August 30th - The best day of my life!

On this day, 14 years ago, my life changed in ways I'd never imagined or dreamed of. My little boy was born and since that day, my heart grew so much and keeps growing every single day with love for this guy. He is such a sweet thoughtful, kind, compassionate, funny, smart, loving and caring guy. Everyone told me to wait for the terrible two's, wait til he turns a teenager. But not this guy, he defies the norm. He's always been a very loving person to be with and I miss him when he's at school or away for whatever reason. He's a great conversationist and never lacks for something interesting to talk about and easy to laugh with. But what really makes him special is his heart. He has a heart for God, then his family and somewhere down the line, himself. I have no doubt that he will be incredibly successful in all that he does in life and will have many friends and family to support his endeavors. I thank God for him everyday and can't believe I have such a special person so dear to my heart. Thank you God for this beautiful blessing, every single day. Happy Birthday sweet son!! Love, Mom~

Here's my Art Nouveu Lady WIP

With the beginning of football season comes the beginning of a new project. I chose this Art Nouveau Lady from a British magazine, designed by Lesely Teare. I thought the colors were beautiful and reminded me of summer. So, starting with the Hall of Fame game with the Dallas Cowboys, I began and got 5 hours of stitching accomplished.

Here's my progress after another 10 days of stitching:

When I got to this point (above picture) I realized something wasn't right. The colors weren't as pretty as the picture and were kind of dull. It wasn't until then that I referred to the color picture and saw that many areas have the wrong symbol and I'd been stitching the wrong colors.!!! First off, the outline that I initially started with is the wrong color. Then, the bosom of the dress is yellow and right where I was starting the highlight of the dress (below the forearm) it is charted with the darker flesh color. That's when I didn't like what was going on. Come to find out, the dress where I started stitching her knee (above her forearm) is not the right shade of orange. Plus, the orange outline inside the blue circle is the wrong color too!!! Guess what! I frogged all of it and began picking out the colors that closely matched the picture.

So...after all that disappointment and sending off an email to the publisher (they are looking into the situation), here's my new progress:

I estimate I'll have it done in 2 weeks. A little late for me because my husband and I are headed back to nursing school and once it starts, there'll be very little time for stitching if any at all.

Wish me luck on all endeavors!

By the weekend, I hope to have filled in the light blue background and then I'll add the features to her face and detail of dress. I am loving this design! Happy stitching!!

Vacation's over but was fun!

We had a great time on our vacation! Fell in love with the great-grandbaby girl and got to babysit her many times. She's going to be a talker and a sweetheart. She has a sweet disposition and is very spunky and coos all the time. She made a great first impression on us as she loved us and laughed at us and all the faces my son made at her when we met her. They bonded really well and I was impressed with how protective he was of her since he is only 13 yrs old.

Here's the great-grandpa pretending to bite her little tiny fingers. She loved playing with him!

And here's the finished and framed pieces I stitched for this sweet baby:

And for my brother, I finished the binoculars and was able to give him the stitched piece along with the binoculars we used as kids on so many of our vacations and camping trips. There are many, many memories tied to those binoculars and the case. I could never get them back in the case properly and always had to rely on my big brother to put them in nice and neat. Even now as an adult, I still find it tricky. I didn't frame the piece since I hadn't been to his new house and didn't know what frame would work best so I left it to my big brother and his creative wife to take care of that task. :-)

Here's a thrift store find that I got for my mom: a copper kettle for $3.99. I knew she could clean it up and make it look spectacular and that's exactly what she did and now she's showing it off on the kitchen table for now.

It was really fun to be in Dallas and see family and friends. The trip was 10 days long but flew by in the blink of an eye. My husband, son and I were all very sad to leave but also ready to get back home to our own spaces. It didn't stop us from touring some neighborhoods for possible places to relocate in the future.

See ya later Big D! Until next time...