Halloween update 👻

Just a quick update on my Halloween Sampler.

Maximus thought he would help me out with my floss. I've been using two hands so now he doesn't have to "help" so much.

As of tonight, working on Pumpkin! 

Feeling silly...
Look Nathan, it's a fat cardinal!

Um, that's not a bird. I knew that. 

Stitchy Road Trips! 🚗

While the cat 🐱(Nathan) was away with Scouts last month, the mice 🐭🐭(Karen and I) played!

Heading across the Bay Bridge.

We made it!

Ready to walk the boardwalk!

The end of the boardwalk, wasn't too busy.

Karen talking to Mom and Dad, getting their popcorn order. 

We reached our destination, Salty Yarns!

 I love this shop, but sadly didn't find anything I had to have, but Karen did! I was going to get an Erica Michaels kit, but realized I had already ordered it.

Just a little something to read.

Dragon kite! 🐉

It was a breezy, beautiful day.

On our way home.

Gorgeous sunset 

The next day, we ventured to PA to visit the Strawberry Sampler. 

Apparently, my birthday and National Mermaid Day are the same day, awesome! They had a sale on all their mermaid patterns and I had to get a few! I had ordered these two and picked them up while I was there. Birthday money well spent!

This is the one I almost bought at Salty Yarns.

I haven't used gauze yet, so this will be a new experience.

 I also had another mermaid pattern ordered, but it wasn't in yet. That will be a nice surprise because I'm not quite sure what I ordered!

This is one I've seen before and seeing it framed on the wall made me want to stitch it. 

Karen had the perfect fabric for me to use, it's more green than it looks in the photo. I've started it and it's hard to put down!

We had lunch at McKenzie Brew House before heading home and saw this cute poster.

We'll be heading back to PA in the future to hit more shops, there's more out there!

Found treasures! 🎅🦌

I found some treasures from the sales at the church picnic last month and had to save them!

This was so sweet, but a little dirty/moldy on the edges of the frame.

I took it apart and this is what the back looked like. Not impressed!

I decided to fix it up a bit and took out the personalization 😔, and added beads for the eyes and nose so you could see the Santas better.

I bought this for $.50, so sad really.

I'm cleaning up the glass and frame and will be re-framing it. 

I bought this cutie for $3, big spender!

I saw this and thought it looked familiar... I made it for one of Nathan's teachers in 2015!

Oh well, I bought if for a quarter and it will hang on my homemade Christmas ornament tree.

This is the second time I've found something I made there. At least they were small and I got them back. I think I'll stick to gift cards from now on!

Late posting Tea Cup and Mug Exchange ☕

In May, I participated in Stephanie, at The Enchanting Rose, tea cup and mug exchange.

I chose the mug and this is what I sent to my partner. The first time I posted it, I flubbed the address and missed a number, ugh! So I had to resend it, but then she went on holiday. As of yet, I haven't heard anything, but I hope she's opened it by now.

She likes chocolate, so I stitched her this block.

After lots of searching, I found the perfect fabric.

As of today, I haven't received anything from the person who has my name.

Sadly, this was Stephanie's last exchange, organizing 250 participants is a big job!

Birthday Fun! 🎉

A pre-celebration movie time!

It was good! Nathan liked this one over the 1st one.

My cake with LEMON filling!

The singing!

The gathering...

Family photo after a great birthday!

The next day we celebrated Father's Day with this wonderful family. Love these Dads!

After that fun-filled weekend, we headed to Oma and Opa's for a visit.

Mom is doing great, she still has Dr's appts, but also has a parade of nurses and therapists come visit.

My nephew and his girlfriend came to visit too.

The perfect gift from my parents!

The following week, Nathan went to Scout camp for the week.

Memories of the Gmen on their first Scout camp.

DH went on a Homebrew Beer trip while Nathan was gone, so the three of us had a nice dinner out.

Not a lot of stitching was done, but I thought I needed to organize my hodgepodge of beads.

I bought an organizer from Wish, I love it! I think I should have bought two, but wanted to make sure I liked it.

The week flew by and he's back, happy to be home and sleeping in! Waking up at 6:30am every morning for a wake-up swim wore him out.

 Next time, actual stitchy stuff!

St. Michaels Fun! 🐳

It was that time of year last month, the annual St. Michaels stitching retreat with the girls! 

Alice and I got there a little early so we were able to do a some shopping... 

Ah, my favourite mermaid shop!

Fun sculptures and who knew, an glassware shop!
(I didn't notice it until I looked at it later)

It stopped raining for a bit and the sun came out for a tease.

And now for the fun stuff! This year we did a patriotic exchange and this is what the other ladies made. They are all amazing!

This is what I opened, isn't it fantastic? It's a project bag, made by Wendy, but I'm displaying it because I don't want it messed up. And the strawberry is adorable!

This is what I made.
It's Paws and Stripes Furever from Stitchy Kitty, I just added some fireworks.

It's a wooden box that I painted and then decoupaged. The "ribbons" on top are from a pen I found at a dollar store. I like the way it turned out and I think I'll be doing it again.

These were the goodies from the White Elephant game. My first one was DJ's biscornu, and it was ripped from my hands stolen!

So I opened the last gift and this is what it was. Pat made it, I love it! And luckily it wasn't stolen!

I worked on this while I was there. I designed it, but I need to redo some of the stars because I don't like the way some of them look.

I also worked on these little guys from Joyful World by The Snowflower Diaries.

When I got home, I decided to play with the ground.

And came out with this colourful piece.
Now I need to figure out October.

This is what I found while shopping in St. Michaels, it was only $25! A previous display case, it only needs a touch up here and there, I'll get a light to put in the back, and it's been Ming approved.
Is it too early to start decorating for Halloween?!



I left early on Sunday to celebrate an anniversary with this guy, 23 years and counting!

Thank you for all the comments from my previous post about my Mom. I need to reply the hard way since we're still not getting notifications like before, sorry for the delay.

Next time... birthday fun!