Ack! I am so sorry!!

I forgot to draw for the giveaway!! So sorry! OK, I listed everyone's name, then numbered them randomly, then had dh pick a number from 1-12.. and the winner is... Robin!! Congrats! I will get it out to you on Monday. :) Enjoy!


Today was a busy day- this morning a local church had a clothing swap/giveaway.. you could bring clothes, take clothes, or both.  I brought a ton of stuff I wanted to get rid of.. found a few nice things for myself and a couple things for David.  Hanna picked out her own stuff for the most part, except for one thing I picked up and she snatched out of my hand. hee hee.  We then came home for lunch, and then we went to a zumba-thon for a friend of one of the instructors.  She is a breast cancer survivor and we were trying to raise some money to help her out.  :)  It was a blast- so many different instructors and a lot of people getting together for a good cause.  They also had door prizes- and I actually won something cool for a change! Usually I don't win or I win something I will never use. lol Today I won this-

Which is funny because Rob is the main cook in our family, but I am generally the pancake  maker. :) And it will be sssssssooooooo nice to make several at once instead of making them one at a time!

I must confess, speaking of zumba, that I mentioned in a previous post I was going to a zumba class in a parking lot. I was lazy that day and didn't go.. 

Been making some good progress on Beach House.. will post a picture soon. 

Oh.. remember that beautiful Crepe Myrtle tree I posted a few posts back? Here it is post-Hurricane Irene-

now that they have cleaned all the broken bits away. :( 

I know I am being pretty random in this post- sorry- 

I recently finished a really good book by Luanne Rice- Safe Harbor, and now I am re-reading Mansfield Park again.  I have only read it once before and the other night Rob turned on the movie for me, and it made me want to re-read the book. I went to find it and realized I didn't have it! I thought I had all of Jane Austen's finished works! So I ordered it from Amazon straight away.. and got it free, between Amazon gift cards from swagbucks and Amazon Mom free 2-day shipping.

And I know this sounds silly, but I'm glad the people on the cover are small- when they have all those old pictures on the cover of different ladies and such, I always picture them through the whole book, although now I just think of the people in the movie.  Which is better I guess! :) 

Frustration and a giveaway..

First the frustration- I have been working alot on Summer House, really wanted to get it finished.. had left spots open for beads instead of stitches to add a nice touch.  Well I get to my beads and realized I had not really planned well and now I need to buy almost all my beads before I finish.   The local place I buy my beads is about 30 min. away and closes before I get off work, and I am sure she is closed tomorrow(though I might double check) so it will be another week or two before I can finish. Darn it! Anyway here is where I am at-

Looks like I will be working on "Beach Cottage" tonight instead! Oh well.. I like that one too. :)

I had mentioned a giveaway several posts back and then I kind of forgot about it- I apologize!  So given that fall is just around the corner, I thought I'd better post it- it is for an older pattern- Bent Creek's Cat O' Lantern-

Please leave a comment on this post only, with a way I can reach you- email, or if you have a blog and a contact link is in your profile that's fine too.  I will draw at the end of the week. :)

Other than that the weekend has been fairly uneventful- yesterday afternoon I took a long nap, probably alot longer than I should have. ;) I also took David to the library.  Today the kids and I watched "Tinkerbell and the Great Fairy Rescue"  after church and lunch. Cute movie!  Then Rob and I went to Sam's Club to look at some things- they had a great deal going on today- you could upgrade to a Plus membership for $17.58 instead of the usual $100. They also have something new(I think it's new-haven't been there much lately) called evalues, if you have the plus membership.  It's kind of like coupons that are loaded to your card. For instance, today they had a 3-lb container of grapes for $4.98 but with the evalues you got $2.00 off at the check out.  Great deal for our family, cause we all love grapes! I don't know if we will be able to renew next year though cause I really don't think I will want to pay $100. ;)  I think they are doing it through tomorrow so if you have a Sam's membership you may want to call your local Sam's and see if they're doing it. It has some other benefits as well, especially if your Sam's has optical and a pharmacy.

No big plans for Labor Day here- may go to zumba in the morning- our Y is closed so us zumbaholics are gonna zumba in the parking lot. :) Then later gotta go grocery shopping.. but that's about it I think! Hopefully I'll get a lot of stitching and/or reading in tomorrow!

A finish!! At last!

J is finally finished!   It feels so good to finish something!  Now I am trying to decide if I am going to put the alphabet on hold to get some other things finished or just go ahead with K.. hmmmm...

