The Fallower Fall Give-A-Way starts here~~~

Who is in the mood for some Fall stitching?????

some Quaker stitching?????

something practical for Fall and Quaker???????

Yep, if you are the lucky Fallower for this Spectacles Pocket ( Quaker Pocket Needfuls) by Primitive Traditions

PLUS!

32 count Vintage Autumn Field Belfast linen

Plus a Kelmscott Acorn Threadkeeper

(threads not included)

for a Fall Stashing Give-a-way

on Feathers in the Nest!

I'm itching for Fall right now, literally, with a Ragweed allergy from......well, a hot place. ;)

Ezema is the name of the game right now.

So, I'm looking forward to that first good frost which is probably a good ways away when ragweed and other allergens pass away; however,

getting a jump-start on Fall stitching is just plain fun to do in anticipation of cooler days, sweaters, boots, pumpkins, mums, and leaf-color, day-tripping here in the mountains!

If you are like me and usually can't find your spectacles to stitch your designs, you need to make a pocket for them to stash in your purse or stitching bag.

Included in this give-a-way are the new pattern of The Spectacles Pocket by Primitive Traditions (Quaker style), Kelmscott Acorn Thread keeper in Mother of Pearl, and a 13 x 18 cut of 32 ct Vintage Autumn Field Belfast linen!

Important reminders are:

1) post only to this posting if you want a chance or two or three for this lovely set

2) must be a follower new, or old, or anything in between. New followers are always welcome!

3)international accepted

4) for 2 chances make a separate posting and name your most favorite thing about Fall, whether it be flowers (mums), food, cooler weather, football games, school-starting, or any other Fallower-friendly thing that makes you smile.  ;)

My favorite thing about Fall is starting up the fireplace at the homestead. I love warming toes together with my honey by the fireplace!

5) for 3 chances post a separate posting that you have shared this on your blog (if you have one) in some way.

Starts today and ends August 31st at midnight EST USA.

Good luck!

The Dog Days of Summer--Ren

This morning at 1am I definitely needed to refine my little pattern I made inspired by a rainbow yesterday. I couldn't help but think of Ren. So this morning, I cleaned it up a bit. Note to self not to post freebies until looking at them the next morning....LOL

You can  substitute your pet's name if you would like and the colors and fabric of your choosing.

Ren, was a long, faithful friend.

I hope your Saturday is filled with rainbows!

Good food and a good book

Dessert tonight was first trial of frozen Cinnabon cinnamon rolls, baked in the oven for 20 minutes. Really good and goey.

Found them at Walmart in the frozen section and they were definitely worth trying for a quick, easy, sweet-tooth treat.

Got a book today I ordered in the mail after it was recommended by a friend this past week. Shipping was ultra-lightening fast!

Now I have 2 of Francine Rivers' books on my table, ready to read for the weekend.

I can't wait to start this one.

So glad the weekend is here. The morning started out in a rush but about half-way to work saw a full huge rainbow all the way across the sky. I haven't seen a rainbow in a very long time.

I actually had my camera with me but no memory stick in it so I couldn't get a picture.....but I wish I could have. I've honestly never seen a rainbow that big.....evah!

But the scene on the way to work was very similar to this pic here:

It's been exactly 1 month since Ren passed. Maybe it was a reminder he was waiting on me at Rainbow Bridge?

On now to the weekend~~~

Enjoy the last month of Summer flowers

Enjoy the last month of Summer, August, and remember to water those quenched, hot flowers!

My watering can is constantly needing filling these days of hot, hot weather.

Just a diddy to stitch up in a little bag to hold some seedlings for next Spring!

Use colors of your choice. I chose for the stems and leaves CC Frozen Margerita (sounded refreshing), DMC dark orange red, and DMC light lemon yellow and dark lemon yellow with CC Old Blue Jeans for the watering can.

Just a few stitches before a long nap

Just woke up from a 4 hour nap after supper on the couch. The day was tiresome, hot, and grocery day. I think I had put off going on a big grocery trip for way too long and I was very hungry after work....lesson...never go to the grocery store hungry and the pantry is low. ;)

Threw a few stitches in since last update because I was working on designing another one called The Dutch Onion Sampler. More on that one later. I think my eyes were twitching  today from working on that yesterday alot. But, I really am enjoying dabbling in design and hope to do more when time allows.

