I've been a bad blogger..

again!  I promised you progress on Jane and I forgot to post it.  I posted this pic on my photo-a-day blog too- but here it is..I finished the top and added house to the roof. :)  Sorry it took so long- I have been trying to get my house spiffed up for Mom and Dad; they will be here tomorrow! I am so excited! And to make it even more exciting- the library book sale starts tomorrow! :)

A blessed Easter to you and yours!

Happy Easter to everyone! Hope you had a wonderful day celebrating, worshipping, and spending time with family and friends.  We had a great day.  Here are a couple pictures of the kiddos-

and a special treat- in one of the bushes near our church, there was a nest, with baby birds in it! Luckily the mama bird was out looking for food so I got a couple of shots.

A man from my church helped pull the branches back so we could see them. We were careful not to touch them or the nest! See the tiny beak in the first picture?

Now on to something a little more serious-my mom has asked me to post this-it is about the daughter of some friends of theirs- so I can promise you it is not a hoax or one of those forwards you get that are years old and not updated.   Please keep this family, and most of all, this 12-year-old girl- in your prayers.  This is quoted from my mom's e-mail:

 " Sophie is the subject of this request. We found out this week that Sophie has an fast-growing form of cancer. A tumor has encompassed one of her lungs, including the aorta leading to it. Because of its size and location, it is inoperable at this time. Sophie will be going through approximately 21 weeks – 3 days on, 4 days off - of aggressive chemotherapy, in order to shrink this tumor. Please pray for Sophie, her family and the doctors at the Air Force base in Hawaii, who are treating her."

Please keep Sophie in your prayers-my dd Hanna is 12 and I can't even imagine what this family must be going through.

And also, I am sure this goes without saying, please pray for those affected by all the tornadoes recently- in all the states that have been hit.  We have many here without homes and I know so many other places do too. Please go through your cabinets and closets and donate what you can to those who have lost everything.

Sorry this has gotten so sad!!  I promise my next post will be more light-hearted.  I am off to work on Jane now- will post progress pics soon!

Catching up..

I'm not sure where to start really- it's been so long since I've posted! Just been keeping busy- Little Man turned 6 a couple of weeks ago-

I just realized his cake was upside down.. lol

He and I took a trip to the park the other day with my friend Mandy- didn't get any of him playing because he was all over the place- but got some nice shots around the park!

There were squirrels everywhere! Mandy and I were sitting on some risers near a gazebo, watching David play, and the squirrels were scurrying around - I wasn't really this close to this one above, but I think the one below thought we had some food-

He was only a couple of steps down from us.

Here is my progress on Summer House as of this past week-

 I didn't make much progress on At Home w/Jane last weekend, but have made a bit this weekend.  I will post progress tomorrow or Monday. 

Tomorrow is Easter- one of my favorite holidays! What a joyful one! Celebrating that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead, to save us!  Tomorrow is the Easter breakfast at church, the egg hunt for the kids, and of course the worship service.  :) I made this lovely coffee cake for tomorrow. 

 My mom used to make this quite a bit, and I love it.  Made with things you already have in your pantry, on the top is a mixture of flour, brown sugar, butter/margarine and cinnamon- when you bake it, it oozes down in to the cake itself and it is just delicious! I'm not sure where the recipe came from, so hopefully I'm not infringing any copyrights if I post it.  Here it is if you're interested! 

Ingredients for cake: (for 8x8x2 baking pan, double for 9x13 pan)

1 beaten egg

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup milk

2 tbsp melted shortening (or oil)

1 cup sifted enriched flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

for topping:

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp flour

1 tbsp melted butter/margarine

1/2 cup chopped nuts (if desired)

Combine sugar, egg, milk, and shortening(or oil)

Add flour sifted with baking powder and salt. Mix well and pour into paper-lined (or greased and floured) baking pan.

Sprinkle with cinnamon/brown sugar/flour/margarine mixture.  Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 min.

Enjoy!

And Happy Easter to you and yours!

a bunch of great giveaways!

And they're all on one site! Tangerinedream73 is having them on her blog.  <--- click there.  And good luck!

Oh, and my mystery flowers? (see previous post) I am pretty sure the are weeds. :P Corn speedwell to be exact. Guess I will be doing some pulling later today!

