is it the thought that counts . . .

So I know it was just last week when I stated that Mondays were good for blogging days. I was doing so well with two Mondays in a row . . . and then this past Monday hit.  I had every intention of posting.  I even knew what pics I'd share and what I'd say . . . but life.  You feel me, right?  And then Tuesday was a chemo day.

Look at Todd smiling for the camera! Tuesday night was tough and Wednesday I stayed home with him, so here it is on Thursday and I'm playing catch-up. Harrumph. Thursdays just feel like a good time for a new post.  LOL!  :)

Last week started out fun. The Merkel crew came by work on Tuesday (during the week of National Afternoon Tea), and so we had a tea party!

It was baby brother's first tea party (with all the trimmings) with Neesey.  He did a great job of holding that tea cup, sitting in the chair, and was very polite at the table!

I'd stopped at Peggy Ann's Bakery on the way in, and picked up some suitable tea treats. Their petit fours are unarguably the best around! Everyone at our tea table agreed with me.

Thursday was the annual MBA Clerk's Conference. I host this event annually for all the church clerks in our association. The MBA provides lunch and I always spend (too much) time picking out goodies for favor bags for them. This year I decided to do a "My Favorites" favor bag, and had a lot of fun collecting my favorite things to share . . .

So if you've known me for any length of time, you aren't surprised to find that there's a pumpkin front and center.  HA! These cute little pumpkins were a $1 at Dollar General!  I'm going to go back and get one for each grandchild and fill it will treats-no-tricks! In case you're wondering, those Moser Roth wrapped bars are chocolate. It's made exclusively for Aldi grocery stores, and it's marvelous.  The dark chocolate with orange and almond bits is heavenly! And you'll notice the leopard print pen.  It's a TŪL pen, and they are my very favorite writing utensils, whether it's pens, pencils, highlighters, markers, whatever.  And y'all ... my love language is paper and pens, so my opinion is strong! 

Friday, Joc had a babysitting emergency, so I headed over there for the afternoon/evening. We had a fun time. I love it when I get there, and all four kids spill out the door hollering, Neesey! Neesey! Such love! Joc had made arrangements for pizza to be delivered and we did pizza and a movie.  I was so tickled to see the girls pull out the picnic quilt!

This is *exactly* what this quilt was created for! 

After dinner we went upstairs and got baby brother into bed (and I did it, first try!), and played and talked and giggled until it was time for the girls to go to bed.  

Love these kiddos and so thankful they're close by so I can run over there when there's a need!

Saturday morning I had a church brunch with our ladies . . .

Isn't that a beautiful spread??  It was lovely.  From there I spent time with my mom, then on to my part-time bookkeeping job, then home for some down time and slow stitching. Phew. I'd completed the stitching part of my Mason jar sunflowers, but it still needed to be *finished*.

I'd wanted a mug rug, but didn't want the sunflowers to compete with a print. I had the brilliant idea to blanket stitch the Aida to wool!

Y'all ... I'm so pleased with how this turned out!  Aida is perfect for stitching, because you can be SO precise with the height and width of your blanket stitches!  And the wool I used is just delicious.  If you can enlarge the photo and look at it closely, you'll see what I mean.  It was the perfect pairing!

So, now I'm mostly caught up and will try again on Monday to get my blogging on. We're hoping, even though Todd had chemo on Tuesday (and will just get his pump out today), that he'll feel up to fishing tomorrow.  We've had a break in the high heat/humidity, and the weather is supposed to be glorious!  Then Ellie is coming over on Saturday to spend the rest of the weekend with us, so I should have things to share!

Toodles!

:)

sweet, sweet, sweet . . .

Lots of lovely little tidbits from the past week.  First up, my daughter-in-love, has created a *sweet* home business called "Madelyn Mae's Bake Shop".  She makes the loveliest, tastiest cookies! How do I know they're tasty, you may ask?  Because she sent me some!

Tea cups, tea pots, and quilt squares! And in purples, no less!  It was a fun snail mail package to receive! She's so talented!

And I know autumn is on its way, because I've started to feel the pull of all things pumpkin . . .

Picked up this sweet Benartex metallic pumpkin panel.  I have some thoughts; we'll see where (and when—haha) it goes.

