This Year Has Flown By!

Dear Blogging Friends:

I really cannot believe this year is almost over!!!  It seems like just yesterday when I put up Christmas trees, but it was a year ago!!!  I have almost completed the decorations on the largest tree, and I will show my Christmas trees on my next post!

Since I seem to be a step behind, I will show my Thanksgiving tree, now that the holiday is over!  ha  I love the Thanksgiving decorations.  There's something about those warm colors that just seem like home and family!  I enjoyed this tree. 

I had my family for Thanksgiving.  It's a small group now.  We had 8 adults and our precious Zoe!  I got a high chair for her, so she could sit with us.  She put on quite a show.  I thought she was tired, and we tried to put her down in her baby bed, but she would have not part of it!!  Also, as they were coming in, she spotted Omar and shrieked and laughed, so he went and got on my bed for a while.  While we were eating, he came out and sat in the middle of the blanket I had put on the floor for her, and looked around like he owned the place!!  ha  After the meal, some played with him and some with her, so it worked out fine!  This is my son and his little family!

I've been bird feeding and watching-a new, fun hobby!  I took this photo of what I think are red-winged blackbirds, even though I don't see the red spot on their wing area.  There were 9 or 10 of them on the patio this morning.  So pretty and very shiny black feathers!  I will let Beth look at this and give her opinion--she is our resident bird expert and I have emailed her and gotten much info!  You all know Beth from Garden Grumbles and Cross Stitch Fumbles.  In addition to her beautiful and fun stitching, she is an expert on birds and wildlife!!  And her blog is filled with her beautiful photography!

I received a WONDERFUL surprise from our friend Catherine at  I Love to Stitch.  She is so very sweet and kind.  I will show beautiful photos on my next post!

Thank you for visiting and please come back soon!  I will post very shortly!  I have my house almost finished for the Holidays!  I've even started stitching a small Prairie Schooler cardinal ornament, which I will show.

Have a great day!
Frances

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dear Blogging Friends:
I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving, full of good food and loving visits with family and friends.
I am hosting my family as always.   It is small, so there will be 8 of us.  It is bittersweet, because this is our first Thanksgiving without my dear husband, and only the second without my sweet mother. But, life goes on, and I know that we must try to have a good time.  This is what they would want and what I want!  I have most of my food ready to be cooked.  I'm about to go to bed early (for me) and will get up early and get it all together!                             gobble, gobble!

Of course, you know this means another holiday tree!

 

 

Thank you for visiting, and I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Oh yes!!  I have one other piece of exciting news:

Yes, I'm going to be a grandmother to a little girl, due on January 4th!  I'm so excited!  This is certainly something to look forward to!  My son and his wife are really happy.  They came and told us right when they found out, so my husband did know the baby was coming.  After they left, he said that he hoped he'd be able to see it, but I guess that just wasn't meant to be.  But this is glorious news and I'm so ready for a baby!  

I'll keep in touch.  I'm actually stitching some, for an exchange that I must mail next week!!!  

Happy Thanksgiving!

Frances

Autumn is here and I'm a winner!

Hello Blogging Friends!  I'm excited that it finally feels a little bit like Autumn here!  And of course, it's time to show my Thanksgiving tree!  I have a few new little wooden pumpkins with words on them.  You can see the black one with "fall" on it at the top of the tree. There's a white one in the center of the tree with "harvest" on it.  Too, too cute!

This tree is always one of my favorites!  I love the fall colors and the leaves and turkeys! Such fun!  And then it's nonstop busy until after the first of the year!!!!  I will be hosting my family for Thanksgiving.  I've done it for a decade or so.  I always enjoy it.  We put up the Christmas trees right after Thanksgiving!  Things will be chaotic for a few days, and then it's time to sit back and enjoy!  I love this time of year!  I know you all are in the same boat, and I hope you will be enjoying these next few days!

Look at this cute car that was parked next to mine the other day!  I've never seen car eyelashes before, but it's clever, isn't it!!

We enjoyed a wonderful concert on Sunday afternoon!  Mannheim Steamroller is in the middle of their Christmas Tour and we were so lucky that they came to Jackson, MS!  I saw them once before and they are just fabulous.  I have all their Christmas CDs and am ready to get them out and listen!

My cat Omar has been so great and is so loving, sweet and devoted.  One of his favorite things to do is to jump on my clothes when I change.  He is particularly fond of my bra.....I guess it might be strange to post this--oh well, it's so funny!

