an oldie giveaway

Hi all! Will post stitching pics soon, but wanted to go ahead and post this. I have quite a few older/books magazines I have laying around here and I will be giving them away on here over time.. would do them all at once but can't afford to mail them all out within a few weeks! So my first giveaway is for the Precious Moments book #3-Dear Jon.  Sorry the pic is not so good!  Scratch that- can't find my SD cad so here is a pic from the internet-

The booklet is in pretty good condition- a few bends here and there-all the patterns are in great condition.  I'll keep the giveaway open until Friday. Please comment on this post only if you are interested.  I know it's old so if no one wants it I won't be upset! :)  Feel free to share with someone you think would be interested. :)

Meet Ginger!

I am one happy lady today!! We are getting a Corgi puppy! Her name will be Ginger and here she is-

I am soooooo excited!!! We will get her in mid-December, when she is eight weeks old. We met her in person today and it was hard to let go!   She is my early Christmas present. :) I have to share with you the neat story of how we got her.  I have been interested in getting a Pembroke Welsh Corgi for a while now, but couldn't afford one.  One day I struck up a conversation with a lady who worked at the local pet store, and mentioned at some point how bad I wanted one, but couldn't afford what most breeders charge.   She then told me she had a Corgi, and would probably breed it eventually, and wouldn't charge an exorbitant amount for one.  So I gave her my business card and she put it in the pocket of her apron.  This was probably at least a year or so ago give or take a month or two.  Well at the pet store they have three different aprons they rotate for different times of year or something like that.  Her puppies were born in October a week or two ago it was back to the apron she was wearing when we met.. and there in the pocket was my card! So she called and left a message for me at work- I called her back and everything just seemed to fit into place from there- her price was very reasonable, my hubby said we could get one. :) , we really wanted a female and there was only one in the litter! :) She knew how long I wanted one so she said she would tell everyone the female was spoken for.   I am so thankful and feel so blessed.

On the stitching front, I've made a little progress here and there, I will post it soon..

Sorry I've been absent again..

It's been busy here lately- Mom and Dad came to visit on Friday and stayed til Monday.  We had an awesome time as always! Friday night we all went out to eat, to celebrate most of our birthdays- mine of course was Oct. 27, Dad's was Nov. 2, Hanna's was yesterday, and Mom's is on the 24th. Saturday Rob had to work and the rest of us did this and that- started the day at Starbucks♥, did a little shopping.. took Mom and Dad to the Thistle Bee Quilt Shop, and out to my somewhat-LNS to pick up the beads for Summer House- which ended up being too big... so I'm back to square one.  It was my own fault, I didn't bring the piece with me and forgot I had used the petite beads. Sunday we went to church in Raleigh- Mom and Dad are Greek Orthodox and we don't have any Orthodox churches for miles- so we went to All Saints Antiochian Orthodox Church.  They were dedicating their new sanctuary-which is just beautiful!

We also saw some nice fall colors on the way-

The photos really don't do them justice!

Here are a couple more I took near home-

And last but not least- some stitching progress on my Brightneedle ornament- I'm starting to think I should've put it on a slightly darker fabric, but oh well, live and learn! ;)

Oh, and my baby girl turned 13 yesterday- how time flies!!

Look- her hair matches my dad's car! hee hee..

Birthday goodies and other stuff..

Hello everyone! I don't think I ever posted this like I said I would- here is progress on my weekend project, as of tonight..didn't get too much done this weekend- been running here and there and everywhere..

It was my not-quite-fortieth birthday this week.. I had a good day.  Had to work but work wasn't too stressful, got a nice gift from my boss..then that night the family and I went out to Chili's for dinner; I had been craving it for a while.  I had margarita-grilled chicken, with black beans and rice.. it was delicious! Rob and the kids gave me a Starbucks gift card(always a favorite with me♥) and some gift cards for some shops so I can get some retail therapy. ;) I also got a surprise gift from my aunt- these beautiful thread caddies- to replace my plastic and velcro Lo-Ran ones. :P I LOVE these. Here are a few snaps-

They are so nice- you just take the rings out of the Lo-Ran ones and put them in the little slots in the cloth one.. easy peasy! And it's so nice to tie them shut- I know the velcro on one of my old caddies didn't work, even after I replaced it. I had a hair elastic around it for a while..this is so much better!

It has gotten much cooler here this past week and I am loving it.  I have actually been able to wear my sweaters! Yay!! I think it supposed to warm up later this week but only in the low 70's. :)

The kids are psyched for Halloween tomorrow-I was all set to take them trick-or-treating Friday night and then found out that trick-or-treating was actually on Halloween this year! Usually they have it on the closest Friday, so I was surprised! I was also kind of glad because the semi-annual library book sale started Friday night. :) Five paperbacks for 1.00! And I found a couple of real treasures(in my opinion)- Romance of the Forest by Ann Radcliffe(as mentioned in Jane Austen's Emma), and The Watsons/Emma Watson by Jane Austen- I don't believe she finished this one but I believe the edition I got was finished by someone else- we'll see how it is!

