surviving the festivities . . .

Whew, what a weekend!  Two of my sisters came into town to celebrate my mom's 80th birthday.  It was a lot of fun and also a little (a lot) exhausting.  You know how that goes.

I gifted my sisters each with one of the Christmas table runners.  I hope they enjoy them! I picked them both up at the airport and we headed to Chicken Salad Chick for a sister lunch, before heading to my folk's house.

They're so beautiful! We had a good time celebrating the birthday girl . . .

Joc and her crew made the festivities, too!  Julia made manicotti and we got the most divine cake from Edgar's Bakery . . . 

Delish!

What would a sisters/mom weekend be without a crafty little project??!!! In keeping with the incoming season (spring/March/St. Patrick's Day), we put together cute little wool shamrock mug rugs . . .

All four finishes!  I drew up the pattern and kitted it before going, to make it as easy as possible.  They did great jobs, considering none of them have done a lot of wool work or embroidery before!  Here's mine which includes a peek of my new petite violet . . .

Did I mention jelly beans?  The perfect spring food.  LOL!

I continue to [slowly] move forward on Hospital Sketches . . .

Decided the this block needed a little "umph" to the stitching.  It's actually finished now and I've started blanket stitching the next one.  I like the pretty little Spanish feather stitch on the paired leaves.  It was the first time I've used it; it creates a lot of eye interest.

February 23 was Everett's day.  Joc and her family spent time at the cemetery, cleaning up his gravestone and talking about him.

They had a beautiful, clear and sunny day for their visit!  It's hard to believe Everett would be ten this year.

This is such a precious family.  I love them dearly. 

The days continue to break earlier, and end later.  In less than two weeks we'll be "spring"ing forward again.  I don't mind too much ... I love the light later in the day (and not driving to and from work in the dark) ... and making it home in time for the sunset!

Peace!  :)

packing it in . . .

Yup.  That's what I'm doing this morning.  Packing it up and getting things situated so I can work, work, work right up until retreat ends and load up the car!  The goodbye sunrise this morning was *spectacular*!

Just gorgeous, right?  It's really nice to have this very incredible reminder of God's goodness on this particular day -- Everett would have been three.  It's amazing how fast the time has gone by.

I had no trouble getting in my 15 minutes this week, even while I was with Ellie!

I'll share more about what I've worked on these last five days later on in the week!

My stash took a bit of a hit . . . in the wrong direction! I got a lovely package from Jean (Jean Creates) and we hit Hammer's yesterday.  Here's what I grabbed from Hammers:

It's so funny ... it's almost a repeat of what I got last year at Hammer's!  What I received from Jean deserves a post of its own (which I'll do later).  Anyway, I packed away some yardage, without enough to go out . . .

But it's still running on a pretty even keel, so I won't sweat it!

There will be some last minute frantic work going on this morning, but I will eventually settle into my slow Sunday stitching.  Still plugging along on my Celtic Garden:

The hedge outlines are really starting to take shape!  One they're finished, the French knots to fill it in will go relatively quickly.  I'll be happy to be finished with the colonial knots!

Linking up today with the stash report at Patchwork Times and also with Kathy's Quilts!

Oh yeah--the current book review and giveaway is HERE.

Be *blessed* today!

:)

two steps behind . . .

There was really no point in starting with "one step forward", because I'm not sure I'm not just continuously taking two steps backward!  Ever feel that way?  I am inundated and the next four days will be gloriously full (much as the past three days have been).  At some point I'll stop, catch my breath, and catch up. In the meantime, it is what it is:  DECEMBER!

I wanted to share a lovely, lovely win from the UR Priceless blog hop.  I'd stopped by Maria's blog, Personalized Sketches and Sentiments, to check out her sweet little purses (and she did a marvelous job, both with her darling purses *and* her fun presentation -- check it out HERE), and since I was already there, I entered her giveaway for a personalized monogram.  I was so delighted when she notified me I was one of her winners!  After chatting back and forth with her for a bit, I chose the name I wanted monogrammed and the font style and sent it off to her.

It came in Tuesday's mail.  I'd used Everett's initials -- I knew that would be something Jocelyn would enjoy -- and since I was on my way to visit with her that morning, I waited to open it until I got there.  Then I let Joc do the honors -- it's lovely!

And it's not just a monogram.  Check closely the lines that make up each letter:

Do you see it?  EVERETT over and over make up the "E".

And yup, SAMUEL is the basis for the "S".

And MERKEL!  Isn't it clever and beautiful?!  Maria did a fabulous, marvelous job and I'm so appreciative!  She does all types of sketches and is very creative. Definitely worth checking out!

While I was there, Ellie and I had some chat time . . .

Look how big she's getting!

Not a bad shot, considering I'm holding the camera!  Ellie couldn't quite figure out what was going on!  Look at her big, beautiful eyes!

And not to leave Leia out . . . she was most interested in my Redwork course exercises.  

She closely inspecting my satin stitches there!

Or perhaps that's her way of saying, "What hand work??  You came here to pet *me*!"  And though it's a day late, my week still wouldn't be complete if I didn't link up to Sarah Did It! and Feline Friday!!

On to the day's (month's?!) busyness!

:)