We made it through Hurricane Irene safe and sound.  Here are a few photos of things afterward-

This is, sadly, the bright pink Crepe Myrtle from a previous post.  They have since cut away the fallen part and it is just a shell of it's former self. :(

On a happier note, my plants still stand, thanks to Rob and Hanna putting them up against the house..

still standing!

Things are getting back to normal, again.. the kids were off school Monday because so many were without power but were back today.

I've been watching "Lost in Austen" on Netflix- I haven't ever seen it and I'm very curious how it's going to end! Though I'm not sure I should stay up that late... another decision to make.. hmmm...

ok maybe now that school has started..

Yep, first day of school pics! My little one is in 1st and my oldest is in 7th! (which made me tear up a little when I thought hard about it today)..
anyway, as I was saying, in my post title, maybe now that school has started I can get back in my stitching groove.. it's like lately I know I should stitch and I want to, but other things take me away and I get wrapped up in them, and then it's time for bed. So after I post this, I WILL stitch. I will! I haven't decided on what yet, but I will stitch for a little while. 
Rob and I celebrated our 18th anniversary on Sunday.  We have never done anything really special for our anniversary, not because we don't want to celebrate, but because finances or schedules don't allow.  Well this year it worked out that we actually could do something.  Our friends kept the kids overnight and Rob and I took a little trip to Wilmington, NC.  We had such a great time, as we had not been on a trip alone since I 

don't know when- our honeymoon maybe? Yikes! We ate at Bonefish Grill Friday night- we had never eaten there before as we don't have one nearby. It was sooooooo good.. shrimp and scallops that melted in my mouth, nice atmosphere.. after we get Harris Teeter to build a store here (our page has gotten over 2000 likes, before the deadline!) , we will have to work on getting a Bonefish Grill here. :) We stayed at a very nice hotel on the riverfront, and after dinner took a night time walk on the river walk.  They had a section of the street closed off and had a live band, and tents where you could buy food, drinks, etc.  It was really neat!  Then the same section of street is closed off on Saturday for a farmers market.

Saturday we walked around downtown and checked out some of the shops- Rob bought me some opal(esque? not sure if they are real or not) turtle earrings from one of the shops.. went to the Celtic Shoppe and got some Christmas tea.  It was extremely hard to control myself in that store, what with the Celtic CDs and jewelry and all.. but I was a good girl. The town is very dog-friendly- dogs are allowed in lots of the shops.  We stopped for an iced mocha at a cafe called Java Dog- when we went in a man was there with his little fox terrier on a leash, just as calm and good as he could be.  The cafe had a giant coffee cup with dog biscuits in it that you could give your dog. Very cool!

Well enough of my rambling- here are some photos from our trip- here are a couple of views from our room-

My breakfast at a great little place called the Dixie Grill- they put their pancake/waffle syrup in Coke bottles!

Their coffee was really good too!

When I saw this, I immediately thought of our fellow blogger and friend, Edgar!

One of the trolleys you can ride for free- we never did but maybe next time!

Sorry these are a little out of order- here is a night view of the river walk and the festivities

This was painted on the side of our hotel :)

Where we ate lunch- Paddy's Hollow- delicious!

The Cotton Exchange- where the Celtic Shoppe is, as well as Java Dog and a lot of other neat little shops!

One of the restaurants on the riverfront- would love to eat here next time we are there.  We didn't have time this time.

I should've gotten some close-ups of this fountain- there were statues of turtles on it. :)

And one more- the kitty in the window of the Celtic Shoppe- he weighs 19 pounds! He was so sweet.

Ok, if I am going to get any stitching done tonight, I better finish up here.. I have a few more photos- maybe I will post them in the next day or two, and hopefully some stitching progress as well! ;)

A little update..

