Giveaway Winner!

Hello everyone!

I really enjoyed participating in the Grow Your Blog party, organized by Vicki!  What a fun time it was!  There are some really great blogs out there, and it has been fun to investigate and see what everyone else is doing!

I do have a winner for my cross stitch giveaway!  It's Felicia from Finding Simple Treasures!! Congratulations Felicia, and I'll get your cross stitch package off quickly!  I've emailed you for your information!  After I send it, I'll post a photo of the goodies!

I have a self-imposed deadline to get something finished, so check back quickly, because I will have a photo!  Also, St. Patrick's Day isn't too far off, and I feel another tree coming on!! HAHAHA

Thank you for stopping by and please come back soon!
Frances

Be My Valentine!!

This year is flying by already!  I can't believe it's February 1st!  It's time to show my Valentine Tree!
Since Valentine's Day and Mardi Gras are so close this year, I decorated both trees at the same time. One is in the foyer and the other, in the dining room.  I used my new super-thin flocked tree for the Valentines Tree.

At the top of the tree are some random picks, left from Christmas, in silver and red.  In the right photo is a sweet little heart freebie located somewhere here!  I cannot find it now at all but I'm sure if you scroll long enough, it's there!  I finished it with a cute little heart lock and key ring charm.  Below it is a cute Love freebie found here.  In the left photo, is another version of that same heart--this time with pink "love" fabric and tiny red heart buttons.  Below that is a sweet Love freebie from the Stitcherhood, found here.  I finished it with a row of white buttons across the bottom.  Below is yet another "love" freebie from Kinkavel krosses, found here.  I finished it with red heart fabric and rick rack--cute!

Here's another cute little love freebie from iStitch charts, and found here.  I finished it with cute little red and white "love" fabric and red and white ribbon and heart buttons.  Don't you love my cute red monkey???  I have a pink one and a black one, too!!!  This little heart is a checkerboard heart from somewhere...I don't know...that I finished with heart buttons and red pom poms on the bottom edge.

The LOVE is from February by Prairie Schooler.  I had a small scrap of brown Aida and I love the way it coordinates with all the brown Valentine fabrics I used.  The two heart buttons finish it off! The large swirly heart is a freebie from Romy's and is found here. 

I love these sweet little "love birds"!  They are monthly freebies from Sylvia.  The charts are located here.  They are Februar 2 and 3.  These were so much fun to stitch!  I used a mixture of fabrics, ribbons, buttons and trims. I love the red leopard fabric on the one by the pink monkey!

Here are two more variations on that same little heart that I can't find on the above link!!  This time I stitched the background with pink variegated floss and left the design unstitched.  I really don't know where it is on that site, but I hope someone finds it!!!  The left photo has white pom pom trim and little red beads along the edge.  The right photo has various fabrics, buttons and ribbons for interest.

You will notice some sweet little antique-looking paper Valentines tucked between the branches.  These are actual Valentines that my cousin gave me.  They were from her mother-in-law when she was a child. This lady would be in her 90s now, so these are very old.  I love them!  I really like that faded honeycomb on the heart! Sweet!

I really enjoyed putting this tree together.  It is a white flocked tree with clear lights.  You might notice some pink filigree heart shaped lights.  I got those from Target this year.  They run on batteries, so you don't have all those cords everywhere...well, just the tree cord!!!

I hope you enjoyed seeing this tree.  The next is St. Patrick's Day, so I'll have some green to show then!

Don't forget that I am having a Grow Your Blog giveaway!!  It's a mystery, but will be cross stitch related.  If you haven't signed up, please go it here!!  The drawing will be February 15th!

Thank you for stopping by, and please come again!
Frances

GROW YOUR BLOG!!!!

Hello!  I'm participating in the GROW YOUR BLOG event and am so excited to have new blogs to check out, as well as new visitors here!  Thank you Vicki for organizing this!  I am going to have a giveaway on February 15th!!  It will be some type of cross stitch giveaway--haven't decided on the gifts yet!  I hope many of you will sign up on this post for it!  Stay tuned!

If you are new to my blog, let me give a very brief introduction!  My name is Frances and I live in Mississippi.  I love all things "artistic"!!  I am a classical musician, but I have a dear interest in counted cross stitch!  I started this blog almost a year ago, after enjoying the blogs of many other cross stitchers out there in blog land!  My favorite stitching items are ornaments.  I guess I like them because they're small and finish up rather quickly.  I also enjoy making them into little "pillow ornaments" and it's fun to select other fabrics, trims, buttons, etc to turn them into fun seasonal decorations.  I keep a tree up all year, and decorate it for every holiday or season!  It's just a lot of fun!

If you saw my previous post, you know that I just fixed my Mardi Gras tree.  If you didn't see it yet, just scroll down and see!  It was a fun time putting this tree together!

In fact, we spent the weekend in New Orleans and I've just come back in the door to make this post!

Here are a few photos of the fun and crazy things that go on in New Orleans.  I'm originally from Southwest Mississippi and we went to New Orleans very often.  I understand that some of you who live far away have probably not visited yet!  If you haven't, you must head South and check it out!

Here's our first view of the New Orleans Skyline from the car!  And below are views from our balcony at the Royal Sonesta Hotel, looking at Bourbon Street.

       

I particularly liked the decorations on the top balcony of this building!  Probably an apartment.

I actually did a little shopping and found a couple of needlework stores, but they were mostly needlepoint and yarn shops.  However, I was able to pick up a couple of "local color" cross stitch patterns--about Mardi Gras!  Gotta get those done quickly to add to my tree!  Don't you love the way they wrapped up my chart???  It is so cute and special!   This was a small chart from The Quarter Stitch.  I'll get to it quickly!

Thank you for visiting my blog!  Please come back again!  I'm going to put a post with my Valentine tree on here shortly!  It's all pink and red and full of hearts!!!  I can't wait to look over your blogs and see many blogs that are NEW to me!  Thank you for visiting and I hope to see you back here soon!

Frances