I love this 32 ct Belfast in Bo Peep Pink. It's soooo subtle of a light shade of pink and fits her perfectly.

I hope to get alot more done on this by tomorrow night.

The green overdyed thread I'm using is Celadon which has anything from a seaweed green to tan brown in it, very complimentary. I will be adding the year boxed with this color.

Well, better try to get a few Z's again before another busy work day...........

Hope your day is going well.

AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHLLMOST   Friday!

Jennifer

Twisted Tuesday--where's the eraser?

Yep, my dad bought me one of these in the 70's for Christmas and we laughed about it. I figured I either made alot of mistakes, or he thought I would, or he thought I was a mistake (most likely), or it was a 70's thing but probably a combination of all of it. I remember this lasted for a very long time and it made me laugh when I would look at it.

Do you remember these huge erasers?

I've made some big mistakes in my life since getting that eraser but try to look at them as learning experiences instead of mistakes to keep my sanity. Just the word, mistake, is much more harsher, I think, but there are times when I have to call a mistake....... a mistake.

In stitching, it's easy. We call it frogging. Well, it's not so easy if you figure it out after a large part of the design is completed.........but, frogging will take care of a mistake in the stitching world.

In the computer world, we just hit the key....delete.....and that takes care of it then.

In the real world, things aren't so easy. Memories don't vanish, there's no delete button, and even if we pray about it, it still lingers like a gray cloud some days and we wish we had the big eraser, the frogger needle, or the delete buttons but it just doesn't work that way with our brains.

I wish some days I had a delete button.

Better yet, just frog it out and start all over.

I think our brains were made to remember mistakes so that we are more aware of a similar situation the next time and know more of what to do. It's kind of a built-in prevention kit we are born with.

I commend all who firmly believe that life is what we make it. It's a phrase that sounds nice but I'm not a believer in that simply because I've been through alot of stuff that I know I didn't create myself. And I know alot of other people that are in similar situations. It puts the blame on people for everything, which is guilt trip worse than mama!

I can partly understand where it's all about how we react to it, even though that still puts the blame on the person receiving the circumstances of someone else's mistakes. But maybe sometimes we do need to take the blame. So that's a bit more feasible to me. But then, again, I'm not one to brush things under the rug and act like they don't exist. I used to be......big mistake. Ignoring issues does not solve problems, it usually makes them get bigger. That is one lesson I definitely have learned.

Things I totally don't understand (honestly, I don't) this week are:

being treated like you don't exist, like you died or was never born...by your own family--- eraser, please?

teenagers wearing Tshirts that say  "It's all about me" on the front side and telling parents what they will do for them.....

the statistic recently released that there are more numbers of suicides from our soldiers returning from Afghanistan and Iraq than there have been that died in combat in both wars.   (Where is that big mistake eraser?)

A broken healthcare system and women calling ambulances for menstrual cramps and the ambulance takes them to the ER for a menstrual cramp, while stroke victims wait.

Watching politicians spend 3 million dollars on a wedding while our country's economy and job rate is in a serious recession.  Jails are overcrowded with sex offenders, rapists, murderers but we do not have money to put criminals behind bars for any real length of time due to this overcrowding.

paying 80,000 dollars for a wedding dress

more community support when people choose not to work than if they do and still need the services but can't get them because they work.......................I digress here.

These are a few of the twisted thoughts I have today and I can't delete, frog, or erase. It would be so easy if we could! ;)

Tuesday's chore is the day for sweeping, right?  

Monday madness

Almost 10pm here right now and I'm just settling in to put a few stitches in this piece.

and the progress on At Home with Jane Austen by The Sampler Girl, not much more over the weekend.

I wish for bigger pallettes of overdyed threads. Kinda like wishing for the 64 color box of crayons after the 8 color pack.

I may or may not use those buttons, leaning towards not, with this piece but I had them on the table from a pack of buttons and found them at an antique store awhile back for a dollar. They are MOP and I love them.

