Ornament and many thanks

Just so this blog doesn't turn into 'the morning glory chronicles, I'm not posting pics today - but I had five, count 'em, five, blooms this morning! maybe I'll post that picture tomorrow - or maybe I'll have even more blooms! (they sure don't last long, do they?)

I thought I would post a pic of the ornament I stitched for this round of the exchange. The recipient is out of town and hasn't seen it in person yet, but (at her request) I've already posted a picture to the group so I figure I can post it here too.
Now I need to say thanks to Kathy, Michelle and Lee - all of whom have given me the Kreative Blogger award.

I don't know if I really deserve it, but I'll take it! I'm supposed to pass it along to 5 bloggers but so many people have already received it I'll just say if you are a regular here and haven't received it yet, here ya go! Thank you so much ladies. It is so nice to know I'm not just talking to myself here.
Tonight is stitch night so I better go see what I need to throw in my stitching bag. I'm still working on the Red Thread project (and so not finished with July) but I usually take something smaller for stitch night.
Have a great evening - and thanks again for stopping by!

edited to add - I rarely go directly to my front page (I get comments in my email - and you can see my blog links and profile need updating!) but I went over to put the Kreative Blogger pic in and noticed that my counter just passed 12,000! I added it several months after I started the blog, but I never look at it. I'm sure many of you get WAY more hits, but I will be walking around with a smile on my face the rest of the day! Thanks!

One bloom!

So - I went out at 8:09am yesterday (at least that is what time my camera says it was!) to see how the morning glories were doing and this is what I found

Pretty, huh?

On the way back in there were at least a dozen of these little guys having breakfast - I don't usually get close enough to get a good picture (my camera doesn't take good close-up pictures with the zoom. Or if it does, I haven't been able to figure it out yet) Anyway - I leaned in and snapped this one.
Then - as I was leaving for work at 8:55am I spotted this as I was pulling out of the driveway.

One open bloom

Yep - same flower that I shot at 8:09! Of course I stopped and got out to take a pic! Not the best pictures but the bloom is over my head so I have to reach up to take the picture, plus the wind was blowing so it was kind of hard to get it to focus right. Still lots of buds waiting to open. Next year I will put them out earlier. I planted these seeds around Mother's Day weekend and this is my first flower.

Ornament exchange

I received the latest 'installment' in our ornament exchange yesterday. Isn't it pretty?

There were a few other goodies included in the package - here is a pic of the entire package

I haven't been outside to check on the morning glories yet today. Not sure the neighbors would appreciate my wandering around the front/side yard (we live on a corner) in my jammies.
Have a terrific Tuesday.

I think

it is going to

soon!

Look - my morning glory is getting ready to bloom!

See all those buds in there!
Hopefully I'll have an actual (open) flower to show you tomorrow!
Have a great Monday!

Sunny Sunday

Yep - it is sunny - and HOT. I'm keeping myself inside as much as possible. This is the time of year where you just feel like you are going to melt when you walk outside unless it is way early in the morning or way late in the evening - and even then sometimes you feel like you are melting. I did weather the heat on Friday - well, from car to store and store to car anyway - and went to Tyler to do some errands. I was at the antique mall checking out a table in Margo's booth when she came in. We talked a bit, I bought the table, then we went to another antique place. (I was good there and didn't buy anything) I put my 'new' table on the front porch. Still not sure exactly what will live there, but for now this will do. I've meet a few bloggers in person and it is always so much fun to meet up - especially when it is unexpected! Thanks Margo!

Saturday I meet my friend Sherry for lunch and she gave me my birthday giftie. Isn't it pretty?

She was stitching on it when we went to Salado and I told her how good it would look in my guest room and look - doesn't it look perfect?

I have a lot of 'memories' in this room. The dress over the bed was mine. My great-grandmother made it and I wore it for my second Christmas and had my 18 month pictures made in it. The bed was my grandparents first bed. My mother cut her teeth chewing on the headboard. Someday I'll make a circle around and show you the rest of the room.
I've got my 'beer bucket' painted and the fabric for the liner is in the washer - in fact I need to go move laundry so I guess that's all folks!

Thursday things

Yep - it's hard to come up with witty titles when you have a headache. Took a pill and a nap a bit ago - it's better but I won't be doing anything to brain taxing tonight. Up until around 5:00 I was having a pretty good day. Went to lunch with a friend (belated b'day lunch) and then to Pandora's Box for a little shopping. I picked up this sewing basket. Hubby said he thought it was a beer cooler.

