Happy 1/11/11

Today is a much anticipated day for different reasons. First off, the obvious: the abbreviated date with all the ones - 1/11/11. Then, my son has been waiting to update his phone since Nov and our contract will allow it later in Jan so he has been patiently waiting, and today Verizon has announced the iPhone will be available early in Feb. My son has been anticipating this moment since iPhone first came out 3 yrs ago but at the time we were under contract with T-Mobile. We had to switch although we could have gone to AT&T, the fees were higher and my son decided on a Droid at Verizon and so we signed with them last year.
Verizon's press conference was at 11 am, on 1/11/11! Then, driving him to school this morning, this very anticipated day, there were white pigeon doves on the electrical lines crossing the street above us. That was very unusual because the birds on a wire are almost always a black or dark color and these were all white, can't say I've seen that before. Then, for some unexplained reason, I decided to count them and lo and behold, there were 11 "white" pigeon doves! We both could not believe the irony of that number. We are praying that is a good sign and not a bad one like 9/11 turned out to be.
Needless to say, I had to text him with the info from Verizon's announcement. He was hoping that the iPhone would be in a white color and I was hoping for a Verizon Red. We expected the 3G network which is fine with me because 4G costs more. No tears lost here!!! He's a little disappointed they didn't mention white (his favorite color) but now he'll finally get an iPhone, his little dream come true. Now, we'll have an extra itouch that is less than a year old.
What a fun day, yes? So happy 1/11/11, make it a great and memorable day! Blessings to you and your needle.
ps. I still can't add images to my post and so far, my pc hasn't crashed - yea!

Here Goes Another Year - both going and coming

What a whirlwind of a year 2010 has been. First off, it was an adjustment of going through each month without my sweet dad and his humor and wise words. He is missed beyond words and tears still sting my eyes often just thinking of him but none more than his birthday, Dec 16th. That was hard. Then there was the very unexpected death of my brother in law and helping my sister and the kids get through these past 2 months. It really seems like it's been 6 months. Wow! hard to believe it is only 2 months. The days seem longer.
Then, there was a major life adjustment as my husband and I started nursing school and going full blast into that before my husband got sick and landed in the hospital with complications of a kidney stone. Forced us to drop out of school after 6 months while we dealt with his complication and treatment. Then we started another school in the fall and are doing well in it.
I spent the majority of the summer stitching while we were waiting for classes to begin in the fall. Got a beautiful piece finished for my aunt ( The Art Nouveau lady) and then started another beauty (Classy Lady) for my cousin. Was nearly finished when my BIL passed away and then I didn't get to stitch for a whole month after that. But, lo and behold, it is completed and framed. I have to make time to meet with her and give it to her.
For Christmas, I had two Shepherd's Bush pieces framed for my mom and gave them to her for Christmas and she is really pleased with them. They turned out beautiful in matching frames and complimentary mats. They are Sophie's Roses and Peter's Patch. I bought more stash this year and seemed to stitch less but I am a happy stitcher with my stash!
My stitching goal for 2011 is to stitch more meaningful pieces, especially from my stash, and to clear out alot of older patterns that are piling up and I've lost interest in them. I still intend to continue my collection of Gingher Designer Scissors and GAST threads as I have the complete line of threads and many of the Limited Edition skeins which I realized that there are more LE skeins than the regular line now. That's ok, I stitch from both and my collection of Weeks Dye Works is growing. I am not trying to get the complete set of WDW as there are many colors that I'm not interested in.
I don't know what's going on with my computer and blogspot, I am not able to insert any pictures lately. That makes for some boring blogs. What's going on? I really hope my computer isn't about to crash.
So, Happy New Year to all and many blessings to everyone. I wish for everyone to stay safe, healthy and to find ways to help other people! God Bless!!

Merry Christmas to All

Wanted to wish everyone reading a very Merry Christmas and look forward to a prosperous 2011.
Finally this day is here and gifts are wrapped and under the tree. The size of the presents are small but the price is not. The kids are too eager to open presents and excited to see the looks on the faces on other people as they open their presents. My son did most of the wrapping as he has in previous years. He's such a good elf and gets excited with the decorating and the Christmas music. I love all the love in his heart!
Keep safe and enjoy the celebration of Jesus' birth, keep Him close to your heart!