But I'm not totally living in the future.  I found the cutest little sunflower cross stitch on Pinker n Punkin, Summer Ewe.  So I wasted exactly zero time and got busy.  Here's what I ended up with:

Isn't that fun? I finished my off with a little wool and a grosgrain ribbon.

She looks right at home with the rest of my sunflower decor! By the way, that series of patterns (Betsy Ewe, Erin Ewe, Haze Ewe, Priscilla Ewe and Summer Ewe) are all sweet freebies on Melisa's blog.  Very cute!

Todd found a not-so-cute black snack curled up at the bottom of his ladder.

Todd went to pick it up to use, and did a double take. Who thinks the base of a ladder is a good place to take a nap?!  LOL! 

As our guild year wraps up this month, the incoming president has been soliciting folks to fill positions. I can't believe I did this, but . . . I signed on to chair our 2022-23 HQH Challenge.  <gasp>  I've already put together a fabulous team, and theme.  All the ideas!  It'll be fun (I'll keep telling myself that)! I'll share more on that when I'm able!

And I leave on this very happy little note . . .

I adore it when the local crew comes to visit me at work!  Sweetness!

:)

random bits . . .

Can I tell you something?  Since I changed my comments to 'comment moderation, always' I sometimes forget to publish them to my blog.  Am I the only one?!?  Please tell me I'm not! LOL!

My son sent me this photo on Monday evening . . .

Frightening, no?  The tallest building (the Mazda Building) is where his company's suite of offices is.  He's been working remotely since March, so he's not there.  But they did have a group that was working onsite, and they were evacuated. I'm so glad they moved to Murrieta; before they made the move, they lived just two blocks from James's office.  

I haven't done much since the weekend.  Well, I did bake my favorite fall tea-time treat.  Gingersnaps!  With sprinkles!!

They truly are perfect with a cup of hot chai!

Yummy! And they look so pretty sitting on the saucer of my Autumn Leaves by Haviland. I love seasonal China!

I had yarn leftover from my dip into crocheted pumpkins, so I just randomly started playing . . .

I don't have any idea what I'm doing or what it will be.  A wash cloth?  Or maybe a Barbie doll blanket?!  Yeah.

I did spot this very large coral mushroom, driving in the camp the other night.

Isn't it splendid? You can see how it got its name.  It's glowed so eerily white, I couldn't help but see it!

And since I've politely *not* mentioned it for the past several posts, and lest you think I've stopped tracking it, I'll just tuck this in here:

Fifty-eight. Whoohooo!  Or perhaps, boohoo?!  LOL!

Have a great rest of the week!  We're battening down the hatches, preparing for some Zeta wind and rain.  Y'all stay safe and stitch on!

:)

stitchin' along . . .

One more stitchery finished . . .

I was really pleased with this simple stitchery! I finished it out like I've done several in the recent past.  I put it in a bamboo hoop, backed it with felt, and trimmed the rim out.  I took this one to work to enjoy!

Speaking of enjoying things at work, my special order of chai tea, by Samovar, finally arrived!  I enjoyed a nice cuppa Thursday afternoon, along with a shortbread cookie! ♥

SEC football season started up today ... hip, hip, hooray!  Our church is having a Tailgate Party outside tomorrow after services.  

Todd made his famous firehouse chili, and I made frosted brownie bites! Those are what Sandra Lee would call semi-homemade.  *wink*

I prepped two more stitcheries ... both from Kathy Schmitz's Stitches from the Harvest.  This sweet little autumnal piece . . . 

And this cute little Jack O' Lantern:

I'll work on him tonight during the Alabama game and he'll be my slow stitching project for tomorrow evening ... I'll be ready to put my feet up when we get home, I'm sure!  Linking up to Kathy's Quilts and her slow stitching post, first thing Sunday!

Also, for some reason I'm feeling the urge to work in wool and Christmas things.  Perhaps because—

Just keeping it real!!

Have a terrific rest of the weekend.  Roll Tide!!

:)

pumpkins and acorns . . .

So far, so good!  I headed out Thursday, along with some of the other Essential staff wives, for a retreat/conference in Dallas, Georgia; Cultivate 2020.

It was a LOT of fun!  I love road trips in and of themselves, but this retreat was really intended to pamper and encourage the participants and a great job was done of it!