Humm - not sure how cold it would keep the beer! It needs some cleaning up - and I think I am going to paint it and make a liner for the inside - we all know how wonderful my sewing skills are! I'll look for some fabric tomorrow since I'll be out looking for fabric for the flip flop pillow. I tried to put the sewing machine back in the closet the other day but there was a golf bag in the way - imagine, someone putting golf clubs in my sewing machine spot! The nerve. Anyway - the machine is still sitting on the floor - waiting for someone to go play golf - I guess I won't have so far to drag it back to the kitchen!

We have not had any rain from Dolly. A few dark clouds and maybe a few big wet drops, but not enough to even get the pavement wet. Was really hoping for a little cool down but I guess we aren't going to get it. Oh well - such is summer in east Texas. Thank goodness for air conditioning!

Simplicity

Thought I would make my post early today since baby boy came in last night and I don't always get to use my computer at lunch when he is here. He has one more show on Saturday then he will head back to Nac and start his on campus job on Monday. I can't believe my baby boy is starting his last year of college! Oh my! I didn't shed a tear when he graduated from high school but I get teary-eyed at just the thought of him being a college graduate!

Months ago I went to Canton with Margo and Vickie and we all picked up some of these door panels. I knew I wanted to make one of them into a Welcome sign I just wasn't sure exactly how I was going to do it. I had thought that I would put some flowers or vines or something along with the Welcome. A couple of weeks ago I found this Welcome 'sticker' (not sure exactly what you call it, but one of those Wall Words type rub-on things) anyway - I put it on the panel and it sat on the kitchen table for a few days. I decided I liked the simplicity of just having 'Welcome' on it so I propped it up on the front porch as is.

I might hang it up by the front door, but I'll have to think on that one and get the hubby to help with it since we have vinyl siding and you can't just hang stuff anywhere.

Hope you have a great day!

Random things

Baby boy picks up my camera every time he sees it just laying around and looks to see what kind of pictures I've taken. (he is the curious sort and just can't help himself!) He always tells me I take pictures of the most random stuff. I guess he just doesn't understand I can't make a blog post without a picture and since I don't have cute little kids running around to take pictures of - being as mine are grown and I don't have grandchildren, just the dogs and they don't always want to pose, well - I have to find something to post! So - here is my 'quiet' ride to work yesterday. (I can already see the eyes rolling around in the head when he sees these two pictures!)



And here is my 'musical' ride to work today!

I even got to hear 5 whole tracks of the Mamma Mia soundtrack since I got stopped by a train! My 'commute' is less than 3 minutes if I hit the lights right, maybe 5 if I have to stop for more than one, and my last cd player would always start at the beginning of the track it was on when you turned it back on so sometimes I would go days without ever making it through one song! (this bothered the hubby way more than it did me)

And just to prove I do still stitch on occasion - here is a picture of Flip Flop Days. The fabric color is so off! It is really more of a lime green! Out of the three shots I took, this one was the best - and it ain't that great.

Now I'll have to find a new project for stitch night. Oh what a chore! LOL

Have a great evening!

Poor Sam

I usually put Uncle Sam outside around Memorial Day and leave him until Labor Day. (kinda covers my summer decorating!) He was pretty weathered when I put him out this year. I like the weathered look, but he was just about so faded you couldn't tell who he was from the street so I brought him inside.

and spiffed him up a bit!

Now he is back out in his place on the front porch to 'weather' again!

I finally finished Flip Flop Days - now I just need to sew the buttons on. I really would like to have some fabric with flip flops on it to either make a pillow or flat fold. (haven't decided yet) They didn't have any (ff fabric) at Hobby Lobby the other day. I'll look through my stacks and see if anything else would work, but you know how it is when you get an idea in your head to do something a certain way! (or is that just me?)

Now I have a bit if a gripe. Mind you, this is only my opinion. I'm on the 'do not call' list. I realize there are some people who don't have to follow the 'do not call' list and I can deal with that too. However - I don't make donations over the phone. Period. It really ticks me off when someone tries to make me feel guilty or just gets down right rude when I tell them I don't donate over the phone. (yes - this just happened) I simply said I prefer to make my donations in person and the snotty guy said 'well how are you going to do that?' Well, I'm sure I can walk into any (insert this particular 'charity') office and they would be glad to either take my donation or give me an address to send it to - or I could call them and ask for an address. Excuse me, but don't accuse me of being heartless simply because I choose not to donate or give information over the phone when I didn't initiate the call. There are too many scams out there and they are too damn smart these days. They can make a call look like it is coming from a legitimate number. Now that I have that off my chest maybe I won't stew for the rest of the day on how rude the guy was. (and if I had caught his name, I would find out who to call and let them know that even if I did donate over the phone, I wouldn't have given this guy one red cent - and why!) Okay - rant off.

Hope you are having a great day - I'm going to enjoy the rest of mine!

We have a winner!

And the winner is Teresa!

