out with the old . . .

Here it is . . . the last day of 2016.  Wow, this past year has simply flown by.  I don't know that I can handle time marching on any more quickly than it did this past year. If time moves more quickly the older one gets, I'm in trouble! I was woefully negligent to my bloggy-blog for the past twelve months--with only 41 posts for the entire year--but I don't for a minute regret the time I spent doing other things . . . like cuddling grandchildren, tinkering in the Nook (which actually was also a tad neglected), hanging out with my best friend/hubby, chilling on the lake, being with family . . . nope, no regrets. All-in-all it was a pretty terrific year!

Ellie and Evey agree that 2016 was pretty good!  :)

Todd and I will be serving our last Sunday at Wears Chapel tomorrow . . . so 2017 will be ushering in big changes right from the start. We plan on taking a brief furlough, visiting other churches in our association, before being re-assigned.  As of right now, we have no idea where we'll be!

I wanted to have closure on my 2016 stash report, so here it is . . .

. . . unchanged from the last one I reported on 11/20.  -grin-

And here's the first report for 2017 . . .

. . . all sparkly new and fresh and clean!  Although, I'll admit right off the bat that Patches & Stitches has it's annual sale on January 2nd, and I plan on being there. I wanted to start a little project, but realized I had very little 'grey' in my stash.  *sigh* At least I know it'll be out almost as soon as it's in!

Good thing wool isn't counted in stash reporting (and I'm not about to start). Todd and I took a little overnight jaunt to Nashville, just the two of us.

We stopped at Quilter's Square in Franklin, Tennessee, on the way home. They were having a nice little sale and I picked up some yummy wool (among other things, none of which was fabric) . . . 

Isn't that pretty?? And a four new little patterns, the bottom two of which are kits . . .

One of which I've started working on . . .

This will be my slow Sunday-into-Monday Stitching, for sure!

I'll be linking up to Patchwork Times and Kathy's Quilts (tomorrow). Happy New Year's blessings to you and yours!

:)

whirlwind weekends . . .

Y'all . . . whirlwind doesn't half describe the past two weeks! I was completely absent last weekend . . . but for very good reason!  Joc, Ellie and I traveled to the Northern Neck of Virginia for my niece Cecilia's wedding!

She was a beautiful bride and she had a very handsome groom, too!

The whole affair wore Miss Eleanor out.

LOL! This is post-wedding/pre-reception, while we waited for all the family pics to be taken. She perked up for the "party". . . she was very interested in the wedding cake. Her mommy was interested in the cream cheese mints we carried to Virginia for the party . . .

Poor Joc.  she had to travel 750 miles to get some more cream cheese mints!

We drove up on Friday, the wedding was on Saturday, and we drove back on Sunday. I'm telling you -- whirlwind. Monday was my baby girl's 30th birthday!

She is such a beautiful young woman -- I'm so proud of her! Speaking of which, I've been a little remiss in sharing something here. Joc has started up her own business called Pearl's Pegs.

Aren't these just darling? She does incredible work.

Ellie and Evey love them -- and already she's 4-6 weeks out on orders!  Yes, very proud of my girl!

Yesterday, Todd and I headed down to Shocco Springs -- the Baptist Retreat Center outside of Talladega, Alabama, for our annual Mission Service Corps Missionary Retreat and Training.  

We enjoy the beautiful grounds of the center *and* the great fellowship! Yesterday was also Kim's birthday . . .

She celebrated waaaaay far away in California -- the first of their birthdays to be celebrated out there! But Sawyer was not far behind . . .

He turned SIX years old today. Gosh, look how grown up he looks! Sweet fellow! Todd and I sang happy birthday to him and enjoyed some FaceTime. It was a bittersweet day . . . as much as I'm happy he's six and happy it's his birthday, it was sad to me that for the first time since he was born, I didn't get to at least give him a hug or kiss on his birthday.  *sniffle, sniffle* :)

I chased my blues away by doing a little shopping with Todd at Bass Pro Shops on our way home from Talladega. I got my first pair of Crocs!