It's been a bad stitching week for me. I haven't been giving my stitching the time I should.. I will try to do better this week! I have been obsessed with something rather odd.. our local chamber of commerce has created a facebook page to bring a Harris Teeter grocery store to our town, and the company has said if we get 2000 likes to our page by the end of the month, they will explore further putting one of their stores here.  I have been trying to get the word out to my friends and getting after them to like the page. I know it seems kind of strange- but Harris Teeter is a higher end grocery store, and we do not have one in our town at all.  Our grocery stores are limited to Walmart Supercenters, Food Lions, and an IGA, and our Target has a limited grocery supply, as most do.  None of these stores offer double coupons. Walmart of course has the most competitive pricing, but as a result they are continuously busy and often have shelves that are picked over.  Harris Teeter offers double coupons daily up to 99 cents, and sometimes super double coupons up to 1.98! I'm sorry to ramble, just wanted to let you know why I haven't blogging/stitching as much.. I know it's kind of a weird reason. lol
I did start a new project a couple of weekends ago- Beach Cottage by Country Cottage Needleworks. I have gotten a little done- here is my progress so far-

Yesterday I took David to run some errands-but since it was relatively nice out and not too hot, we made a stop at the park to ride the train the Kiwanis have for the kids.  We did that first, thankfully, because it started sprinkling as we were riding.  David wanted to go look at the fountain before we left, because sometimes they keep koi fish in it.. there were no fish but I did take a picture of our fountain.  I think I have posted a pic of it before but I just think it is really lovely!

Good thing there were no fish in there, as the water was pretty green! After we stopped by the fountain, we headed over to the library to return some books and get some more. After we left the library, the rain got a lot worse, in fact I had to stop on the way to the store because it was raining so hard I couldn't see! Fortunately I had brought a book and David had his library books.. so we pulled over into a park and read and waited for the storm to pass. :)  We are supposed to get more rain tonight, and are actually under a flash flood warning.  We'll see what happens!

EEK!

I can't believe how long it's been since I last posted- time flies! I haven't been stitching as much as I should- have been getting into couponing and also swapping coupons with some friends, and that takes a little time.. also been spending too much time on facebook- I don't mean to- I will get ready to sign off and then think of something I wanted to look up or someone I need to message, or just get wrapped up in a game.  I really need to set a timer when I get on there, and sign off when it dings!

I have been getting a little stitching in on my lunch break project - "Decorating the House" by Brightneedle, from one of the JCS Ornament issues.. am stitching it one over one on 32 count something or other.. hee hee.. I think it is a Silkweaver fabric of some sort.

I have been working a little on Summer House too this week- will post a pic soon. I'm almost done with the trees, have a chimney to stitch and then I can start on the sky.  Then comes alllllll the beads.. sigh.. maybe it will go faster than I think. :)

My garden has been surviving the heat, some of it anyway.. here are some new flowers that have popped up recently-

I have a couple of other plants that are growing really tall but no blooms yet- maybe they are waiting for cooler temps! I know I am!

As far as books go, I am still reading Unfinished Tales by J.R.R. Tolkien.. I am in the home stretch now, less than 100 pages to go.  I confess I am reading the notes that go with the stories but not all the appendices, I am a huge Tolkien fan but I just can't read through all those minute details.  I am really enjoying the book now because it is dealing with the characters I'm familiar with, from the main trilogy.  Tolkien's imagination just blows my mind - his world of Middle Earth is so detailed and planned out, I just can't even express it.  It's just amazing.

School starts soon- hard to believe! I will miss seeing my kids a little more but look forward to getting back into a routine.  I hope it is a great year for both of them. Only about 3 more weeks now!

Thanks for checking in, I know I haven't been the best blogger for a while now.. thanks for hanging with me. :)

Catching up...

I just realized I had a bunch of photos I hadn't shared with you yet- I did share some on my photo blog but I thought I'd share those and some other here too.  :) The weekend before last I went to my friend Mandy's house for a Scentsy party.. I didn't buy anything.. :( But I did come home with some free goodies anyway.  The Scentsy lady gave me a free travel tin because I came early and helped get ready for the party- and after the party our friend Emily and I stayed around and hung out with Mandy for a while, and she asked us to come help her pick out her vegetables in her garden.  This is what we picked-

Mandy had way more than she would use so she took a few things and set them aside and let us take whatever we thought we could use.   I got a couple of eggplants, a cucumber, some tomatoes, a green pepper, and some banana peppers. :) We have been having some lovely salads with fresh vegetables the past couple of weeks! Rob cooked up an eggplant as well.  I am blessed to have such a generous friend!

I have been working on my letter "J" in the Stitcher's Alphabet this week- I did work on it a little since I took this picture but only got a little more of her kimono stitched.

I'm trying to decide if I'm going to work on this tonight or on the Brightneedle ornament I've been stitching.

Oh, I almost forgot- here are a few more photos I took at Mandy's.  She has a stray cat that she and her family have kind of adopted- it recently had kittens! Here are some pics I took while there-

Nothing hidden in this photo, I just thought the flowers were pretty. :)

I am going to be having some small giveaways soon- so watch this space! :) I am going to try to post more often as well, and check blogs daily too!