Some of my old favorite stitched pieces

While I was looking over some of my pictures, I came across pictures of some of my favorite stitched pieces that I have hanging on the wall. Here are three of a set that are my first pieces using overdyed threads from back in the 90's. My father-in-law liked them and made frames for them, they were not ironed or stretched and I didn't want to take them apart to do that because he took the pieces and gave them back to me framed. I thought that was so endearing and it's a great memory I have of him.

This last one actually looks like my father-in-law from the back (although he was not from an Indian descent). He was a great character who wore hats and had a presence about him.

Oldies but goodies! They are dear to my heart for many reasons but also because I used "overdyed's" that were new to the stitching world at the time. You should see my stash of GAST and WDW plus a nice selection of silks too! They really have changed the stitching world!

Happy Thanksgiving - alot to celebrate

We are truly thankful for our health, our family, our friends, our support system and to God for blessing us in many areas. We acknowledge that "things" in our life are just luxuries to enjoy but does not define who we are, what matters is having Jesus live in our hearts and having His Spirit to guide us. We are fortunate that we have the extra funds to make Christmas purchases for the kids (son, nieces, nephews, grandsons and great-grandbaby girl) and are able to spend time with family.

Our Thanksgiving feast was just that, a feast! We were blessed with two complete thanksgiving dinners and we had already purchased our BIG turkey, 21.21 lbs! So we blessed another family with one of the given dinners and felt really happy to be able to do that for a family that didn't know how they were going to serve a turkey meal. We believe that we are blessed to be a blessing and as we get older, we enjoy giving and look for ways in which we can help other people. Sometimes it's a word of encouragement, other times it's what we can do for them. Helping out someone is rewarding and keeps our hearts light and a smile on our faces. We truly have alot to celebrate, not just today, but every day.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I Miss You Dad!

I can't believe it's been a whole year since my sweet dad passed away. He wasn't ready to leave us and tried his hardest to stay but his body couldn't do it anymore. What is the saddest part was him leaving my mom. He loved that woman with everything that he had and it's hard for her to keep going without him. Her life isn't as enjoyable as it used to be. She puts up a good front, but on the surface she's just being brave and trying to be happy.

I've come to hate hearing that cliche, "time heals all wounds". A wound is never completely mended, it's masked by a scar, a cover up, but the hurt of missing someone is always present. Really, what hurts the most is having my parents separated by two different worlds, knowing my mom is missing her mate and life long partner.

In their wedding photo from 1953, my mom made her wedding dress and the night before the wedding, my dad helped her sew on the roses onto the veil because she had decided to decorate it. Then, before the wedding, he couldn't contain his excitement and went into the bedroom where she and all the bridesmaids were so he could see her and everyone was trying to shoo him out saying it was bad luck to see the bride before the wedding but he paid no attention to that and went to see his "girl".

November 16th will always be a sad day until they are reunited again.

In the meantime, we reminisce about his wit and humor and funny jokes and antics. We miss his calm nature and easy to get along with attitude, and his never letting things get to him. Most importantly I miss teasing him about the Redskins. A die hard fan to the end who didn't like the Cowboys but never missed a game. It's just not fair that this year the Redskins have a winning season and the Cowboys don't. It's just not fair that he missed that, it would have been a fun football season to have him tease me back this once.

I try not to cry over missing him, but I'll allow some tears this day. It's the first year without him and life was better with him on earth for our own selfish reasons. I know there are many angels laughing at his jokes in the eternal heavens!

I miss you, I miss all your jokes and all your stories. I miss looking out for you and taking care of you, it was always me that benefitted from our extra time together those last 7 years. Thank you for everything Chacho! I love you Dad!

It's Looking Like Fall

We've had a couple of windy days in El Paso and the yellow leaves are starting to blanket the ground. I went outside this morning and took a couple of pictures of our little Brindle Pug in her first fall photo of her life! She posed easily, I think she likes the colors too!

Then Little Ray joined us in the fun and I couldn't help but get a picture of these two best buds!

So, as we say in Texas, "Happy Fall, Y'all!!"