I've been awarded, and would like to pass it on :)

Sue from Berkshire Cottage has so graciously awarded me a Liebster Blog award! This award is geared toward blogs with 200 or less followers.  Liebster in German means favorite. :) When accepting the award, there are a few things that must be done.

1. Choose five up-and-coming blogs(with less than 200 followers) to pass the award on to. Here are my five-

Joyce's Love of Life Joyce updates weekly and does beautiful work, always has several things going at once!

Reading and Stitching Vickie does wonderful stitching, interesting book reviews, and chats about life in general!

 The Happy Stitcher  Deb has beautiful stitching and talks a little about life too. :)

 Boo's Mummy Jo's a stitcher from "across the pond" with lovely stitching and fun life updates! I personally love the insight of what life is like in the U.K!

 Diamondc Gorgeous finishes and a little of life in general!


2. Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.

3.Post the award on your blog. List the bloggers you are giving the award to with links to their sites. Leave comments on their blogs so they know about the award.

4. Share 5 random facts about yourself that people don't know about you.

This is the tough part for me- I am an open book! lol

1. I was not a "dog person" until I saw, then got, a Corgi. Although now I joke that I am not a dog person, I am a Corgi person! ;)

2. I am a "pastor's kid."

3. I like the smell of diesel exhaust cause it reminds me of my visits to England in the fall and winter. ( I know, weird association- and please don't take offense my UK friends! It is not meant to be an insult! :) )

4. When I was in Junior High I had a crush on the boy band Menudo and bought their albums even though I didn't know a lick of Spanish.

5. I am named after two students my mom taught when she was a teacher.

Phew that was hard! ;)

Not much to show stitching-wise.. I am re-stitching some of the areas I pulled out on my friend's project, and working on a birthday card so I can't post that either.. but hopefully will have something  to show soon! In the meantime here is some local nature-

A giveaway!

Babara is having a wonderful giveaway at her blog- click here to check it out! To Stitch or Not To Stitch

Will post again later.. :)

If you have been thinking about signing up for swagbucks-

Now is the time! Not only will you get 30 swagbucks just for signing up, but use the code MARCHSWAG and get an additional 70 swagbucks!! The code is good for one use until April 2nd at 11:59PST.  If you want to check it out, click here.  It is free to sign up, free to win swagbucks, and free to turn in swagbucks for free stuff! I personally get their Amazon gift cards- and gotten so many things free from Amazon! It's great for getting gifts for people and there are many ways to earn! If you have any questions feel free to post a comment on the post, just make sure you have an email address where I can answer you. :)  Thanks for letting me take a break from the usual stuff to tell you about this great opportunity. :)

OH- and right now they are running  "March Swagness" (like March Madness?) but it has nothing to do with basketball.  Simply earn the daily goal posted on your swagbucks home page and get bonus swagbucks! At the end of the promotion, if you have reached your goal every day, they will double your bonus bucks! I think it's fun trying to reach my goal and it has helped me earn more than usual. 
OK, infomercial is over. ;)

Beach Cottage is finished!

Yippee! I finished it last night- it took me so much longer than it should have, but I do like the way it turned out.

Please excuse the less-than-stellar photo and the wrinkles! I would really like to frame this one in a rustic white frame.. we'll see what I can find!

We had a good weekend- I tried to get a little housework done Saturday while Rob was at work, then took David to the library and the park.

We are really blessed to have such a lovely park, with a mini-train for the kids to ride and lots of blooming shrubs and trees! Not many were in bloom yet though.

Then later David and I met Rob for lunch(Hanna was at a friend's) and did some running around. First stop was to the pet store to see Ginger's grandma(the lady who owns Ginger's mama and who sold Ginger to us).  Ginger was so excited to see her and always loves the attention she gets from the staff and customers at the pet store. :)  We ran a couple of errands and I stayed with her in the car, then we went to see my friend Diana, who had seen her pictures online but never met her before. :) It was quite a day for Ginjy and wore her out! Here is a pic from the car- it was a bit hot on Saturday.

LOL! Her tongue is almost as big as she is.

Sunday was a nice day too-unfortunately David was not feeling so great- had an on-again off-again temperature, scratchy throat, stuffy nose.. :(.  So he stayed home with Rob and Hanna and I went to church and Sunday School/Bible Class, then came home.  I ate some lunch and took a nap, got up and watched a movie, did some stitching, etc.  I won't bore you! I have been starting to train Ginger to come when called, now that the weather is nice.  We have to do it on a long leash cause we don't have a fenced in yard.. she's catching on quick (partly cause she likes the treats.) Tonight I made a little video cause I think she's cute when she runs.  Well, I think she's cute all the time. lol

And here's a couple pics of some flowers growing wild in our yard-

I am a little sad we didn't have snow this winter, but I do love spring flowers!

Busy, busy...

Thought I would post quick before bed- things have been pretty busy here lately.  It seems our weeknights are all full of places to be and the weekends are playing catch-up on housework and other things I've been meaning to do.  I have been squeezing in a little stitching time here and there. I've been working on my friends projects most nights, when I have the itch to stitch.. some nights I just sit and watch TV cause I'm pooped! And been working on Beach Cottage some mornings between Hanna and David going to school.. there is a 40 minute in-between time.  I will post progress pics on my friends project soon- right now it doesn't look much different cause I am filling in where I had to frog before- except I do have the window frame at least one row around on the sides that hadn't been started yet.  Here is my progress on Beach Cottage- just the top of the tree and a little backstitching to go- hooray!

I have been a bad girl in the stash-buying department lately- I said I would try not to buy any for a while and just stitch what I already had, since I had so much- but I got an itch to try to find some OOP Blackbird Designs patterns- so I hit ebay and then found others I liked/wanted too.. also caught a good sale at an ONS here and there- so here is what I have acquired. I was super excited to get "Flea Market Souvenir"- I have been looking for it for a while and found a needlework shop in MI that had it- I think it may have been her last one because when I went back to see if she still had it posted after I ordred(so I could tell others that wanted it), it was no longer listed.

Unfortunately I found an LNS that had gone out of business in my search- Needle Delights-she had some clearance posted on her site(www.needledelights.com) and I came across it in my search. It's where I got BBD's "Trifle from a Friend." It makes me sad so see so many LNS's going out of business.

I took Ginger for a walk today and we saw some signs of spring already-

These little violets(at least I think that's what they are) are growing randomly in my lawn!

And Ginger was so tired from our walk, she eventually fell asleep, while playing no less. I thought it was so funny and cute. :)

Night night!