A birthday surprise giveaway!

It's Valerie's b-day and she wants to give someone else a present! :) Click here to read her post and enter!

At Home with Jane Austen is finished!!

And here is a much better pic than yesterday- sorry about that!!  Please excutes the wrinkles- I would iron it but I know it will be folded up until I get my dad to make a frame for it. :) I used a lot of substitutions for this cause I didn't have a lot of the threads- here is what I used in case it can help you too!
CC Poblano Pepper- same ( I also used this to sub for another color and didn't realize til I was almost finished!)
CC Spinach- same
CC Plum Paisley- WDW Concord
CC Cashmere- Dinky Dyes Tea Tree
CC House Wine- SSS Mulberry Wine
CC Rosy Glow- SSS Bubblegum
CC Joshua Tree- GAST Chamomile
CC Old Oak Tree- same
CC Creeping Jenny- CC Poblano Pepper
CC Tartan Plaid- same
CC Really Teally- GAST Peacock
CC Little Pink Peony- Olde Willow Ballerina
CC Sassy Brass- same
I really enjoyed stitching this one, thank you Tanya for such a great design!!

I upgraded my phone the other day, as mentioned briefly in the previous post- I was taking a pic or two to see how it does- I took this one of a tree down the street cause it was just so pretty and bright!

and also of some fluffy clouds I saw this evening-

Sorry, it looks like I can't enlarge the pics from my phone!

Now I am trying to decide if I want to start another project or just work harder on the ones I've already started.. any thoughts?

An almost finish and a test

Trying to blog from my new phone!  Here is a pic of At Home with Jane..I'm so close to finishing but I have to get up early tomorrow!
(OK, it didn't work so great this time- can't rotate my photo and the pic didn't turn out so great! A better picture soon..)

Long time no blog..

So sorry!!  It seems like I do well for awhile keeping up, then I get lazy again.. or sometimes I just get writer's block and I'm not sure what to blog about, especially when I am making slow progress on stitching projects!  But here are some updates anyway!

This is my progress on "At Home With Jane Austen" as of tonight-

Sorry for the bad photo- it's getting hard to fit it all in and still get close enough!

And here is my progress on "Summer House"- I have been working on my lunch break on this one- but have also had some errands to run from time to time on my lunch break so it has been slow going..

I'm finally on the upper portion of the pattern- the blank spots in the bottom half are going to be beads.  I almost always do my beading last, like my mom taught me. :)

We are minus one kid right now- Hanna is visiting my brother-in-law and his family for a little over 2 weeks-kind of a present for being on "A" honor roll all year.  She has been gone one week so far.  I miss my girl but I know it is a good experience for her! And she is having a lot of fun!

David and I went to see "Cars 2" yesterday.  It was really cute, and better than the first one, I thought.  I know many reviews have been not-so-good because the movie isn't all about Lightning McQueen, but I thought the change was nice, and he was in the movie enough given the storyline.  David was super excited to go- we kept it a secret to surprise him, right up until the last minute.

That's life in a nutshell here- better get to bed- I have to work tomorrow! Thanks for being patient with me.  :)

Finally some finishes to share with you!

I finally finished the letter "I" of the Stitcher's Alphabet. I was almost finished with it and I ran out of beads! Short delay- went to my somewhat LNS the next day and got some. I can always count on her for having any Mill Hill I need!

and here is a bookmark I finished for my friend Mandy-her b-day is coming up. :)

I gave it to her today and she really liked it. :) 

We had a nice Memorial Day-spent most of it with Mandy and her husband and their kids.  We had a great time, as we always do with them! And lots of good food! :) 

But I do hope everyone took a moment, at least, to remember what today is all about.

Those who fought and died for our freedom, and those still fighting today.

Progress on At Home with Jane Austen

Here it is- I got quite a bit done this weekend.. I am a little upset because I realized right before I put it away for the night that I have to frog one of the windows and I'm not sure how much I'm going to have to rip out. :(

The other day when Hanna was making scones, she had the lemon that she used the zest from for the scones. She and David decided they wanted to eat it.  In the first picture of David, he is NOT intentionally making a inappropriate gesture- it's just the way he's holding the lemon! I debated about posting it but it's such a cute pic of him otherwise-

I think they were hamming it up just a bit- don't you?