in awe at the beautiful box she stitched and I couldn't wait to show you too! 

If you have never been to her blog, you  must at www.serialstarter.blogspot.com

From a Jennifer to a Jennifer.....thanks so much.....

The colors of a migraine headache---not pretty

Tuesday afternoon I started getting a headache and I thought it was just the usual cause, stress, eating patterns not right or hormones. Well by bedtime, my hubbie said "you don't look too good, are you alright?"

I said I had a headache and went to bed. Now, I know there are many jokes about this but man, I really had a major headache.

Yesterday morning I woke up and my headache was about the same but my vision was completely like this pic above. I've never had such severe visual affects from a migraine. In fact, the type A me, kept going instead of calling in sick and I don't exactly know how my makeup looked and I picked out a simple zip up dress to step into to reduce the need to match clothes.

BG wanted to take me to work as everything looked blurry and doubly.

I finally said no, I'll drive.

Well, that was dumb on my part because, it was pretty hard to drive when everything looked doubled for 30 miles.

Some how, I made it there with my Guardian angel I'm sure but with the sunlight beaming in the window my headache worsened and I almost went to Urgent Care. I thought I was having a stroke.

I had taken something so I went in sat down and somebody said, you don't look good.

I said I don't feel good either and told them what was going on. So, I got dosing number 2 of a different migraine med while the patient's were piling in by the speed of light to see me.

After being about 2 hours behind all day long and no time for lunch, and saying silly things because of the medicine or migraine....by 12 or so my vision cleared up, but oh, the head was still pumping and then came the nausea.

Someone with a urinary tract infection, I asked instead of "are you itching and burning". I said, "are you bitching and earning"  not so good....oops.

I literally somehow with the grace of God got through the afternoon, drove 30 miles again, took some nausea medicine and went into a dark bedroom and slept for 10 hours straight, from 6p-4am, then I went back to sleep again until 9am.

I feel much better today. Migraine is gone, Vision is good, just real tired. Luckily this is my regularly scheduled day off this week and by tomorrow I'll be back to regularly scheduled time......LOL

Finished Letters to Anne Sampler--Persuasion

Letters to Anne--freebie included in an order with The Sampler Girl

inspired by the novel Persuasion, Jane Austen-- The initials stand for C. Wentworth and Anne Elliot

designer, The Sampler Girl

32 count Light Coffee HDF

fibers~~  Crescent colors in Blueberry,and DMC

I used a fat quarter remnant of "Blue Birds of Happiness" I found today at the quilt shop to compliment this in an 8 x 10 frame.

In this picture you can see a reflection of my sampler wall. I saw this picture, a very old one, in an antique store and just had to have it because it reminds me of me and hubbie.

Simpler times.

A Laser show in May?

B G called me into the room to see this.......he's playing with Abbie with a laser pointer and she is absolutely chasing it like crazy!

It's hard to get pictures of this but the pink line is really a dot.

And the white flash is Abbie.

(The black socks are the other part she likes too, but we won't talk about that right now....) She brings us all kinds of things that were lost under the bed or in the closet, she peeps and makes her a little nest in a laundry basket.

He is careful not to shine it in her eyes, just on the floor and she is chasing away..

....at last, at last, a way to solve a problem of Abbie and endless evening energy.

Needless to say she is now tired for the first time and patting my leg to go to bed now. LOL

She is definitely alot of personality in a little body.

A nice meal for two different appetites

My version of the French Country Salad

and Hot chicken wings (easy Walmart brand)

I use a blend of different greens, lettuce, spinach leaves for this and just put in the bottom of a big wooden salad bowl

then get 4 eggs bowling slowly so that the shells will not crack.

Did I mention this is definitely a multi-tasking meal?

But it's definitely worth it, I promise!

pull out of the refrigerator, some Feta cheese. I like this one with garlic and herb.

In our little town, it took about 2 trips to different places to find Feta cheese. BG and I walked around Walmart for at least 30 minutes before we found this. I like the word "natural Feta" too. Is that instead of fake Feta?  :0

Then, grab a bottle of Raspberry Vinaigrette dresssing. You could possibly have your favorite recipe of making the dressing but I find it easier and tastes pretty good, to get a bottle already made.

