Christmas in Summer?

I have taken part in a Christmas in July swap in one of my crafting groups I am in. The theme was Christmas in July. I had fun stitching both of these Lizzie Kate pieces! I made them off simple because I did not want to get too fancy with the beads and such since the ladies they are going to has young ones in the house I get worried about all the what ifs so I did not embellish it too much. Not too much going on here it has been hotter than Hades in Ohio. Some days in the 90's or near 90 and when you have no working ac and can't afford one then you really are sweating through the summer! All in all so far it has been a good summer. I am back now to working part time since my extra summer work I completed early so now I have time to do what I want. For a while I did not I was to wiped out at the end of the day to have the ambition to do what I wanted to do. The heat did not help either. My son James is having fun he spends a lot of days away from the house having fun which is good for him. He will be an 8th grader in the fall. 1 more year and he will be in high school. This year ahead though I worry about because things are only getting harder and this year they are preparing the kids for high school so that means learning things that are even too much for me to understand! Our newest baby Gisborne is doing good too. He is a good boy all around and a cutie in my opinion. Other than that not too much else to share. So until next time I hope everyone is having a great summer so far!

Happy June!

It has been a while since I have updated my blog. I have been a busy bee here. May turned out to be a busy month with all the extra cleaning jobs I have picked up for the season. James also had a lot going on at school. He earned his green belt in karate a few weeks ago. James is finally on summer break now and he does not go back until September 7, quite a long break for him. We do not have any major plans for the summer just taking it week by week and see what comes up but he will be busy with helping out family and camping trips and other fun activities. Over the holiday weekend James was camping so I pretty much had the house to myself almost all weekend long. Got a lot of stitching in and reading. Less than a week after Mother's day I got a new addition to our already chaotic family. I have a new kitten! His name is Lucius Gisborne, he is a hyper little guy but a cutie as well. He wandered into our yard after being weened from his mom and he was a loud little guy with all the meowing he was doing that night on our front porch. It took a while that night for him to loosen up but he did and at first I fed him and watched him eat before trying to pet him and then eventually bring him in. All the other cats at first were not so fond of him but they got over it. My other 2 younger cats took an instant liking to him, maybe because they are all in the same age range but those 3 pal around like best pals. In between everything I have managed to get some stitching in as well. I have finished the June angel from the barefoot angel of the month club by Curtis Boehringer and the June design from Curtis Boehringer again from the 3 for 2 club and Sunflower Santa by Prairie Schooler. I hope everyone has a great week, and thanks for stopping by!

Happy mother's day!

I want to wish all the mothers out there that follow my blog and that stop by a happy mother's day, for all the mothers out there I hope everyone has a wonderful day! Not sure what I am doing today myself. My guys will be surprising me later. I do have another stitchy update. I have 2 small finishes this week, these I stitched in no time flat. The first one is called my first gray hare by 4 my boys. I did not stitch in the saying my first gray hare though. I decided I would leave that out and figured this would be a lovely Easter decoration for next year, so it is tucked away in storage for next Easter. The next finish was a little saying about Mother's that came from the book words of wit and wisdom by Joan Elliot. I had checked this book out at my library last week and thought this was so cute! Thanks for stopping by!

Finally a stitchy update!

I was able to pick up my stitching again a week and a half ago. The first 2 finishes I did I was able to get each one done in a day because they were so simple. The first one is an Easter ornie by Lizzie Kate, and then the May design from Curtis Boehringer from the 3 for 2 club, I love how this turned out the daisies are such a nice touch I think! Then my last finish was the May barefoot angel from Curtis Boehringer as well. I took a stab at tea staining the fabric for the May angel I have stained more fabric since that looks wonderful I look forward to stitching with that fabric soon.I am feeling much better. I still have the odd moments where I am stiff and wake up pretty darn stiff as well but it works itself out as the day wears on. In between all of my down time of not being able to stitch I have been doing a lot of reading. I finished the book for the book club I am in for April and read 3 other books as well. So far this year with some of my resolutions I am doing good at staying on task! Reading was one of my goals and I have been able to at least read one book a month if nothing else. I have been sticking to my stitching goals also, yea! I have been keeping a few other resolutions as well but still need to improve on others. Now that is is May it is starting to look and feel like it. A lot of warm days here anymore. I think all the changes in the temps though are messing with my youngest cat Bela she has got a nasty cold. I feel like a mom chasing after a toddler with a tissue in my hand so I can wipe her face for her. The antibiotics the vet gave are working good. She still tends to whistle while breathing and sneezes a lot. Poor thing. She wins the sympathy vote with me when she looks at me because of how she sounds. School will be coming to a close soon. June 1 is the last day of school. I found out this week that James is advancing onto the 8th grade. 1 more school year to go before it is those dreaded high school years! As always I want to thank everyone for stopping by and for taking the time to read and leave a comment.

