What happened to June❓❗

Back to the real world and trying to get back into blogging. I have still been stitching everyday, so that's something.

The real world meant a retreat for me in June, a funtastic getaway!

This was Flower Power in Pennsylvania, a wonderful time with friends.

My roommate, Karen, was able to come to this one!

Our table, these girls are so much fun!

The Grab Bag Exchange, the word was TULIP.

This was the box I picked from Eda. She made the project bag and pincushion, aren't they sweet?

This was my exchange - the U was hard, but I saw unscented lotion at The Stitching Post for the win!

... are the two lips in the dark!

Plenty of choices for shopping too.

What I purchased (and was gifted) from Janis @Noteworthy Needle. I'll be as busy as a bee!

My purchases from Silkweaver Fabrics and a needle threader from Rovaris.

Needleminders from Annette @Mind Your Needle. So happy to have the German and Welsh gnomes!

I purchased some smaller bags from Peggy and Roberta @BFF Pouches and Bags, and then had this one specially made since I wanted to fit my Gathering Honey in it. I love it!

Then it was mid June, and time for my birthday.

Flowers, a stitching gift certificate, a new ipad, and a much desired Wicked Witch I've been searching for for a long time, from dear Kerri!

A delicious dinner with family and us girls enjoyed some amazing crushes! 

This year I requested a chocolate cake with orange icing. DH did a great job, it was wonderful!

June isn't over, yet to come...the church picnic goodies and some recent stitching.

I'll do my best to backtrack on blog reading, but might have to settle for reading your most recent posts.

Friday's Stitching Ground 🍕

Friday night at our house means homemade pizza night! And the best part (besides being delicious), I'm only responsible for cooking the sausage. Normally DH makes the dough and the Gmen help put them together. Nathan's job? Cleanup!

Tonight we had our friend, John, join us. Friends are always welcome, it makes it more fun!

I decided to start this one while watching them. They've been doing it long enough that they don't need any supervision!

My drink for this evening was what Gman1 brought home tonight. A nice change from beer and/or sours.

After dinner, they guys played Catan and I pulled out Gathering Honey to stitch since I had more room. Although I didn't sit with them very long, they were getting rather loud and very involved in the game!

Now they're ready to play corn hole outside and I know I won't be stitching out there.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow evening when my gf comes over for dinner, drinks (I'll tell you about that next time), and crafting. She'll be sleeping over, so we'll see how long we last!

Do you have a weekly/monthly ritual with your family and/or friends?

Scavenger Photo Hunt - March 📷 🌺🍁

Welcome to this week's Scavenger Photo Hunt from Katie @I live, I love, I craft, I am me... The words this week are...

 Signs of Spring...

Our beautiful daffodils, although they always seem to bloom much later than our next door neighbour. I dug them out of this flowerbed in the fall because they were coming out of the ground and we need to redo that area anyways. I put them in the garage in a bucket where there are now starting to grow, have I killed them or what?!

Spring at my parents house, with my Mom's chapel in the background.

On one of our spring walks, I love seeing all the green after the dullness of winter.

This is where I left off with Gathering Honey, still quite a ways to go! It might be more summer, but the flowers make me think of spring.

Signs of Autumn...

Love that dragon on my parents roof, especially with the gold backdrop of leaves.

A sad fall, very quiet baseball games but nice to walk around the park.

Fall back...

"Autumn is a second spring where every leaf is a flower."

~ Albert Camus

So many things to love about the fall - the colours, the falling leaves, the coolness, ahhh. 

Be sure to see what others have posting for spring and/or fall.

See you next week.

Friday's Stitching Ground 🍺

My normal stitching spot, just a different view for you!

Next to me is my ORT mug, with a sweet little dragon peeking out.

Before and after about 130 French knots were added. 

And finally, I finished all the backstitching and have now moved on to the outer border! This is still going to take me awhile, but it's all good.

Yesterday DH had two beer deliveries and today he had one more. His excuse? New beer releases he just couldn't miss! He did get me a couple of sours, the one on the right is a strawberry/banana and it was very refreshing. The one on the left was his that I tried and I surprised myself by liking it! Something about adding it to a whiskey barrel made it quite tasty. I even asked him to save me one to have at another time.

Have you ever been pleasantly surprised by trying something new and finding that you actually liked it?

Friday's Stitching Ground 🌹

This afternoon I decided to bring out this lovely piece, it's been quite a while since I worked on this one.

It doesn't look like I did very much since I'm working on the backstitching, but it's a start.

I did finish this one though, I'm just not sure how I'm going to finish it yet.

This evening Nathan and I went to another drive-in movie, it was Guardians of the Galaxy. Before we arrived, it was pouring rain with thunder and lightning at home so we weren't sure what to expect here. Well, it was beautiful!

We had a great view - the moon, the movie, and heat lightning!

When we arrived home, Chewie's brother, Zoom, was over for a visit and apparently I'm not allowed to go to the bathroom without them wanting to follow and help me. Thanks guys, I'm good.

It seems I also needed assistance in drinking a margarita. Guess who's in his crate sleeping off his very active play date?

How's the weather been with you lately? I'm a little tired of this heat wave we've been having, but so glad we've had some rain in spite of it being a little severe! This was from this evening, our rain garden was filling up.

Friday's Stitching Ground 🧡

This evening DH and I were looking at some photos with Gman from his trip last year in school. He was showing us when he went to Paris and London. What a blessing he went when he did, this spring group had to come home early and I doubt they did much traveling the short time they were there.

Slow and steady, not much longer now. Then I just have to add the words and figure out how I'm finishing it. I think a frame will work the best for it.

Did you know that it was National Donut Day?

Here's Chewie with his favourite toy donut!

Do you have a favourite donut? I must say I like chocolate with the chocolate icing and the jelly filled ones are good too. But I really love my pumpkin in the fall! 

Friday's Stitching Ground 🛋

This is not where I was supposed to be today, but here I am sipping my Tippy Cow and working on Gathering Honey. I'm doing some backstiching now so I won't have to do it all at the end like I usually do.

Originally, I was supposed to be celebrating Cori's 50th birthday by taking her away overnight to celebrate her special day. But unfortunately, she got sick and we had to cancel. At least where we were going to stay offered to have us come another night, so now we're trying to plan another weekend and it's not easy!
But I will have all her bday surprises ready for when we do figure out when we're going, I just hope it's soon.

Trying to be positive - at least when we go the next time, we'll have more time to spend there and hopefully the weather will be better!
I've been trying to make the best out of the worst lately - so far, so good.
Any positives going on with you?

Gathering Honey Update 🐝

On February 15th, I started Gathering Honey.
Scroll on down to see where I am now.

Thanks to Jo @Serendipitous Stitching for making me want to stitch this one! It's such a beautiful piece, I love stitching it.

I think that once I've finished all the gardens, I'll add the backstitching and then see where I want to continue.