I mean, wow!  Our lunch Friday was served in high—tea time—style! Each of us got our own tiered tray, that then went home with us. We went home with a ton of swag, including the gorgeous (and yummy smelling) soy candles.  We did a little coaster craft project, and even the tables were just set so prettily.  I'm very serious when I say that I would give this retreat a 9.5 out of 10.  From presentation to program and all the little details in between, it was the best!

It's always nice to get back home and sleep in your own bed, though! Saturday I woke up feeling refreshed in body, mind, and spirit. We've been enjoying the sounds of young (and not so young) boys in the camp all weekend, and the smells of campfires. Yay!  After unpacking and house work chores were done, I knew I needed to find something to stitch.  After a short search, I found this simple design:

Yep, used my trusty printer to do the hard work.  Picked my floss palette . . .

Then took a break to make a treat!

Angela over at Tea with Friends had shared a recipe for Pumpkin Spice Shortbread cookies earlier this month, and I wanted to give them a try. I used my pumpkin and acorn cookie cutters, though when (not if) I make these again, I'll go all acorn (and probably a smaller sized cutter).  For the pumpkins I dusted a little edible orange glitter on the creases. With the acorns, though, I went straight up crystal sprinkles on the caps.  Too cute!  And very delicious (especially with a cup of chai)!

As Todd and I sat and talked about the upcoming week and relaxed into the evening, I did manage to get a little work done on my pumpkin . . .

So maybe I'll finish it up this evening when I sit down for some quiet time! 

Linking up with the slow Sunday stitching post on Kathy's Quilts.  Y'all enjoy a lovely day!

:)

happy wednesday . . .

I'm going to start with the big news, right off the bat . . .

One.  Hundred.  Days.  

Can you believe it?!?  How much stitching do you have to do in order to be ready for it? That's the million dollar question, isn't it?  LOL!

Late Sunday afternoon I finally sat down to stitch, but got distracted by a new TeaTime Holidays magazine . . .

Yeah, more Christmas! Though the first tea party they share is a Thanksgiving one! It justified having the pumpkin blondie with my mug of pumpkin spice tea.

I combated Monday work blues by 'fallifying" my office space:

Tea service was swapped out first thing!  I love this miss-matched setting! ♥

I made the leaves with laminated paper and die cuts. Both at work and at home, I'm using more and more hand-crafted seasonal decorations. It makes me smile!

I did get around to finishing my cute little squirrels stitchery . . .

Very pleased with how it turned out!  I'm enjoying the simple hoop finish, too.  I'll back it with felt and maybe embellish the edges with cording.  Happy things.

Now ... what to stitch up next?!  Maybe a pumpkin??!

I'm headed out of town (one state over—Georgia) for a church planting staff wives retreat with several of the staff wives from our current church.  Should be a fun couple of days; these kinds of trips always make for the best of stories!  I'm driving, so I'm really hoping the rain from Hurricane Sally doesn't impede us too much.  Then it's home to a camp full of Boy Scouts!  Yay!   Y'all have a good remainder of the week!

:)

pandemic pass . . .

Evidently, that's just what I did.  Took a pass on blogging during the height of the pandemic. I have no good excuse for it, either!  Except how you know when you miss something one week ... and it makes it a little easier to miss it the next week ... until the week comes and it's hard to do it because you've missed so much?

Yeah.  That.

I *have* been busy (for the last seven plus weeks).  Lemme 'splain . . .

I made some masks (click here for the tutorial):

I made quilt tops and finished quilts:

(Temecula mini is finished)

(NICU comfy quilt to donate)

(Picnic quilt for Merkel girls)

(My class quilt is FINISHED!)

I baked things (and gained twenty pounds):

(Salted Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies)

(Focaccia Bread)

I baked a lot of different and new things ... and you don't want me to eat up your bandwidth with it all.  LOL!

I rearranged my cozy tea corner:

And consequently, I drank a LOT of tea!

I took a LOT of walks around the camp and noted nature:

(the story behind these is so very sweet!)

I read (a LOT) (and on the boat):

(between March and April, I read a solid 30 books)

I did some hand-stitching (and also on the boat):

And we fished (a LOT):

That was just one trip.  Most of our fishing expeditions (and I use the word "our" loosely) have netted a cooler full of fish like that.  So yeah, we'll eat fish for months, which is a good thing for my diet, seeing as I now have an additional twenty pounds to lose.  LOL!

I also worked from home, but we're back in the office full-time, now.  Just not open to the public, yet.  That's coming.

How are YOU??!

:)