Got a fresh pack of needles to open. Where do all those needles go? LOL

Didn't have the energy today to iron the hoop marks out. I usually use qsnaps but for some reason I picked this small one up to work with  on this piece. Right now I have The Sampler Girl's At Home with Jane Austen in my Needleworker 4 frame of which has long linen and Abbie likes to hide under my stitching chair and occasionally bat my linen or thread like a cat. ;)

Today was a rough start of a Monday. I sleepily went to the shower and as I'm definitely not a morning person anyways, woke up pretty much when all the electricity went off in our house while I was in the shower. Trying to find my way out of the bathroom in total darkness, was a little jarring. Finally the electricity came on  (thank you!) and then went off again......still in the dark, then it finally came back on again and I was able to go to work with dry hair this morning. Evidently it was storming around somewhere and stayed pretty gloomy and cloudy here all day. At the least bit of wind or stormy weather, our electricity goes off.

Then, on the commute, a little lady decides at 65 mph on a highway that she would just stop make a screeching hault and a U-turn in the road and we almost had a 4 car pile-up on the highway so she could go to the local biscuit spot on the highway. After we all screeched tires and I actually locked down the brakes in my car as if I was in the Mustang and went sideways off to a ditch to avoid hitting the car ahead of me. I drove out of the grassy ditch watching the little 'ole lady finish her U-Turn going off the other side of the grassy part and looking ahead as if she didn't cause a thing to happen.....amazing. I hope I don't drive like that when I am an old lady. Wait. I'm getting there, it's scarey!

This was all before work started.

So, the day went as usual afterwards and I'm thankful we have electricity and didn't have a totaled car in the driveway.

But somewhere out there is a little 'ole lady who decided to take up that hunch and get that big Southern biscuit for breakfast afterall  :0

Stay cool!

From Me to You

 

It's just a small token of appreciation for your comments, support, and understanding.

It's in the rough and I havne't pulled colors so this may change, but just wanted you to see it.

Tommorrow I'l write the legend that goes with it.

I'm still learning so hang in there with me.

One day I might get to stitch it myself.

If you are interested in the color/symbol legand I can email you that or you can use your own colors.

Hope everyone is resting and getting ready for that wonderful day of Monday.....ahhhhhhhh.

A Few Fall Stitching Stash added to the Nest Feathers Shoppe

Just a note to let you know about The Nest Feathers Shoppe blog. It's been updated and I will be adding more Fallish and Holiday items. I put some today. You can take a look-see here

Thanks for all  your comments. I do love reading them through the day.

I spent much of the afternoon working on another sampler, that is, trying to design one and it's in rough draft form right now. The name of it is My Stitching Chair. More to come on this in the future!

Well, back to my stitching chair where needle meets fabric.

A Steamy Sunday at the Homestead

Today is definitely going to be another scorcher. I woke at 8am and felt rested, finally. Made my coffee and decided to get started on Abbie's sampler. I stitched for awhile, then decided to go out and plant some seedlings of wild flowers in the flower baskets which hang off the side of the house. This year they have random perineals or herbs that came back with no help from me at all because I've been so busy this Summer. I wanted to save the Rosemary that came back before putting the wiildflower seeds in the basket and I was about to throw away this old teapot that has been sitting in a box in the basement for 9 years because the spout broke off during our move here.

But the sentimental part of me just couldn't as this was my first ever teapot. It graced my kitchen and brewed many a hot water for tea on challenging child-rearing days.

So, I thought, why not?  Why not make it a planter for my Rosemary that came back this year?

Conveniently, where the spout was located, is the perfect drainage for the flower pot/tea kettle.

I can also move it in when the winter sets in.

I think this is my chamomille that came back this year. If so I should consume all of it as it's supposed to be a relaxing herb!  But instead, I'll leave it be and plant my seedlings around it.

These also made it through the year and came back. So it's a keeper and the seedlings, again will go around it.

Thomas is reminding me down there that I should go in and put on my knee high leather boots before roaming through the weed-eaten forest for he looks to be on the prowl for something interesting and I don't want to know what it is. Cross my fingers, no snakes please!

However, this is when they do come out the most. Hot, steamy weather. This is why I need one more outside kitty cat to help with the defense from critters.

I took the roses that Dot gave me when Ren died and Body Guard is planting out in a sunny spot. As we live on rock, I mean solid rock, it's hard to plant unless you make an encasement filled with potting soil.

Seems to be little sun much where Ren's resting spot is, so the roses will go near the tree outside that he liked to wonder upon. I put the yellow butterfly here as Lemon Balm attracts them anyways.

You can already see the steam coming off the pond below our house and it's only 10am.

Feel like I live in a treehouse sometimes.

But, I will have to tell you that when Fall comes and the leaves change to various colors, this is one beautiful place!