Sweet treats~~My first 2011 finish and more sweets

Last night when I got home, I was so tired. I was in the bed by 9pm; however, in the meantime, finished the front of the scissor fob from Jolene's giveaway and it's in a beautiful Weeks Aztec 30 ct red linen. 1 strand of thread called for. 

Passionflower Scissor Fob

design by Shepherd's Bush

2011

gifted to me by gracious Jolene from Dip Diddley Designs with the matching Gingher scissors. I used them while stitching this and they are awesome!

the back of it stitched today.

Putting those aside to finish tomorrow when my eyes are better in the morning.

I also designed one this week and stitched a bit on it. Actually for a friend's birthday, Tanya Anderson, The Sampler Girl....Happy Birthday!  Here's a sneak -a- peek-a-boo~~

using Tylor Boy Blue by Crescent Colors

monochromatic sampler

Love this blue shading effect it's giving it on 32 ct Natural Belgian linen

It's also loaded in the big frame.

And so are others. I flit from one to the other........I love doing that.

In the meantime, I had a craving for comfort cookies and found this in the pantry that I didn't make for Christmas. I opted to make the ginger snaps instead of the ginger bread men. 

Anyway, they turned out really, really good!

just takes

1 egg

1 tbsp of water

1 package of basic mix

1 stick of softened butter

and one ounce of love

It was fun just getting my hands in there and making those rounded balls---great stress relief!

pressing with a fork and a little sugar.

then pop into the oven and the house really smelled so yummy!

and they were soft and chewy and oh so gingery. Valentine's is coming up and this will, I promise, melt your sweetie's heart.

Here's the first round. And, it made 3 dozen in all. I think we ate 2 dozen already with hot tea this afternoon. Here's to a light sprinkling of snow.

And speaking of SWEET!

I was gifted on Thursday with this RAK in the mail. Very sweet Catherine sent me this Delft pattern booklet and floss, AND buttons of which I love all!!!!!

She sent me a note that the pattern would be coming but I never expected all the buttons, pins and floss as well!!  Thank you so much Catherine!

 You are sweet as a cupcake.

Lovely buttons in many colors!

I love Delft.

Here's hoping your weekend is going well too.

Abbie and me by the fireside tonight

Bodyguard said "this is picture worthy" while I was sneaking a peak at the news on TV so he got the camera going and here it is

Abbie and me January 2011

by the fireside at the homestead

in 2 quilts

playing around

comfy and cozy

safe and warm

on the sofa in front of the fire,

giving my eye a break from designing and stitching.

Eating Wendy's Chili for supper and OH , so good!

Waiting..... on the snow we are predicted to get tonight.

Even a 1/2 inch gets me excited!!!!!

And lining up my snow boots by the door

for a foot trek up the road to the car for the early morning rush to work.

Ready to stitch watching Nancy Grace and Grey's Anatomy,

and then hopefully will have something stitchy news to show you soon!

Hope you are cozy and warm in your nest tonight too.

up and down my back she walks.

she looks sweet here, but let me tell you this........she popped open a Koolaid tub in the pantry today and licked it up, the sweetner and all the red dye, and she was extremely hyper for most of the day. Yep, I think she thought she had a treasure and decided it was bitter in the concentrated form. LOL

she's giving me some keesies.

Kissie. Kissie. Miss Abbie and me.

Twisted Tuesday--Time

The snow finally melted on the 8th day....................

 and with the constant rain, gray skies and short Winter daylight, I realized we are smack in the middle of those shortest days of the year when we need sunshine to boost our serotonin levels (or I guess Prozac would work too, although I've never tried that before). ;p

Slowly, I'm getting out of the stitcher's block and carried stitching with me in my tote but instead in any free moments this evening have almost finished reading the book Dear John by Nicholas Sparks. Gracie (my Kindle) says that I'm at 92% read. I'm anxious but procrastinating the ending as I so want it to be a good one. My heart says things will work out between the soulmates in this book but there were many sad parts in it. If I get a chance, I will watch the movie on DVD. I usually like to watch the movie first but in this case, I purchased the Kindle edition of it, thinking that it had read-to-me feature enabled, but mistakenly it did not so I'm slowly finishing it up. I love all the books by Nicholas Sparks. He definitely is a good author and this one was a true page-turner. I do believe in soul-mates and this book as most of his, really play that theme out.

Something really threw me off today but I just said, "Really?"  and it's working, yes, it's working! I guess this is the word of the week. LOL

But, Really.  honestly. really,  I wanted to show you my order from Pineberry Lane that came in. I was so impressed with how it was packaged. I had ordered some linen and small pair of scissors......and the scissors are WAY cool and sharp too!

I love the wrapping paper around the scissors .

  The pieces of lavender just made the linen smell wonderful. ;)

Yes, I could take it out of the shiney plastic...

Inspiring minds want to know.

And here are one of the 3 pair of glasses I have now. These frames are my favorite of the 2 for closeup. They are actually frames from Walmart in the junior/teen area of the Vision Center. They fit me better and I love them. I had an identical pair made for distance for driving and both have transition lens and get darker with sunlight. I didn't think I would like them, but I do especially when blocking out glaring light from headlights in traffic on cloudy days.  I know I'm talking in circles....how did I get off the subject.....anyway.......

my stitching block is slowly recovering with inspiration. If you haven't visited Pineberry Lane's website, it's awesome. Love it!  Connected to it from Stacy Nash website. Isn't it funny how one thing leads to another in creative-thinking.

I also will experiment with this one day. Walnut crystals instead of coffee. I need to read the instructions as it looks pretty much stronger than coffee grounds. At 1/8th of a teaspoon, this will last forever.

Last year, about this time, I baked, literally baked after coffee staining some linen for Valentine's basket ornies.

It was quite fun. But, I stitched first.  This time, I will test out the fabric and stain first instead of holding my breath and watching it on a cookie sheet almost burn after it's stitched.

Timing is everything.

Hope your part of the world is sunny and bright.

Monday's Musings

Today was a bit of fun, a bit of not so fun, a bit of other stuff, baggage. There are days I would love NOT to collect baggage at baggage claim but it's something we all must do in one way or another.

Reminders.

Memories.

Really?

Broken Trust

Pure Rejection repeatedly

repetative hardships

helping others with repetative hardships

picking up the pieces of a broken heart, every day

 and having the courage to admit it.

Amazed at the folks ( and they know who they are)  who break it and still peak an interest.

Really?

I've become to like that word........ really?

It gives me time to pause

 to take a breath,

 so I will be reminded to say less and not more.

To listen.

Because in the dead cold silence that has been created by the people in life we thought knew us and loved us the most in the world ( or pretended to), I hear much more in their silence and even though disheartening and not easily dismissed as some might think,

it illuminates my understanding of the situation, in bits of color,in  many rays of the spectrum across every day I awake.