It's best at room temp, warm, and clear and shaken well. This bottle has been in the refrigerator so that's why it looks like this.

Then, I like to get some heavy, peppered, thick bacon and cut into two sections. It's a surgical thing or something.  ;)

Place the thick peppered bacon on another burner and cook slowly until crisp and then drain.

Cook plenty extra at our house for Ren to have some treats later.

He is usually pacing the floor and constantly bumping in and off our kitchen cabinets while the stove is on, almost like a pinball machine.

I love the pepper in this bacon. Thin bacon is just not the same.

Don't worry about your cholesterol until tomorrow....I think that's what Scarlett said.

Speaking of temper, preheat your oven and put in a bag of hot chicken wings. I use the plain Walmart off brand and they are good!

Mistake I made was putting baking paper on the bottom....definitely not suggested because they stuck to the bottom too much. We peeled paper off our chicken wings. Live and learn right? It's great for cookies, not for wings.

Not that you would need another project going in coordination, but then get about a cup and 1/2 of pecan halves and crush them in a clear bag, or you could buy them already chopped up but that is more expensive.

Besides, it's therapeutic to put them in a large closed freezer bag and beat them alot with the end of a knife sharpener.  I know that sounds weird but ours is pretty large so it has a dual purpose.

Then put them to the side.

The eggs should be almost done at this point. So take them off the stove, and run cold water over them, peel them and set aside.

Then next wash and peel 3 large apples, green or red or both.

I don't have a food processor but I just chop them up by hand.

The bacon should be done and drained by now.

Now your ready to go.

I put the whole pack of Feta cheese in first on top of the greens.

Then add the plate of chopped eggs and pecans. I chopped the pecans pretty large. Just adjust to your palate. I like texture.

Then add chunks of the cooked peppered bacon.

This is getting yummy!

Then add about half this bottle of dressing all over the mixture.

Then add the apples and toss and toss. Eat immediately with your meal.

The wings are done and cooling on a plate.

Then you have a meal that pleases two different sides of the spectrum.....like guns and roses. That's me and my hubbie. Opposites definitely attract.

I can make a meal of just the salad. Body Guard likes more of the hot wings and less salad.

Add a bread of choice and this really is a good combo for a meal for this time of year.

The inspiration for the salad came after eating at one of my favorite restaurants near us for years; however, the price is way too high. So, I mentally made notes of the ingredients and tried to adapt.

Their menu....it's the French Country salad.

The only ingredient they add that I don't is onions and that's just preference as I don't particularly lke raw onions....ok, let's say I REALLY don't like raw onions. And they also use walnuts instead of pecans. Either are very tasty.

So, that's it. Pretty much a good healthy...hmmmm....hmmm.. meal (minus the bacon)

The salad will serve 5 folks probably. We always have leftovers.

Dessert?

All Orders from The Nest Feathers Shoppe will go out tomorrow morning

I have completed all orders and do so appreciate your interest. I hope you enjoy your fabrics and ribbons and always keep me in mind if you don't live near a quilt store and need a special fabric backing. The orders are coming in fast and keep in mind there are limits but I can always get something for you special. Just email me at :
jennifer.dalenberg@yahoo.com

and I will be glad to assist you.

This week I will be putting new fat quarters on the Shoppe.

Also thank you for your patience. If you make something special, I'm always interested in seeing what you have created!

Jennifer

The analogy of my next up coming project

 Earlier I wrote about kitting up a new project. It's called With My Needle by Beth Twist. You probably can see why I liked it so much. It has Abigail in it.

So, several months back, Heidi and I exchanged some overdyeds for this used pattern. She sweetly sent this postcard with it from Holland.

She had stitched this and I saw it on her blog and it was awesome!

My fabric I'm using is Creek Bed Brown R and R and it's loaded into the Needlework frame. The piece is actually a large remnant of another project. Otherwise, I had planned to tea -stain (would be my first attempt at tea-staining) some 32 ct cream linen.

This will make a nice 9 x 10 sampler in the colors I  would love to put in a bedroom.

I picked these 3 colors but I'm still leaning to a darker green shade. The fabric is a bit dark already so I will have to see on that one.

I'm not sure if this one is still available by Beth Twist, Heartstring Samplery but I'm so thankful for Heidi sending me this pattern all the way from Holland!

It's a small world afterall.