Stopping by

Hi all,

I hope everyone is having a good week. I am popping in for a bit. I am feeling more better this week, still a little stiff and have to watch what I do but my arm is more better this week. Hopefully it goes away soon and stays away! My dad arrived in town the other day he will be here until Sunday so I have been busy. I won't see him now until Thursday these next few days he has some other relatives that he wants to see while he is here in town, that will give me time to catch up on some things here. I have been not in the mood for a while to do a lot here. On Sunday morning my cat Tom passed away. He had been sick for over a month and during that time had a few strokes but recovered from them not completely but he did. For a brief moment I was hopeful because 2 weeks ago we took Tommy to the vet and at that time he was almost on death's door. I had called and told them that I think he is dying I was wondering if maybe the vet could look at him to see if there is anything he can do for Tom or what he thinks we should do. I honestly thought that day he was going to tell me it is for the best to put Tommy to sleep. But he gave him a shot of cortisone so he can get around easily and a shot of Vitamin B to help stimulate his appetite and it did work for a short while but he still was slow to get around and tired out easily. I knew on Saturday night though that he was dying I looked at him and noticed he was starting to walk like he was drunk and had no balance which meant he had another stroke. His breathing was more rapid and was out of breath easily. So at bedtime I made a bed for him on our bed because he liked to sleep between us in bed every night. He slept through the night but when I got up in the morning to take the dog out he woke up a few moments later and was able to get off of the bed but then he dropped to the ground. He got up a moment later to get to the bathroom and he dropped to the ground there and was gone within minutes. I knew at that point he was going quick so I woke up Mike so he could say goodbye to him and we pet him and talked to him and told him we loved him until he was gone. After my Annie girl passed away in October Tommy kinda seemed to be depressed because I think he missed his pal. He stopped playing and running around like he used to do and just kept to himself. I use to call them the Grandma and Grandpa of the house because they were so close in age. Annie was 16 and Tom 17. They use to do everything together. I am so happy that I had 11 wonderful years with my Tommy. I used to always call him my rag doll because he reminded me of one so much. When we got him he was an abused cat. He was blind in the one eye, had little pieces of his ear missing and his tail had been broken at one point but never healed the right way so it was always crooked. It always use to feel so funny to accidentally touch his tail. Tommy knew we loved him and that he was in a house full of love. I am happy that I was able to give him a loving home all these years after having such a rough start. Having to say goodbye is always hard to do. I have been around animals all my life and have been able to witness the miracle of birth to watching them die and care for them in their final hours. Watching them go is always the hardest part and I wish I did not have to do so. I like to think old man Tom is with his pal Annie now and they are happy and paling around like they use to do all the time.

Before I close I wanted to mention, that from now on I will be moderating my blog. A few of my friends have been having issues with someone leaving nasty comments on their blog but whoever is doing it is anonymous so no one knows who is doing it. Since then I decided to moderate so that way if it happens I can filter what comes through. I hate to do this but think it is for the best. I hope I saved the setting right on my blog I will find out soon enough.

Forced to take a break

Hi all,

I am updating my blog this month to let everyone know that follows it may be a little while before I can get back on here. I have been having issues with my arm off and on since the winter but in the winter when it first started after the holidays I did not think anything of it too much because it was not such a bother to me and when it flared up it went away quickly as well so I left it at that. The last few weeks though my arm has been very bothersome and is only getting worse where I can't even get to sleep comfortably because the pain is a little much. Doing darn near anything from stitching to holding a cup or book or even opening a bottle of soda for James is becoming a little difficult. Well since the pain is getting more intense everyday I decided to get to the doctor and it turns out I have tendinitis. It started back in the winter from what the doctor had said but he told me I should have not ignored it either because that is why I have it so bad now because I have been stubborn and did not do anything til it got bad. He told me I have to stop doing a lot of the things I do like my stitching or typing on the computer and other things that will put strain on my arm and aggravate it. Seeing as I have had an issue with this for a while I was told I need to take care of myself now or else I will cause long term damage and it will not heal properly or I could put myself at risk of getting chronic tendinitis. So sadly for a bit I will not get to do what I want if I want my arm to get better quickly so I am hoping to be back sometime in May! Now lets see how good I am at listening! Doing not much for a while is going to drive me batty! Thanks for all the comments on my last post it is always nice when I have so many that pop in. See you in May! Happy stitching!

Some finishes finally!

It has been a few weeks since I have been here but I have been keeping busy as well. First off the last time I blogged I mentioned we were going away for a few days. That was a wonderful time and everything went great. We did not do as we planned to but it still was a fun time just the 2 of us and nothing else! Ohio has been having a heck of a spring here lately. Since March the weather here has been decent. It has been in the 70's a lot of days and the last few weeks a lot of days in the 80's. Of course this would be the year that we have a big warm up in spring like that when I still do not have a working air conditioner for the living room. We will by June though. I just have to finish saving up for it. We ended up having a spot of good luck this week which put some extra money in the bank and left us with some money to get some things here that were broken and needed to be repaired like a new Lawnmower since we did not have one, a flat screen tv for the living room since the other one died last week and some money to work on the car. We could have gotten the ac this week as well but I wanted to use some of the extra money for bills and not all on shopping. Mike has been pulling in some crazy hours here as well. This time of year business is booming where he is at so he has been offered a lot of overtime and he has been taking it. There have been days where he pulled a 14 hour day in or like on Sunday he leaves at 1pm and I will not see him until 6am Monday morning. The extra money will be great but I will be glad when all of this is done too because he has been home very little and he already has a lot on his plate now as it is.

I have 2 finishes to share. Both are from Curtis Boehringer. The first is from the 3 for 2 club and it is the April design this is so simple to stitch in a matter of hours this is done. I also finished up my April angel from the barefoot angels of the month club. I like the way the stitching turned out but I always have an issue with deciding on what to do with them when it comes time to finishing them off and then at times I am not happy with my finishing either. Thanks for stopping by and of course all of your comments. They are always appreciated!