LOL! These are so comfortable--why did I not know that?? Plus, they don't hit the scars on either side of my right foot, which are still (even after six years) very sensitive. Aaaand, these Crocs are really CUTE!  I may have to invest in a couple of more pairs. Haha!

I haven't done anything quilty in I don't know how long . . . and my stash report shows it, too.

Aaaah well . . . sometime in the next month or so I may get a free weekend to do something of significance!

I did manage to sneak enough time to cut out some Christmas fabric for another yo-yo ornament. I loved the tree so much, I'm going to do another one of those. I have the charms all ready to go, too.

This will make for the perfect slow Sunday stitching project!

Spring is finally making its way into the camp. As we drove up the drive today, I was happy to see that the daffodils were out in full force.

They have such sunny, sweet faces! We have one rogue yellow flower in the midst of the paler variety . . .

The little purple flowers are blooming all over the turtle sanctuary . . .

And the Lamb's Ear is starting to make sporadic appearances, as well:

And I do believe that about does it for me. A lot of pics and a lot of words...that's what happens when I don't blog for two weeks. I'll link up to Patchwork Times and Kathy's Quilts tomorrow! Don't forget to change your clocks tonight . . . Spring Forward!

:)

busy, busy, busy . . .

Tsk, tsk . . . the working hours have changed again.  I'm working less hours, but over more days, and it's really thrown me for a loop! I see it in my ability to get in quilting time *and* to my ability to blog and read blogs.  I need to find a routine and get settled in . . . the first week was a doozy, filled with a lot of other activities, too!

The main one was preparing for our first Global Missions Conference, hosted by a local church!

We have just started the process (aka, we just got approval from our board and are now talking to the attorney) to change the name of our ministry from Restoring the Church Ministries to Church Strengthener, so we needed to get new business cards made and highlight a new ministry website. And, since this was our first conference to be a part of as a ministry, we weren't quite sure what to expect, but our display looked pretty good:

It was a terrific learning experience and we got some good exposure. We were a little late in getting into the game (so to speak), but we'll be ready in the fall, when another of our local churches holds a similar conference. One of the highlights of my evening there was being across the way from the Missions to Haiti table. He and his wife had served in Haiti for forty years . . . that is just so incredible and wonderful! He gifted us with some Haitian coffee and some Haitian vanilla!  Sweet!

Yesterday the weather was simply gorgeous - sunny and rather mild - and the Panter crew came up to soak in some sunshine and exhaust some energy!

Pawpaw is always a fun one to follow in follow-the-leader! Unless you've got rocks in your boots.  Olivia took it all in from her carrier. Mostly she just dozed . . . the warm sunshine was good for that, too!

My stash report remains unchanged from last week . . .

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.  *sigh*  I'm still plugging away on the pineapple quilt.  I got all the handwork finished up on it, at least for the time being. I hope to get out into the Nook and assemble the borders (which involves piecing and quilting them) so I can attach the corner blocks to them and then attach the borders and hand stitch those seams down. Phew. Then all that will be left will be the binding! Whoohoo! Today, though, in my slow stitching time, I'll be working on a little mini weaving . . .

Isn't that cute?? It was originally a challenge from my StitchMAP group . . . I finished that one and am making several more -- they make great fobs!

Linking up today to Patchwork Times and Kathy's Quilts. Y'all enjoy a happy Sunday!

:)

a week ending well . . .

I think you might be able to guess which project got my '15 minutes' each day this week, but so there's no confusion, here it is:

MOC definitely was the winner.  I wasn't counting on the driving momentum that kept me singly focused until that stage of it was finished!  So much for my snowflake and my GC block!  Ah well.  The other thing that I *had* to give my attention to was the stitching of an Ellie dress.  It was time sewing, so of course I counted it!  

Unfortunately, the fabric wasn't mine, so I couldn't include it in my stash report. Which, by the way, hasn't changed a single bit since last week.

MOC has *not* been deducted from stash yet, so as soon as I get this one assembled and bound, that will be a nice usage total to add.  Linking up to the stash report at Patchwork Times!