You may remember that I am having some work done at our house.  I've had upholstery and they are painting now.  All is turning out well.  I ran in the paint store the other day, and I had forgotten that they put discontinued samples out on their porch for people to take if they want them.  They had several wallpaper books and some wood floor samples, which I passed by.  However, I was very weak and picked up 3 Kravet fabric books.  They are just gorgeous.  Some are embroidered taffetas and there are a number of polished cottons, too.  They are PERFECT for ornaments!  Just enough fabric and tons of choices! And yes, there were only 3 fabric books and I took all of them!!    oink, oink

And finally, I am a winner!!!!!  Nancy of Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe had a giveaway and I won three gorgeous hand-dyed pieces of Aida.  Aren't these colors lovely?  I am so thrilled.  These just scream Autumn!!!  The photo doesn't do them justice.

I have been stitching and I finished the little Prairie Schooler Halloween ornament I was stitching.  I started another little Christmas mini card, and I intend to actually start a Prairie Schooler Santa!  I also need to use some of this gorgeous new fabric!

Thank you for visiting and come back again soon!

Frances

Oh yes--I forgot to say that I had yet another kidney stone lithotripsy!  It's become so common that I don't even think about it--sorta like rotating tires!!!!  But, we're getting them all cleaned out!  Oh my

Thanksgiving Tree!

Hello fellow bloggers!  It's time to show my Thanksgiving tree!  I have so much fun making these trees and I always enjoy this one because my relatives come for our family Thanksgiving meal and they seem to like looking at it and seeing what's new!

I have several cute "bought" ornaments and I fill in spaces with silk fall leaves.  I left the candy corn lights on there (from Halloween) and they shine along with the tree's clear lights.  I also have several wooden ornaments that have vintage holiday postcard images on them.

Look at these precious & funny turkeys and fat Pilgrims I got at Pier One!  Too, too cute!

I also love this beautiful mercury glass turkey I found this year at Hobby Lobby!  He's very majestic!

This sweet squirrel is from Prairie Schooler's Christmas Miniatures #29.  I added fabric strips and a purchased button edging. It hangs beside the cute pumpkin from Cyberstitchers by Judi Utter.

This was a freebie bookmark many years ago from Prairie Schooler.  I just stuffed it and hung it on the tree!  The sweet squirrel is from a blog called passe-tempsdeflo.over-blog.com but I cannot find the squirrel chart anywhere online!!!

This cornucopia is from Prairie Schooler--A Prairie Year II.  I attached the ribbon with cute little leaf buttons. This sweet bok bok turkey is a freebie from Plum Street Samplers.  I added a bead edge to it.

The bowl of fruit on the left is cut from a tablecloth my mother embroidered in the 1940s.  It was too small for any table and was rather worn looking--I just made an ornament from the corner design. Apparently, I really liked that little Prairie Schooler squirrel because I've stitched it twice!  I mounted it on the little yellow fabric with buttons.  Give Thanks is a freebie from The Stitcherhood.

This is the little squirrel that I made for my father years ago and I recently made an ornament from it. The little Happy Harvest is from Pine Mountain Designs.

This sweet freebie, At Plimoth, is a freebie from The Sampler Girl, but I can't find it anywhere online now.  I changed the colors and added the green trim along the bottom.


Well, that's what's on the tree right now.  It's a lot of fun to do and I can hardly wait to put the Christmas things on there next!

Thanks for stopping by--please come back soon!
Frances

Another Finish & A GIVEAWAY!

I hope this finds everyone doing well out in blog land!  I haven't posted in several days, so I'm going to catch up today!
I have a finish that is so cute...Bok, Bok freebie from Plum Street Samplers!  I had been wanting to finish another ornament this way, using beads as the edging.  I realize this is probably a bit "much" for this silly, cute bird, but that's the mood I was in, so that's how it turned out!  And I love the precious backing fabric that almost matches Mr. Turkey!!  You can't see the ribbon hanger very well, but it was a good match, and I even added a little gold leaf button!  Such fun!!!  Can't wait until Thanksgiving to hang it up!

NOW!! For the Giveaway!  I am a big Prairie Schooler fan and I'm going to offer this Christmas Traditions chart #95 as my first Giveaway!  PLUS some other goodies, still to be determined, but I will promise you that they will be FUN and enjoyable!  I will also include something I made....   It's never a bad time to work on Christmas items to prepare for the season!  This Giveaway is open to anyone, anywhere, but you must be a follower!  I want to increase my number of followers, so this is a good way to start!  I will mail anywhere, as long as I have a good address!  Not many rules--Must be a follower, sign up on this post only for a chance, and if you mention it on your blog you will get a second chance!  Just let me know that you mentioned it!  That's about it!  I'll pick a winner on Sunday evening, May 25th and post it then!  Good luck to everyone!        Come back soon!  Frances