fall's fluttering in . . .

It's been a fairly productive week . . . I love having a bunch of little handwork projects to work on because I can skip around and work in the evenings and at lunch time without a lot of fuss, and I get things done!

So now, along with the acorn mug rug, I've finished my little harvest stitchery mug rug.  I really love how that turned out! It used a nice, wide variety of embroidery stitches, and I even learned a new one -- the wheatear or wheat stitch. Can you tell which one that is (aside from it being the one that looks like it's the first time I've ever stitched it!)? As for the acorn, I think I'll probably make several more of those.  It's really cute and a very easy stitch-up.

My hexie pumpkin mug rug is all stitched up and ready to be sandwiched, quilted and then bound.

That will make for some good slow stitching today! The template was for a big leaf that gave me an idea for . . .

Another mug rug, of course. I've found, though all of this, that I have no shortage of browns in my stash, which is quite hilarious to me!

I also finished up this sweet little butterfly topper as a little "happy" for Evey, who turns four tomorrow. I was very pleased with this "flying by the seat of my pants" finish.

I say that because I had no plan. I just sewed and added/embellished as I went. The label is a combination of two photos that rather document her experience with "Ella the moth" this past month.

Evey picked up this huge moon moth at the Botanical Gardens (it had already expired).  

She immediately named it, carried it home, and insisted that it sleep with her. 

We celebrated this joie de vivre-filled, spicey girl's birthday as a family last night, so she's already got her commemorative piece; she was thrilled with the photo on the back! She said, matter of factly, Ella's in pieces and mama put her in the trash.  This (referring to the topper) is pretty.  LOL!

I hope to have some more small, fall finishes this week.  Linking up to the Slow Sunday Stitching post at Kathy's Quilts.  If you've come looking for the "Quilter's Meet & Greet" post, click HERE.  I will say I've had a ball hopping around to all the M&G posts and hearing (via comments) from all that are participating ... but I was shocked at how many "no reply" commenters are still out there.

Y'all enjoy this beautiful Sunday!

:)

blooms and butterflies . . .

Today's a rainy, dreary day.  The temps are cool and it just feels like the perfect kind of day to curl up on the couch, pop an Audrey Hepburn movie in the DVD player, keep a cup of hot tea handy, and do a little stitching.  Aaaaaah ... now that's my kind of Saturday!

I wanted to share a couple of fun things I've won in various giveaways recently, that I received in the mail this last week.  First was this darling set of tea stamps from over at Angela McRae's Tea With Friends blog.  Truly hers one of my *most* favorite tea blogs ... she's always got fun tea finds, whether it's different types of teas, tea rooms, recipes, fabrics, products that use/show tea ... loads of fun!

 

Cute, aren't they?  I see a world of possibilities for these stamps ... place cards, sweet little thank you notes, and perhaps even a stitchery or two!

I also received a signed copy of anonymous by Alicia Britt Chole.

I won this off of a giveaway from womensministry.net.  Yay!!   

Not a giveaway win, but anyone who gets Celebrate magazine knows it's a winning publication!

It's published by the same folks who do Tea Time and probably my second favorite magazine of all time.  In fact, if I find a need a break from movies and stitching (what?!?), I may just pull this out and peruse through it!!

And to brighten the dreariness of the day, I thought I'd share some color and pizzazz from our trip to the Botanical Gardens in Huntsville.  That day the weather was gorgeous and the blooms were sizzling!!

The spring theme for the gardens is "Butterflies" and there were plenty of these beautifully painted creatures all throughout the garden.

This beautiful tree was just so happy in its pretty lil' flowerpot!  It was fun to see children come upon it for the first time.  Their eyes would pop wide open!

And this darling little miniature town with the running train and track wound through it was fascinating.  They've done so much to make this an enchanting garden to visit.  We caught our tour tram here and rode (for free) the rest of the way through the gardens.  I took over a hundred pictures!

 

 

It probably not surprising that a lot of the flowers that captured my attention were shades of purple, right?  With a little orange thrown in for balance.  :)

 

Ellie was perfect for the whole 90 minute tour -- she's just took it all in!  She and Joc strolled behind our tram.  It was a lovely day to be walking!  They've done such a fabulous job at our Botanical Gardens ... and they take such care to have a major event for each season, so it's always fun to visit.  In the summer they add water fun to the children's section (which the tram doesn't go through), in the fall there's always the parade of scarecrows, which is SUCH a fun (and funny) tour, and in the winter, they do the Galaxy of Lights, which I'm pretty sure I blogged about HERE.  We are considering giving both our kids a family membership as a gift.  And then getting one for us, too!  ;)

 

Can you tell I was quite captivated by all the butterflies?!?  :)

We finished out the day with dinner and some wii action at Joc and Jason's -- one last chance for photo ops. 

In the end, you'd never know they hadn't been "Best Buds" the whole trip!!  I was so happy to get this shot.

And I'll close up with a sweet shot of my folks and their great-grandchildren.  Okay -- so I didn't get the greatest capture here, but it's still sweet.  And James and Jason were both clicking away too, and I know they both got terrific shots!  It just takes me longer to get my hands on those!  A terrific finish to a terrific visit!

Happy Saturday, y'all -- I know I sure will!

:)