Whew, what a weekend!  Friday I spent the day stitching the dress and then that evening I got to spend some time with Sawyer and June, while their mommy and daddy had a date night.  Then yesterday morning was spent making a matching dress for Ellie's AG Bitty Baby.  Sheesh . . . it was tougher than Ellie's dress was!  Ha! And then Saturday afternoon we spent at Ellie's birthday party.

As always, Jocelyn did a beautiful job of both decorating *and* setting up a marvelous buffet table!

The food was great and fun and kid friendly!

I tried so hard to get a picture of all three cousins together, but they are *all* SO active, it's nigh impossible! This was the closest I came . . .

Sawyer, June playing with a balloon--her new favorite, Ellie-the-birthday-girl and a bonus child, Emma, Ellie's BFF (or at least Ellie's mommy's BFF's daughter). And they're all in a constant state of motion, so *every* picture I took of a living, breathing being under the age of 5, had a bit of blur to it!!

I did get Ellie to try on her dress for me . . .

But she was so busy, that getting a front picture was tough!

I did get one of her trying to put a necklace on her baby.  That's as close as it's going to get.  Still, she really liked that her baby had a dress like hers.  It was fun and I definitely see more of these in the future!

Today is our last day at Cornerstone -- our assignment has ended.  We announced it last week (you can't announce it too early or you become ineffective) and the sweet folks there are doing a little send-off party for us after this morning's service.  I'm packing an extra set of Kleenex in my purse.  Saying goodbye will be so hard -- especially to my sweet Sunday School girls.  I imagine Todd and I will be quite done in when we get home tomorrow afternoon and I'll probably settle for some handwork on Mr. Owl . . .

He's my go-to hand project that I need to get-to! Anyway, I may put in an episode of the Walton's and do some hand-stitching. A lovely, quiet afternoon! Linking him up to Slow Sunday Stitching on Kathy's Quilts.

Shalom and Happy Sunday!

:)

tons of tidbits . . .

I have so *much* to share ... but so little to show. Hmmm . . . that's a conundrum, isn't it? I'll try to keep it kind of brief -- but that may be tough -- especially since I totally missed my Monday post!

Things are getting busy. We are seriously considering/praying about an April 28th retirement date, so Todd can apply himself full-time to the ministry. Wow. I mean, WOW! It would mean a huge leap of faith, but we both truly believe this is the direction that the Lord is leading us. 'Nuff said, right? Whew!

We've also signed up for some specialty training for Mission Service Corps (MSC) missionaries. The training is about a week long and will take place in the Baltimore/Washington DC area in the coming months. More on that later ... but it's a course on self-funding. The preparatory work for the course is pretty thick, so that will occupy a good bit of time in the coming months!

We celebrated Sawyer's birthday this past Saturday ... no surprise that the theme was Buzz Lightyear!

Sawyer had a blast and was totally enchanted by the life-size Buzz balloon!

I finally F-I-N-I-S-H-E-D June's pennant quilt . . .

I'm so pleased with it!! My friend Melissa (I Am Beautiful Bee) did the quilting on it and I love it! I delivered it to Baby June yesterday and she was totally thrilled with it! Yay!

Kim exchanged me some fabric for the quilt . . .

Haha! Happy me -- it's not mine! It's for June clothes! So I get to play with it and don't have to add it to my stash report! LOL! Speaking of which, I do have a little to report for last week:

Used/donated this week: 0.0 yards

Used/donated year-to-date: 12.0 yards

Purchased/added this week: 1.75 yards

Purchased/added year-to-date: 38.75 yards

Net used/donated for 2013: -26.75 yards

This was from the fabric I picked up at the guild meeting last week. I'd already reported the use of the pennant quilt, so no 'used' yardage this week! I was kind of curious as to how I was doing compared to last year, so I pulled up Stash Report #11 from 2012:

Used/donated this week: 0.0 yards

Used/donated year-to-date: 4.75 yards

Purchased/added this week: 0.0 yards

Purchased/added year-to-date: 31.75 yards

Net used/donated for 2012: -27.25 yards

Yeah. So not a lot has changed, huh? This totally made me laugh!!! I guess old habits really DO die hard! However, I can say that if retirement and full-time ministry is truly ahead, we'll be really living like missionaries in more ways than one -- I'll take that "purchased" right off the added line!