How does my garden grow?

I went out to the garden today and there were so many nice surprises! Look at how big my phlox is(are?) getting!

We have another strawberry blossom-had two but I think the birds got to one. >:(

And the seeds I got from Target are growing, as well as what I think are my alyssum

Argh- blogger keeps turning my pictures sideways all of a sudden! I keep trying to re-upload them and blogger is turning them. :P  My lavender seems to be off to a good start too- hopefully it will do better this year than the last- the summer heat fried it last year.

I did a quick project yesterday and the day before- a good friend of mine from church's mother passed away (who was also a friend of mine) so I stitched her this little card. She is a stitcher also. :)

Let's see if blogger will keep this one right side up!

It was out of the Sept. issue of the UK mag Quick and Easy Cross Stitch- not sure what year because it says September 144 on the cover?! It has copyright 2006 on the inside so maybe that's what year it was. I attached the design with just brads- I figured that way if she wanted to take it off the card and use it as a bookmark or do something else with it, she could.  It was stitched on linen with DMC threads.

Oh, I almost forgot- does anyone know what this plant is?

It has been popping up in almost all of my pots- I thought it was one of my flowers but now I'm not so sure, as those small buds aren't getting any bigger. I know the larger plants are strawberries, but wasn't sure if I should pull these others or wait a little longer. Thanks for any input!

On the stitching agenda tonight is "I" again, so I better get off of here and get stitching! Hope everyone is having a great week!

I ♥ Michael's grab bags!

David decided today he wanted me to buy him some addition/subtraction flash cards(Lightning McQueen of course) at Michael's- I could hardly turn that down! So off we went.. and of course I had to look around.. they had a few grab bags for 2.00 and after trying to see what was inside, I picked one.. look at the great goodies I got!

I have been wanting some flowers like those, to put in a pretty vase or hanging thing of some sort..I don't have a Cricut of any sort so if anyone wants the Cricut cake tools- post a comment with your email address- I will email you and get your address and mail them to you. I only have one so first post first serve!  I also got this pretty bird-

I have been eyeing these for a while but couldn't justify spending even a few dollars on a knick knack(and one I really don't have room for.. lol) but they were 60% off, so how could I resist?

I checked on my garden today when I got home and look what I found-

My phlox have started to open! I was so excited- I love these flowers..I'm seeing many buds on my others too, so hopefully with the warmer weather we've been having they will open soon.

I just finished watching "The Lord of the Rings-Return of the King." I have been re-watching these movies the past week or two; I just love them.  Even though I know what is going to happen, there is still a sigh of relief when the one ring goes under the fiery lava. lol I am always stunned by the beautiful scenery and the special effects in the movies as well.. they are just amazing and so lifelike!

As you see from my previous post, I finished The Secret Garden today-I had seen the movie but never read the book. I am so glad I read it! While the movie is quite good, it doesn't do the book justice. If you like the movie and have never read the book, I highly recommend it, especially now in the spring. :)

Well, that's about it for now- going to go work on Jane some more before bed. :)

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett


My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I LOVED this book! I had already seen the movie but the book was so much better(which is how it usually is.) It made me want to get out in my garden and stay outside all day..it made me smile, it made me cry. Definitely a good book to read in the spring!




View all my reviews

a Jane update

Going to work on Summer House tonight!  Today was pretty good for a Monday, it's been busy but I'm finally relaxing a bit, watching Morning Glory.  So far it's pretty good!  Short and sweet today.. gonna go stitch and watch the movie. :)

Nature walk

Well, sort of.. David and I took a walk to the 'cardboard dumpster' today- we aren't allowed to throw cardboard in the regular trash- and David asked if we could take a walk.  So we did and of course I took my camera and saw quite a few natural beauties on our little block. And I took a couple of David too of course.

Does anyone know what these berries are?

Also spent sometime in the backyard- David blew a few bubbles, and drew with the sidewalk chalk. I noticed while we were out there that my violets have germinated into the grass!

To bad they will get mown down when the mowers start mowing.  Also found other pretties in the grass..

and look how my viola have grown!

and here again is my miniature gardener. :)

He loves to help in the garden!

Will have a stitchy photo soon- off to work on Jane again! :)