Thanks so much for the comments, congratulations and birthday wishes! I've had a pretty nice weekend. Hubby bought me a new radio/cd player for my van - the radio hasn't worked for a long time and the cd player is iffy at best. This one also has an input for an iPod - if I had one! LOL It hasn't been installed yet as my installation guy (aka middle son, aka Timothy, fix it!) hasn't gotten around to it yet. Maybe later today.

Taking it easy today. Watching movies and unstitching. Yes, unstitching. I've been working on Flip Flop Days and thought I was close enough that I could finish it today but I've spent more time taking out than stitching today! Argh. Oh well - all part of the game I suppose.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Teresa - send me your mailing information and I'll get your package off to you one day this week.

A battle and a movie review

This was the project I tackled last weekend - in between hubby's reunion stuff.
I've introduced the beast here before. We battle every time I let it out of the closet. Well, last weekend my friend Sherry was supposed to come help me make new cushions for this chair but she got sick and didn't get to come.

There really isn't anything wrong with this chair except that the fabric screams 1994. It really hasn't bothered me as I'm not opposed to blue or pink and I've had it in the bedroom where it worked just fine - but hubby brought a chair home from his mother's (it is pretty much 'just for pretty' but that is another story for another day) so I had to move this one to the living room. if you look at the wall behind the chair, you can see that my living room is green - really green.
I had no idea when Sherry would get another chance to come over, so - I decided to tackle it myself.
This means I have to let the beast out of the closet.
First I had to cut the new foam. This was fun. After wrestling that huge (expensive!) piece of foam and an electric knife, I had my pieces cut - and foam all over the guest room. Then, I was going to do a trial run with muslin before I cut into the fabric I was planning to use for the new cushions. I really don't have a good place to spread out for a project like this so I moved the coffee table in the living room and parked my big self on the floor. In my attempt to move around I managed to sit on my pincushion. Not really a big deal if it had just had pins in it, but the needles were another story. Once wasn't enough. I thought I had made sure there were no pins or needles left in the rug but I was wrong so I ended up with another needle in the ass.
I managed to get the trial run finished - figured where I need to make changes and got the 'real thing' cut out and sewed together without sitting on the pincushion again. I made no attempt to match anything anywhere - I figured I did good to get it all going in the same direction.

It is far from perfect and I 'may' someday take it apart and try to fix some of the errors, but for now I think a nice throw draped across it will do just fine! I'm still debating painting the wood parts. Another project for another day.
Now for the movie review. I've been seeing advertisements for Mamma Mia and thought I wanted to see it. I knew hubby wouldn't want to, but after I made him feel guilty for making me see Sex and the City by myself he agreed to go. He has been moaning and groaning at the prospect ever since so I just decided to go by myself this afternoon. (I really didn't expect it to be FULL at a 1:30 showing!) Anyway - I know he wouldn't have liked it, but I did. If you are out to see an Oscar winning movie, skip it. If you want something fun with lots of laughs, then go see it! Pierce Brosnan isn't going to win a Grammy for his singing, but he looks good so do we really care if he can sing? If you go, be sure to stay for the credits!
Well - that's it for me for today.
If you haven't left a comment on the post from the 15th be sure to scroll back and leave one. I'll be drawing a winner from the comments on that post for my giveaway on Sunday!
Have a great weekend!

Big blue bloom!

My hydrangea bloom has finally turned almost completely blue! Isn't she a beauty?

I have a question for some of you blog techies - a friend's daughter just started a blog a few weeks ago and it disappeared on Tuesday. When you go to her address it says the blog has been removed - she didn't remove it herself and is trying to figure out what happened. Any ideas? I'm a complete techie idiot so I'm stumped. (so if mine ever disappears, it's been nice knowing ya!)

Thanks for all the emails and comments on the blogaversary! I don't plan on stopping - I wish I could post more often but I either can't come up with anything to say (or can't come up with a picture - I hate to post w/o a picture!) or I just flat run out of time. If I didn't have to work or sleep or cook or clean I could get so much more done! LOL

If you didn't leave a comment on the last post be sure to scroll back and comment - I'm having a giveaway but I'm only pulling comments from that post for the drawing.

Off to bake my dad a birthday (pecan) pie!

Have a great day!