Well, I better be going, it's late and in addition to work this week I also have to do some cleaning as Mom and Dad will be visiting us this coming weekend! Woohoo! :) I can't wait. :)

A nice day...

I had a pretty nice day today with (and without) my kids. :) Started the day out by taking the kids to Krispy Kreme for some doughnuts- LOVE their pumpkin spice doughnuts!  Hanna wanted me to take her picture in a Krispy Kreme hat(so did David) so when I tried to take the picture of Hanna, this is what I got-

What a ham!

After Krispy Kreme we ran to Target and picked up a few (non)-essentials.. then I took the kids home and went to The Thistle Bee Quilt Shoppe.  I mentioned them in a previous post I think, quite some time ago.. they carry beautiful fabrics and some Weeks Dye Works thread too, so I pop in there from time to time.  Well the last time I was in there, I found out they are having a monthly get-together for stitchers, to just bring whatever we are working on, and stitch and talk, a chance for us stitchers to meet other stitchers! So I went today and had such a nice time.  I had to leave after an hour/hour and a half to get the kids fed,etc.. but I am hoping to stay a bit longer next time. :) I did make a little progress on "Beach Cottage" at the get-together, I now have some beach for my not-yet-stitched cottage-

I probably would have more done, but sometimes I just talked instead of stitching and talking at the same time. :)

I also stopped by the local farm stand today and picked up some mums- every year I say I am going to get some and I never do- so I finally did! At 3 for $10 how could I resist? here are the ones I picked up:

I also have some more zinnia coming up in my garden- I love the way these buds look- they almost look painted!

I won a giveaway at Tickled Pink In Stitches ! I would post a pic of what I won but I am going to make it for my mom- so Mom if you are reading this, don't go peek! ;)

I have also worked a bit on "Autumn Side" by San Man Originals today- I'll post progress on that tomorrow night or next week, since that is my weekend project and I hope to work on it some more tomorrow! :)

Well, I guess I better be off to bed- have church tomorrow and then some major house cleaning to do.. :P Hope y'all's Sunday will be more relaxing than mine! :D

Just a quick post..

It's been a busy week here and not much on the stitching front- I did start a project last weekend- it's my weekend project- and I got a little stitching done on it yesterday on the way to Raleigh.  It's "Autumn Side" by San Man Originals- I think this was an exclusive chart for message board members- I have had it a while- here it is so far..

And I am a proud mom- last weekend and the weekend before was our county fair, and Hanna won some ribbons for her artwork!

She was disappointed she didn't get 1st place/best in show, but I am excited and proud no matter what ribbon she won. :)  That's about it-  hopefully things will be a little slower in the evenings here and I will have time for a better post.

a Beach Cottage update..

Well, Hanna found my camera! It was in Rob's car- it must've fallen out of my purse when we went grocery shopping on Sunday. Phew!!  And here is a picture of my Beach Cottage so far, as promised- not much longer until I can start working on the top half! :) 


Yesterday evening I went out to check on my garden and look what I found-

I just love when I'm able to get shots like this, as they are so rare! Some of the seeds I bought were supposed to be a butterfly mix I think so this must be from them! :)

The weather here has been slowly cooling off.. I've been happy to wear a sweater or poncho in the morning. The weather really has been lovely but I would like it just a bit cooler..I'm ready to wear long sleeves!

I've been trying to catch up on my blog reading and I am so glad I've been reading everyone's blogs; they are inspiring and getting me to put down the laptop and get stitching again! And reminding me there are so many projects out there I still want to do. :) Thanks everyone for the inspiration! 

A giveaway and update..

Sorry again I have taken so long in posting..it had been a while already and then my laptop cord died and I had to get a new one.. ahhh you don't want to hear my excuses.. ;) But my laptop cord really did die. And we no longer have a desktop computer.

Been doing a little stitching- working some on my lunch hour on "Decorating the House" (some progress pics on my photo blog) and also on "Beach Cottage." Arrghh just realized I have misplaced my camera! I think it's in my car and it's cold out there.. plus I'm in my pj's.. so pics tomorrow.

Here is a photo of a pink flower that turned up in my garden- I buy mixed seeds cause I like "never knowing what I'm gonna get" so these were a beautiful surprise! I have two so far and it looks like another one is going to bloom soon.. This one is saved on my computer so I can share it with you.

And since this is pink.. let me mention a great "pink" giveaway over at Tickled Pink in Stitches and a great post about breast cancer detection.  DJ is an inspiration and a survivor!

I did just come across a picture of "Decorating the House" - got a little more done today that isn't showing in the picture- the upper window is finished. Now on to the roof!

Well I better go- will remember my camera tomorrow and try to remember to post those photos! I also have a new start- "Autumn Side" by San Man Originals. :)

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! ;)