I've accomplished three out of five of my "get 'er done" for this month . . . and one is almost finished. I still need to get that pineapple quilt center finished up. Mostly what I've been working on is the Wedding Quilt . . .

I've put a nice dent in it. It's so funny ... we've had the perfect weather to snuggle under a quilt to do some hand stitching -- it's been cold and grey and snowy. Our high today *may* hit 45.  Average temps are in the 70's.  Who cares that we're a week into spring??!!  I think we're experiencing an April Fool's joke a little early. Hahaha!

I received my DQS in the mail on Saturday, too . . .

Isn't this darling? Check out the hand-stitching:

Aren't they sweet? She did a marvelous job - I'm thrilled with it! I'll get hers off by the end of the month and then I'll be taking a little hiatus from the doll quilt swaps for a bit.

Okay, enough for now, I've got to run! I'm having lunch with a friend and then I'm spending the evening with June and Sawyer. So much to do and not nearly enough hours in the day to accomplish it all, right? Linking up today's post with the Stash Report #11 and Design Wall Monday posts at Patchwork Times and the Slow Sunday Stitching post at Kathy's Quilts.

Ciao, baby!

:)

hippity, hoppity, happity . . .

Happy Monday!  Todd and I enjoyed a great weekend.  Early Friday we headed south for a weekend-long conference in Shocco Springs, a Southern Baptist retreat center.  We attended the annual training and retreat event for Mission Service Corps missionaries in Alabama.  It was a lovely weekend of fellowship, inspiration, and encouragement.  

This week kicks off a flurry of activity in our family.  Joc's birthday was last Thursday, Kim's is today, and Sawyer's is tomorrow.  Plus, Kim and James are celebrating FIVE years of wedded bliss on Friday.  *And* my folks are headed down for a visit tomorrow afternoon!  Whew!  I need to get busy!

I took a little time to get out some Easter things.  These eggs are what are left of the more than dozen I created many, many years ago . . .

I blew them, dyed them, and then used puff paints to decorate them.  Aren't they cute?  The white one should give you a clue as to how long ago it was.  That was my sweet Joc's offering!  

And I've always loved this little sachet of violets.  It was an easy-to-put-together craft and always looks sweet and springish.

I used our travel time this weekend to do a little stitching . . .

I hope to finish this up and fashioned into a little mug rug before my mom arrives tomorrow!  I love to have little stitcheries to work on while we're traveling.  It passes the time very satisfactorily! 

And when we got home, I found the silk ribbon I'd ordered (thank you Thearica!!!) in the mailbox.  Yay!!  So I was able to finish up the last of the embellishing required in my CQ course.  I was *so* afraid of the prospect of the ribbon embroidery, but in reality, I loved it!  The first task was to stitch iris on the needlebook:

Oh goodness.  I could really, seriously get into some silk ribbon embroidery, I think!  And then we were to attach a satin ribbon bow onto our blocks:

Now all I've got left is to assemble all my pieces . . .

Into the thread roll-up, pin cushion and needlebook!  What a pretty set this will make!!  I think I'll be able to sneak in a little more stitching time today and tomorrow to get this wrapped up.  Essentially, finishing up this coursework and the "C" mug rug make up my design wall this week -- I don't believe there's time for more!

I had NO fabric added this week, so this is an easy stash report week:

Used/donated this week: 0.0 yards

Used/donated year-to-date: 10.5 yards

Purchased/added this week: 0.0 yards

Purchased/added year-to-date: 37.0 yards

Net used/donated for 2013: -27.5 yards

Of course, I also had none go out.  C'est la stash guerre!  

Linking this post up to the Week #10 Stash Report and the Design Wall Monday posts at Patchwork Times and Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts!

Like I said earlier, I need to get busy ... lot's of cleaning and organizing to do ... and I'm watching Sawyer and June for a bit this afternoon, plus doing some grocery shopping.  Hitting the ground running this morning!

:)