One whole year

Who would have thought I would have stuck to blogging for a whole year? I often don't post every day either because I don't think I have anything interesting to say or because I simply don't have enough time. (kinda like running out of money before running out of month!)
The weekend was interesting. I worked on making new cushions for a chair - more on that in another post.
Mr. Wonderful had a high school reunion on Saturday. They had a 'get-together' at the park in the middle of the afternoon then the reunion Saturday evening. I don't know who's bright idea it was to spend two hours in the park, in the afternoon, in the middle of July in Texas! I told them the 'old folks' should have reunions in the fall. Dang but it was HOT. (then yesterday oldest kidlet had a message that they were trying to plan their 10yr reunion - obviously they are a little smarter and planning something in the fall!) Anyway - when we got home from the park we discovered there had been water issues up the road and we had dirty water - oh joy. (and after two hours at the park we both needed a shower!) Once we got through flushing the pipes and waiting for water to heat back up and we were ready to go, we figured out that the a/c wasn't working! Remember - this is July in Texas! Called and left a message for the repair guy and he finally made it out to fix it about 10:00pm (after hours and weekend!) One thing about having grown kidlets living at home is that one of them was here to meet the a/c guy while we went to the reunion. It was starting to cool back down by the time we got home. Yeah!

Okay - now for the good stuff. To celebrate my one year blogaversry I'm going to have a little give-away! A pincushion, pair of marking pins, and a scissor fob (with scissors!)

When I set this blog up I had originally thought I would do my first post on my birthday (frankly I thought it would be harder to set up and I thought I would need the extra days to figure it out - I still haven't figured it all out!) Anyway - I jumped the gun and posted my first post on the 15th so I will draw a name from all the comments on THIS POST. I will draw sometime Sunday (my birthday) afternoon.

I have met some wonderful people through blogging (a few I've even met in person!) It has been a lot of fun - I think I'll stick with it a while longer!

That is it for today!

Blue butterflies

Don't you just love this plant? I had never seen one until we found these at Blue Moon Gardens a few months ago. We bought two and they have grown quite a bit. This one has had as many as a dozen blooms at once on this one branch. These are starting to die off but there are new buds coming out on another branch. Hopefully the other plant will have blooms soon too.



Aren't they just too cute?



I did get a little more stitching in on the Red Thread project. I've finished the June square and the top part of the border to that point. I'll try to post a picture of June when I finish the bottom part of the border to that point. Now if I can just get July done in July!

Blue Daze

I just love this stuff! I've never tried planting any of it in the ground but I usually have several pots of it every summer. This year I only have this one pot on the front porch. It does take a lot of water though - when it hits the really hot part of the summer it will probably have to be watered twice a day.

Have a great Tuesday!

Blue

This is the hydrangea I moved from in front of the porch a couple of months ago. It really didn't like the sun and here it gets mostly shade. It finally has a bloom on it!

I've been waiting for weeks to see if it would turn blue (it is supposed to be a blue one, but who knows?)

and look - it is turning blue! Don't ya just love it? I have some other blues in my flowerbeds to share, but I think I'll save them as I won't have any stitching to share any time soon. I did finish a Christmas ornament yesterday but since it is for an exchange I can't post a picture yet. I've pulled the Red Thread project back out and I'm trying to catch up on it. I'm still working on my June square.
Hope you are having a wonderful Monday! (mine would be much better if I didn't have to go to Wal-mart after work!)

Happy 4th!

Hope you have a safe and happy holiday weekend!

Mama needs a bloom!

Remember my morning glories? They started out as such tiny little things. Now look at them!

I'm just waiting for them to start blooming!

Shakespeare in the Park

Whew! How does one get so far behind when away from home for less than 36 hours? I came home to 272 blog feeds to read - and now I have 312 - this may take awhile! LOL (we won't even talk about how far behind I am on laundry!)
So - were did we go? We went to the 'big city' - Dallas. First stop was to meet baby boy and check into our hotel (so he could leave his car there and us not run around all over Dallas in two cars, plus - we had his bride with us!) Then we headed to The Red Shed. Of course by the time we got there they had been open for several hours - would have loved to be there bright and early - maybe next time. I could have found lots of things to bring home if I had had more room in the van! I did come home with this vintage sheet.

Hubby asked what I was going to do with it. Is it a requirement that I know what I am going to do with it? I think not.

Then we headed towards Lewisville and Aidaworks. I didn't pick up much - a few charts and a small pair of swan scissors. (no - the other riders in the van weren't excited about either The Red Shed or Aidaworks but that is the price you pay for riding on my dime!)

Then - the real reason for our trip.

Baby boy is performing in Othello at Shakespeare Dallas through July 26.

Here is his name in the program. :)

I really wish I had pictures of him on stage, but photography is not allowed during performances but this is the stage before the show. The weather was iffy at best. We kept waiting for it to get rained out but we were lucky. There was enough wind to keep it from being so hot and it also kept the skeeters away! We did get some sprinkles but the storms seemed to go right around us and we made it to the end! (watching the news later, some areas got hit hard!) I was so glad it went around us. We could see lightening - we could even smell the rain! It was probably our only chance to get there to see the show so I was happy to see the end!
Okay - now to try and catch up some more around here!